Before I get into the poem I’ve selected from Zach’s work I’d like to comment on his photographs lately. It is getting harder and harder to decide which ones to pull from his collections. I find myself falling into more and more of them, perhaps his photographic voice is becoming parallel with his poetic voice? Have they merged? After 6,220 miles, it would be hard not to morph into something. Whatever it is, it’s gorgeous.

First, however, a fitting tune for this passage & image bank. “Old Haunts, New Cities” by Typhoon:
(this’ll open up in a new winder so you can come back and browse)

Listen to: Old Haunts, New Cities

Full of Knives

1. His back is full of knives. Notes are brittle around the
blades.

2. He sleeps face down every night in a chalk outline of
himself.

3. He has difficulties with metal detectors.

4. At birthday parties, someone might politely ask, may I
borrow one of those knives to slice this chocolate cake?

5. He likes to stand with his back to walls. At restaurants,
he likes the corner tables.

6. There is a detectve that calls him to ask about the brittle
notes. Also:  a biographer, a woman who’d like to film a
documentary, a curator of a museum, his mother. I can’t read
them, he says. They’re on my back.

7. It would be a mistake for anyone to assume he wants the
knives removed.

Excerpt from The Man Suit by Zachary Schomburg

The last photo isn’t from Florida, but back when Zach was in Tennessee. It  is pretty wonderful, I can almost hear the lawnmowers and sprinklers in the background of that day. Are they counting seeds?
More information about this series here.