Rapture & The One in Which Jane Fonda Falls in Love with a Horse

Two Poem by Damon Hubs

Rapture


O Hannah
you spell your name with two of everything.
It’s the summer of the comet.
I want to vibrate like an angel
and you’re reading a book
that isn’t a gift
for anyone over thirty.
Everything tends towards a conclusion that doesn’t occur.
I have no defense for poesy.
Does anyone know how to get to the Bop House?
The whole shit is breaking down
and my refrigerator isn’t ready for riot season.
John Maus has a new single called I Hate Antichrist.
What do we talk about when we talk about luxury?
You’re reading A Poem for Vipers when lifeguards
pull a dead swimmer
from the water off Hampton Beach.
The weather is beautiful.
I eat aspirin for dinner and drink Rolling Rock.
Karen Read is framed like a Nantucket sunset.
O Hannah
we lost two of everything.
On the rooftop
of an apartment on Ashworth Ave
we watch a cumshot
dance on the tip
of a
telescope.

The One in Which Jane Fonda Falls in Love with a Horse

Gina’s apartment, 36 Grove.
Matter eaten by black holes. O but Lance is here
and the poets and provocateurs.
I’m juggling a lot en route to beautiful plans.
We’re talking beer matches and book clubs
river dips in Berlin, why straight guys
are bad at gossiping.
Gina cooks something bitter and Bengali.
She likes movies
with swords and kissing.
It’s her house style
like a boyfriend on a watchlist.
I wept in earnest
when I stuck gum on her new sofa
translating the universe
on canvas
because all my friends are dead
just like in that song
by the poet who liked basketball.
You look stunning, now go out there
and save America
because when you pop your clogs
it’s like that movie
the one is which Jane Fonda
falls in love with a horse
and the horse is possessed by the spirit of her cousin
who’s played by her brother
Peter, in real life.
She even serenades the horse with a lute.
Baby, in this hot smudgy weather
I could fall down at the drop of a feather.
Noli me tangere
noli me tangere, Jane.

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Damon Hubbs is the poetry editor at Blood+Honey and The Argyle Magazine. He's the author of the full-length collection Venus at the Arms Fair (Alien Buddha Press, 2024). Recent publications include RESURRECTION Mag, RIC Journal, The Disappointed Housewife, Hobart, Apocalypse Confidential, Horror Sleaze Trash, and others. He lives in New England.

Twitter: @damon_hubbs