NOT WITHSTANDING shoring, FLUM MOX

NOT WITHSTANDING shoring, FLUM MOX

©Emily Abendroth 2012

L R Llittle red leaves textile editions

www.littleredleaves.com

©Emily Abendroth 2012

L R Llittle red leaves textile editions

www.littleredleaves.com

NOTWITHSTANDING shoring, FLUMMOXEmily Abendroth

NOTWITHSTANDING shoring, FLUMMOXEmily Abendroth

NOTWITHSTANDING shoring, FLUMMOX

NOTWITHSTANDING shoring, FLUMMOX

1

1

FIRST, there is the itemization:

lung gong

milkvetch & boxhedge

a moist crease

corpulent pull

impulse tussle

no freight is spurious

the four spumes (as if foliage)

That is to say “body creeping.”

That is to say “incarnadine f lush.”

That is to say “It’ ll come to you.”

FIRST, there is the itemization:

lung gong

milkvetch & boxhedge

a moist crease

corpulent pull

impulse tussle

no freight is spurious

the four spumes (as if foliage)

That is to say “body creeping.”

That is to say “incarnadine f lush.”

That is to say “It’ ll come to you.”

2

2

The two scientists PR EPAR E:

with splenetic disrelish

grubbed topsoil

a hemi-stitch

the occlusal wear of every biting surface

hemi-hawed

to dicker by rivulet

scuttlery & rust

Dare we admit that often these mounds’ exhibition

makes visitors complain.

That “This can be done otherwise too easy.”

The almost erotic delight with which they touched

the weapons, the broad beans, the ear.

The two scientists PR EPAR E:

with splenetic disrelish

grubbed topsoil

a hemi-stitch

the occlusal wear of every biting surface

hemi-hawed

to dicker by rivulet

scuttlery & rust

Dare we admit that often these mounds’ exhibition

makes visitors complain.

That “This can be done otherwise too easy.”

The almost erotic delight with which they touched

the weapons, the broad beans, the ear.

3

3

The T WO SCIENTISTS are, at paces:

normotensive

clarion moans

scaly moseying

a cynical name for shrapnel

musk-ox

posthensile

adding salve to their armamentaria

Their discussions of falling bodies

rarely elude to the presence of forces.

The data is not unequivocally stable;

it can be persuaded.

Against the “given of experience,”

pushes the “collected-only-with-difficulty.”

The T WO SCIENTISTS are, at paces:

normotensive

clarion moans

scaly moseying

a cynical name for shrapnel

musk-ox

posthensile

adding salve to their armamentaria

Their discussions of falling bodies

rarely elude to the presence of forces.

The data is not unequivocally stable;

it can be persuaded.

Against the “given of experience,”

pushes the “collected-only-with-difficulty.”

4

4

As the two scientists WATCH:

a compromised calcite housing

haze canopy

surrendered components

soft viscous f lesh

how one cannot count on impact

battery (n.) and battery (v.)

gesso

There comes a time for redetermination gambits.

Seldom or never just an increment of the already known.

A shoddy gathering. The lather of contact potentials.

The messy but treasured pressure exerted by light onto solids.

As the two scientists WATCH:

a compromised calcite housing

haze canopy

surrendered components

soft viscous f lesh

how one cannot count on impact

battery (n.) and battery (v.)

gesso

There comes a time for redetermination gambits.

Seldom or never just an increment of the already known.

A shoddy gathering. The lather of contact potentials.

The messy but treasured pressure exerted by light onto solids.

5

5

Under THE BR IGHT kiting about of lab INSTRUMENTS:

scab rubble

a brood patch’s bare heat

cheatgrasses

pliant & deportable

unexpected tubes or chambers

as if too cumbrous

the jar that nothing can jar

Repulsion is hardly the only secondary effect of suppression.

One’s special competence toward corpusclarism benched.

Sub-audible, come pulminating decibels. Come mop-up.

Working backwa(o)rd. Torquing porous. Rousted.

