ADEQUATED (3)

By: Franklin Bruno
June 18, 2017

HILOBROW is pleased to present a series of 27 nine-line poems by our friend and contributor Franklin Bruno. Some have previously appeared, in print or online, in A Perimeter, Brooklyn Rail, Critical Quarterly, and The West Wind Review. This is their first complete publication.

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CALLING ALL PORTRAITS

painting bullseyes around each arrow
dragging the map to the route desired
new run of bills is edged in tempered
steel, we employ their serrations to
slice through a brisket against the grain
the jacks are thick, the ports are narrow
summer is over, so’s its weather
peeling out from a settled center
hiding in corners of one strange life

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MASHNOTES FROM ORPHEUS

The work you return to is nothing
like the work you left. Wears bowling shirt,
has never bowled. Streaks in the aging
filmmaker’s hair. Are you frustrated
because she doesn’t know your language
or because you don’t know hers?
      Bookshelves
are bridges, my wooden hexagram,
a leaf is fallen, pasted, thrown. Branned
identity, cognitive moping.

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STILL LIFE WITH CHARTICLE

The “unity of science” program
was underwritten by progressive
humanism, indefensible
from within empiricism. Land
where my father died. Pashmina nailed
to hang in a catenary curve,
railroad spike wrapped in bolster of shot
silk. If you’re a freak magnet, then what
does that make me? Baseball, meatloaf,
      this.

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CURATED SERIES at HILOBROW: UNBORED CANON by Josh Glenn | CARPE PHALLUM by Patrick Cates | MS. K by Heather Kasunick | HERE BE MONSTERS by Mister Reusch | DOWNTOWNE by Bradley Peterson | #FX by Michael Lewy | PINNED PANELS by Zack Smith | TANK UP by Tony Leone | OUTBOUND TO MONTEVIDEO by Mimi Lipson | TAKING LIBERTIES by Douglas Wolk | STERANKOISMS by Douglas Wolk | MARVEL vs. MUSEUM by Douglas Wolk | NEVER BEGIN TO SING by Damon Krukowski | WTC WTF by Douglas Wolk | COOLING OFF THE COMMOTION by Chenjerai Kumanyika | THAT’S GREAT MARVEL by Douglas Wolk | LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE by Chris Spurgeon | IMAGINARY FRIENDS by Alexandra Molotkow | UNFLOWN by Jacob Covey | ADEQUATED by Franklin Bruno | QUALITY JOE by Joe Alterio | CHICKEN LIT by Lisa Jane Persky | PINAKOTHEK by Luc Sante | ALL MY STARS by Joanne McNeil | BIGFOOT ISLAND by Michael Lewy | NOT OF THIS EARTH by Michael Lewy | ANIMAL MAGNETISM by Colin Dickey | KEEPERS by Steph Burt | AMERICA OBSCURA by Andrew Hultkrans | HEATHCLIFF, FOR WHY? by Brandi Brown | DAILY DRUMPF by Rick Pinchera | BEDROOM AIRPORT by “Parson Edwards” | INTO THE VOID by Charlie Jane Anders | WE REABSORB & ENLIVEN by Matthew Battles | BRAINIAC by Joshua Glenn | COMICALLY VINTAGE by Comically Vintage | BLDGBLOG by Geoff Manaugh | WINDS OF MAGIC by James Parker | MUSEUM OF FEMORIBILIA by Lynn Peril | ROBOTS + MONSTERS by Joe Alterio | MONSTOBER by Rick Pinchera | POP WITH A SHOTGUN by Devin McKinney | FEEDBACK by Joshua Glenn | 4CP FTW by John Hilgart | ANNOTATED GIF by Kerry Callen | FANCHILD by Adam McGovern | BOOKFUTURISM by James Bridle | NOMADBROW by Erik Davis | SCREEN TIME by Jacob Mikanowski | FALSE MACHINE by Patrick Stuart | 12 DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE | 12 MORE DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE | 12 DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE (AGAIN) | ANOTHER 12 DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE | UNBORED MANIFESTO by Joshua Glenn and Elizabeth Foy Larsen | H IS FOR HOBO by Joshua Glenn | 4CP FRIDAY by guest curators

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