2/28/19

Cosmic Deregulation
By Jake Marmer




I lost loads of time
eating information
pills in the ship’s abdomen –
we called it “the library”
                           (as a joke)
until one evening, in the back
of a bar on a desolate, backwater moon
I was introduced to methods
of ingesting vacuum
and felt cosmos not beer
running through me
in knowledge’s stead
“consciousness,” I called to the librarian,
“consciousness is a ritual,
                          not an organ
and intergalactic history
is a contracting theater
                          of shadow puppets
performed by my own hands
which keep opening
like goddamn eyes”


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Jake Marmer is a poet, performer, and a high school teacher. He is the author of three poetry collections: "Jazz Talmud" (Sheep Meadow Press, 2012), "The Neighbor Out of Sound" (Sheep Meadow Press, 2018), and "Cosmic Diaspora" (Station Hill Press, forthcoming 2019). Born in the wild Ukrainian steppes, Jake considers himself a New Yorker, even though he now lives in the Bay Area.