Under THE BR IGHT kiting about of lab INSTRUMENTS:

scab rubble

a brood patch’s bare heat

cheatgrasses

pliant & deportable

unexpected tubes or chambers

as if too cumbrous

the jar that nothing can jar

Repulsion is hardly the only secondary effect of suppression.

One’s special competence toward corpusclarism benched.

Sub-audible, come pulminating decibels. Come mop-up.

Working backwa(o)rd. Torquing porous. Rousted.

6

6

Via public BROADCAST, the scientists report:

an excessive gist of gristles

available for hijinx

familiar supernuclear events

seed bed of being

I must guard my own crust

utility in fizziness

the newest conf lations of epidermal pulses

geotherm mall

Should f lares be regarded (be itemized) as optical counter-measures? As punning?

Must it accord with a stored shape? Must it accord?

Just what, pray tell, is an umbral threshold? Are we holding one now?

And if so, has it been breached?

Via public BROADCAST, the scientists report:

an excessive gist of gristles

available for hijinx

familiar supernuclear events

seed bed of being

I must guard my own crust

utility in fizziness

the newest conf lations of epidermal pulses

geotherm mall

Should f lares be regarded (be itemized) as optical counter-measures? As punning?

Must it accord with a stored shape? Must it accord?

Just what, pray tell, is an umbral threshold? Are we holding one now?

And if so, has it been breached?

whereupon, the henchpeople’s ZEAL did SPUTTER some

whereupon, the henchpeople’s ZEAL did SPUTTER some

8

8

~Daughter colony within a daughter colony

pollinating but dry-docked by a rockblasted holdfast

outlasted until even the crass act of shattering

exhibits a riveting division of segregated labor power.

From the over-bordered channel least expected to chivvy

comes a guttering indigence, a dickens of a disembroilment.

The specimen is heard venting:

“I was in a manner they didn’t believe was dignified,

but then that was the very manner by which I was.

And so an aesthetic homicide seemed every bit upon the table.

It was as real as cable cars or fertilizer or Kaiser Permanente or courage.”

~Daughter colony within a daughter colony

pollinating but dry-docked by a rockblasted holdfast

outlasted until even the crass act of shattering

exhibits a riveting division of segregated labor power.

From the over-bordered channel least expected to chivvy

comes a guttering indigence, a dickens of a disembroilment.

The specimen is heard venting:

“I was in a manner they didn’t believe was dignified,

but then that was the very manner by which I was.

And so an aesthetic homicide seemed every bit upon the table.

It was as real as cable cars or fertilizer or Kaiser Permanente or courage.”

9

9

The specimen thought, this is how important it can be to posterity

to make an anomaly conform.

vestigial lobe

vestigial love

vestigial oviduct

vestigial cudgel

The specimen thought, this is how important it can be to posterity

to make an anomaly conform.

vestigial lobe

vestigial love

vestigial oviduct

vestigial cudgel

10

10

~I’d like to believe that you would actually approve

of this exuberant lubrication of the elements

despite the enraged accusations of your nation-fearing disciples

despite the stipends they were just handed in reward as good wards.

But these difficulties are terrestrial, you protest, while those are marine.

On the other hand, still others are steam-rolled, teeny but tenfold.

They reject either cold storage or manipulative hand-holding.

To appear both larger and older, their individual hairs are erected

one by one, the ganglia f lame forth in sympathetic chains,

the oh-so-faintly tangerine cartilage goes coastal.

~I’d like to believe that you would actually approve

of this exuberant lubrication of the elements

despite the enraged accusations of your nation-fearing disciples

despite the stipends they were just handed in reward as good wards.

But these difficulties are terrestrial, you protest, while those are marine.

On the other hand, still others are steam-rolled, teeny but tenfold.

They reject either cold storage or manipulative hand-holding.

To appear both larger and older, their individual hairs are erected

one by one, the ganglia f lame forth in sympathetic chains,

the oh-so-faintly tangerine cartilage goes coastal.

