On Generation & Corruption

Composed of several distinct yet inter-woven long poems, On Generation & Corruption is structured around the conceits of location and dislocation, as it deconstructs a picture-postcard American town. Its title is a clue: in printers terms, each generation reproduced is more corrupt than the last. Through this metaphor, Chiusano alludes to the distance from confessional speech that the book embodies in its complex tales and Escher-like syntax. from daybook JULY 1 Bog. Spillway. River bank. Cow shit. Shade pools. Boot prints. Tadpoles. Reed beds. Shallows. Eddies. Snags. Cottonmouths. Cobwebs. JULY 2 The stare stares behind-the-back, bright, between butt-crack and thigh. The stare widens into a paddle, wide and flat enough to make a draft when it flaps. The stare picks its nose. The stare halfway wonders why the closet door is only half-closed. * * * When ecstasy is parted from its practice, when rapture is forced to choose, thats me: the first efforts, independent principalities. JULY 3 If I draw a hand, say, or a foot, I tow it into view. If I name, a slender ankle, a napping neck, I pull it like a dove out of a derby, pigeon out of a porkpie hat.