Daniel Khalastchi



Manoleria:


I am in a boat.   I am wearing a red life jacket, goggles, a necklace of worms.   Most are dead but one pulls at my beard line.   As we move out to sea, I am handed a box of small crackers.   My ankles are hooked to lead weights with sturdy linked chains, and my feet are piled in quick drying cement.   The air feels weak on my fresh shaven back.   Handing me a nose-plug, they tie my wrists to the port bow with hair. My mouth is taped over and I make to shut my eyes. Before I'm thrown to the water, I'm given two holes in my windpipe; asked to stay up as long as I can.






Went We.   Inside.   My Colon A Tree: (Diagnosis)


Went we.  Inside.  My     colon a tree.  Broom heavy with      light.
With  heavy cut   leaves left.  Standing          the spill of.  My 
levee.  My         leaving. My find  young        ulcers.  Tall kicking
in.  Skirts.  Legs   white.   High    stockings stored. Up  low were my.
Enzymes.  And you.    Curtained the colon. Red   salad your. Shoulder. 
So long. So   roll. So    still we waited I   was dis.  Eased clean.  
Under my sternum.   Here      was the.  Mandarin.    Orange deep water
breath    here.   Was the steady fed.   Crate where they   saw through 
the   inside of   this.  Hot future to get   it. Out. Get it out.  Get.
It.  Out.





Set Rough Your.   Hold My.   Ribs Stayed Calm: (Surgery)


Set rough your.  Hold my. Ribs stayed     calm. In.   Open cream the.
Bandage ready the.  Damp   crane. Of your. Neck    watched me.  Wash.
Down the       water. With rocks my     stomach. Treading my.     Stomach 
walls   settled then      you were.  Here     by me   we.  Counted to
the.  Threes of.  Our     knowledge. One. ce you cracked.   The blood was
still.     Talking the lines of its.  Measure I.  Heard you fall to  my.  
Body was music.





Manoleria:


My left wrist is tied to a bumper.   My right, to a horse drinking water.   The car and the animal face opposite directions.   There are two women with flags raised high in the night.   The engine revs and the horse is mounted by a jockey. Counting down from ten, the girls heavy their breath. The moon is hidden by lights from a city.   When we start to pull away, even I am excited.