11

11

horn of uterus

horn of plenty

horn of primordial follicles

horn of choleric sheep

horn of the motherland

horn of scorn for others

horn of our horniness

horn of fester and of resist

horn of uterus

horn of plenty

horn of primordial follicles

horn of choleric sheep

horn of the motherland

horn of scorn for others

horn of our horniness

horn of fester and of resist

12

12

~It could be an unduly hard move sometimes to assign

which were the zones of inhibition or auto-impingement

versus which were those of open growth or co-exfoliation.

What was an area encysted in muscle and what was an area insistent upon it.

A hard move sometimes to separate that which soothed from the ruthless

gelatinous sheath, contractile vacuole, oral groove.

We had been asked once again, and politely, to please believe

in the benevolent hegemon only to find, rather violently, that we could not.

We might as well have refused water, the clutter of slaughterhouses,

beguiling bile ducts, unctuous rivalries, or our very own trial dates

with all their accompanying and premeditated punishments.

Sleep deprived, we waggle danced continuously, but often less than accurately.

We - the discalced, the baretushed, the squishy.

We learned that as a public act the inside of your body often wants to stay inside.

~It could be an unduly hard move sometimes to assign

which were the zones of inhibition or auto-impingement

versus which were those of open growth or co-exfoliation.

What was an area encysted in muscle and what was an area insistent upon it.

A hard move sometimes to separate that which soothed from the ruthless

gelatinous sheath, contractile vacuole, oral groove.

We had been asked once again, and politely, to please believe

in the benevolent hegemon only to find, rather violently, that we could not.

We might as well have refused water, the clutter of slaughterhouses,

beguiling bile ducts, unctuous rivalries, or our very own trial dates

with all their accompanying and premeditated punishments.

Sleep deprived, we waggle danced continuously, but often less than accurately.

We - the discalced, the baretushed, the squishy.

We learned that as a public act the inside of your body often wants to stay inside.

13

13

By “inside” I mean, of course, “velvitized”

I mean “ideological leniency”

I mean “fruiting”

I mean “longer than was strictly necessary”

I mean “hairy and emboldened (be it with or without cause)”

By “inside” I mean, of course, “velvitized”

I mean “ideological leniency”

I mean “fruiting”

I mean “longer than was strictly necessary”

I mean “hairy and emboldened (be it with or without cause)”

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14

~For this audience, it is the stain that most gainfully demonstrates

the fundamental features of being. We notice the pattern of greening

and of blanks. We notice the soft patter at girdle view

wherein the renewed application of resin is a true necessity

if we are to make out anything at all. We notice the fall of tissue

which gives rise to a new and oozing issuance which gives rise to prancing

followed by f light.

Her finances in complete arrears, she reared up at first, but then was f lattened.

She shoved a quick fatty in her back pocket and ran. Such unplanned desertions

do occur. They are the tradition-shattering components to tradition-bound activities.

They release their infeasible call for more insubordination of the materials,

of our arterials even. And such desertions do occur. They unfurl.

Hurling themselves forward at midvein, midtangle, midtemper, midepidermis...

~For this audience, it is the stain that most gainfully demonstrates

the fundamental features of being. We notice the pattern of greening

and of blanks. We notice the soft patter at girdle view

wherein the renewed application of resin is a true necessity

if we are to make out anything at all. We notice the fall of tissue

which gives rise to a new and oozing issuance which gives rise to prancing

followed by f light.

Her finances in complete arrears, she reared up at first, but then was f lattened.

She shoved a quick fatty in her back pocket and ran. Such unplanned desertions

do occur. They are the tradition-shattering components to tradition-bound activities.

They release their infeasible call for more insubordination of the materials,

of our arterials even. And such desertions do occur. They unfurl.

Hurling themselves forward at midvein, midtangle, midtemper, midepidermis...

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15

per surface area of ocean

per surplus tanker of gas

per pine-edged casket of talismans

per samsonite duff le

per cuff link

per quagmire

per person cuffed or bound or gagged

per surface area of ocean

per surplus tanker of gas

per pine-edged casket of talismans

per samsonite duff le

per cuff link

per quagmire

per person cuffed or bound or gagged

16

16

~It is not defacement, she argues, to add sentiment to dulled monuments:

a smock jacket called a slop, thick opulent and noisy anklets, mint negligees,

a plastic rose nosegay coated in lint, plus any array of droopy caps or visors.

These were the untapped motions of perturbed orbits; this was excoriation.

As if a person’s irises were rising to the occasion

but not the eyebrows, not the who-knows-now head.

Under cover of twaddle, came a red shift, a dawdling tendership.

Upon gripping my arm with obvious distress, you asked, “Would that be

gigantic scintillation? Would that be ‘you must needs bolt’?”

The coltish man whom we saw fanned out on a cot in the corner

wasn’t a journalist nor was he particularly interested in the measure

of his basal metabolism. And yet this figure was recorded for him anyway

and daily, via extraction. At the same time, safety brackets were drawn

in hatchmarks around those visceral masses that acted like jaws,

around a predatory intestine, a future anus, a grainy resuscitator,

a mandibular stowaway.

~It is not defacement, she argues, to add sentiment to dulled monuments:

a smock jacket called a slop, thick opulent and noisy anklets, mint negligees,

a plastic rose nosegay coated in lint, plus any array of droopy caps or visors.

These were the untapped motions of perturbed orbits; this was excoriation.

As if a person’s irises were rising to the occasion

but not the eyebrows, not the who-knows-now head.

Under cover of twaddle, came a red shift, a dawdling tendership.

Upon gripping my arm with obvious distress, you asked, “Would that be

gigantic scintillation? Would that be ‘you must needs bolt’?”

The coltish man whom we saw fanned out on a cot in the corner

wasn’t a journalist nor was he particularly interested in the measure

of his basal metabolism. And yet this figure was recorded for him anyway

and daily, via extraction. At the same time, safety brackets were drawn

in hatchmarks around those visceral masses that acted like jaws,

around a predatory intestine, a future anus, a grainy resuscitator,

a mandibular stowaway.

17

17

removed to show

removed to hide

removed to override hesitation

removed to destroy

removed with all the fascination of a bonafi de voyeur

removed to show

removed to hide

removed to override hesitation

removed to destroy

removed with all the fascination of a bonafi de voyeur

18

18

~Such messy gurgitations were less than completely precedented.

What had previously been only a simple hex or a vexation was now

a source of crisis. For instance, our unlicensed debuts straight into

the heart of their urban renewal. If cutlery could be a bedding,

they were headed there — the torturous perforations of false ledges

and unregistered privilege.

They spoke incredulously, as if the existence of a single girl tractorist

could somehow wholly refactor it. As if one visibly effeminate tyrant

could set all the elements cantering. As if the cant and bravado

of a formerly dead broke bloke who was now a global CEO was proof

of both the bestowal of access and the ladder alike. This was the trickery

of parataxis, the charade of proximity as pure equivalency. While all

the while a more profound disemboweling was uniformly scowled

upon by the administrators. While all the while everyone else

remained a ringer, remained involuntarily in the ring and subject to

fingering — the bothertheless.

~Such messy gurgitations were less than completely precedented.

What had previously been only a simple hex or a vexation was now

a source of crisis. For instance, our unlicensed debuts straight into

the heart of their urban renewal. If cutlery could be a bedding,

they were headed there — the torturous perforations of false ledges

and unregistered privilege.

They spoke incredulously, as if the existence of a single girl tractorist

could somehow wholly refactor it. As if one visibly effeminate tyrant

could set all the elements cantering. As if the cant and bravado

of a formerly dead broke bloke who was now a global CEO was proof

of both the bestowal of access and the ladder alike. This was the trickery

of parataxis, the charade of proximity as pure equivalency. While all

the while a more profound disemboweling was uniformly scowled

upon by the administrators. While all the while everyone else

remained a ringer, remained involuntarily in the ring and subject to

fingering — the bothertheless.

19

19

The woman looked aggressively up at the sky and suddenly couldn’t configure:

“Is it a full moon everywhere right now?”

In her rigor, she couldn’t stop repeating,

“Not in the least.

“Not in the least.

“Not in the least.”

The woman looked aggressively up at the sky and suddenly couldn’t configure:

“Is it a full moon everywhere right now?”

In her rigor, she couldn’t stop repeating,

“Not in the least.

“Not in the least.

“Not in the least.”

20

20

~The oscillating movements of the filaments were what gave it its name

but it was something else that gave it its swagger, its meager salary,

its fishbowl of smokeable swag, its bedraggled potential to clog

or to glom up or to cup in the thighs or to batten. In other words,

while outside the thin window France might fall, Eddy didn’t fall.

Although the stocks collapsed, Tynisha remained inf lated. Elated even.

New Zealand was at war, but Hector and Lisa weren’t. Or at least not

the same one, with neither the same guns nor the same punishing run

for your money.

And this is part of what it meant to be in a place but not of it, to be coveted

for allegiance to statehood whilst living in the hood or roaming the rural

backwoods. These were the kind of tassles that were first manufactured,

then offered to you as a satiating “award” when wrastling was cordoned off

as out of the question. A piece of embossed stationary in your ashtray, a ration

that you carried as required but weren’t married to either. A boomerang form.

~The oscillating movements of the filaments were what gave it its name

but it was something else that gave it its swagger, its meager salary,

its fishbowl of smokeable swag, its bedraggled potential to clog

or to glom up or to cup in the thighs or to batten. In other words,

while outside the thin window France might fall, Eddy didn’t fall.

Although the stocks collapsed, Tynisha remained inf lated. Elated even.

New Zealand was at war, but Hector and Lisa weren’t. Or at least not

the same one, with neither the same guns nor the same punishing run

for your money.

And this is part of what it meant to be in a place but not of it, to be coveted

for allegiance to statehood whilst living in the hood or roaming the rural

backwoods. These were the kind of tassles that were first manufactured,

then offered to you as a satiating “award” when wrastling was cordoned off

as out of the question. A piece of embossed stationary in your ashtray, a ration

that you carried as required but weren’t married to either. A boomerang form.

21

21

Cannot a rude jostle offer in secret a small loftiness?

How often can it?, you ask.

What are the preconditions for dissident action?

Is it eff luvium?

subfroth

intrafroth

exofrothfest

Cannot a rude jostle offer in secret a small loftiness?

How often can it?, you ask.

What are the preconditions for dissident action?

Is it eff luvium?

subfroth

intrafroth

exofrothfest

22

22

~We fell for what were surely fake documents and human stand-ins

who withstood tightly choreographed hoodings and beatings

before our eyes. From behind gill bars and slits, leaked lipid droplets

begetting a pestering tension of the back and shoulders, an adroit

overexposure.

The stand-ins themselves expressed confusion at their all too real

hospitalizations which more than occasionally followed the volatile

simulations to which they were subjected. It was an object lesson

not in what the prisoner goes through, but in what the soldier understands

him or herself to be doing. It was a strange and grueling mix of determinist

assumptions and avuncular concessions of equality.

“The danger doesn’t have to be real,” she said “to instill discomfort.”

A fort doesn’t have to be drill-worthy to kill those who encroach upon it.

~We fell for what were surely fake documents and human stand-ins

who withstood tightly choreographed hoodings and beatings

before our eyes. From behind gill bars and slits, leaked lipid droplets

begetting a pestering tension of the back and shoulders, an adroit

overexposure.

The stand-ins themselves expressed confusion at their all too real

hospitalizations which more than occasionally followed the volatile

simulations to which they were subjected. It was an object lesson

not in what the prisoner goes through, but in what the soldier understands

him or herself to be doing. It was a strange and grueling mix of determinist

assumptions and avuncular concessions of equality.

“The danger doesn’t have to be real,” she said “to instill discomfort.”

A fort doesn’t have to be drill-worthy to kill those who encroach upon it.

23

23

mock ticket

mock cattle prods

mock battlefield

mock talkative

mock lock-ups

mock balkanization

mock personhood

mock could

mock ticket

mock cattle prods

mock battlefield

mock talkative

mock lock-ups

mock balkanization

mock personhood

mock could

24

24

~~~~~~~From the caribous and the roosters, the child learned:

a nose-puckering sniffing of winds

coded signals via palpitations of the feet and scalp

great galloping speed

to cluck for luck, as well as at muckrakers

delousing with tree bark

the stark pleasures of slow mastication

From the humans, the child learned:

cartwheels

excreta containment

standing position

expressive mobility of the eyes and shoulders

old school free-basing

phase 2 finance theory

~~~~~~~From the caribous and the roosters, the child learned:

a nose-puckering sniffing of winds

coded signals via palpitations of the feet and scalp

great galloping speed

to cluck for luck, as well as at muckrakers

delousing with tree bark

the stark pleasures of slow mastication

From the humans, the child learned:

cartwheels

excreta containment

standing position

expressive mobility of the eyes and shoulders

old school free-basing

phase 2 finance theory

25

25

From indeterminable sources, the child developed:

a penchant for huckleberries

sleeping in a ball

adoration of taupe

ovular dove-tailing in traffic and in lines

a fine high-pitched squeal

Everywhere the child went, the child learned and burned

learned and burned

learned and burned

learned and burned.

~~~~~~~

From indeterminable sources, the child developed:

a penchant for huckleberries

sleeping in a ball

adoration of taupe

ovular dove-tailing in traffic and in lines

a fine high-pitched squeal

Everywhere the child went, the child learned and burned

learned and burned

learned and burned

learned and burned.

~~~~~~~

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Emily Abendroth is a writer and artist currently residing in Philadelphia,

where she co-curates the Moles Not Molar Reading & Performance Series.

Her print publications include: Exclosures {#1-8} from Albion Press; 3 Exclosures, forthcoming from Zumbar Press; Toward Eadward Forward from

Horse Less Press; Property : None / Property : Undone, a broadside and

multi-media collaboration with TapRoot Editions; and an extended excerpt

from the book-length work-in-progress “Muzzle Blast Dander” in Refuge/Refugee (Vol 3 of the ChainLinks book series). Additional work of hers can

be found in Digital Artifact, Encyclopedia, How2, Jacket 2, Pocket Myths, horse less review, Eco-poetics, Never on Time, and Cut & Paint. She is currently and

ever-so-slowly piecing her way through some writings and thinking on

solitary confinement practices in U.S. prisons.

This little red leaves textile series chapbook was designed and sewn by Dawn

Pendergast in Houston, Texas.

Emily Abendroth is a writer and artist currently residing in Philadelphia,

where she co-curates the Moles Not Molar Reading & Performance Series.

Her print publications include: Exclosures {#1-8} from Albion Press; 3 Exclosures, forthcoming from Zumbar Press; Toward Eadward Forward from

Horse Less Press; Property : None / Property : Undone, a broadside and

multi-media collaboration with TapRoot Editions; and an extended excerpt

from the book-length work-in-progress “Muzzle Blast Dander” in Refuge/Refugee (Vol 3 of the ChainLinks book series). Additional work of hers can

be found in Digital Artifact, Encyclopedia, How2, Jacket 2, Pocket Myths, horse less review, Eco-poetics, Never on Time, and Cut & Paint. She is currently and

ever-so-slowly piecing her way through some writings and thinking on

solitary confinement practices in U.S. prisons.

This little red leaves textile series chapbook was designed and sewn by Dawn

Pendergast in Houston, Texas.

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