the radical with flowers
there is no sugar in the sugar (only you)
tho it may on a wavelength
surprise jolly folks
there is no feather in the gossamer (only you)
tho it may on any occasion
surpass the littoral fog
indeed a crown is dented (only you)
and the fog is equally pestilent
as the folly of a great city
More and more aware am I of my body and the gestures
of habitude and the gestures
of responsibility I’ll send for my things I’ll send for my
dented things indeed the fog
is only ever a passing thought for someone like me I’ll never
grow up my fog is sugar my fog is folly my fog is my
dented crown my fog is my feather all dented yes now
can we send for our pestilence it isn’t comely it isn’t even a
folly it’s as mercurial as the wavelength of habitude as
something you can’t make with your body as something you
can’t calibrate or leverage
The front is coming really truly this time the front is
coming and comely not in the jolly way of folks in the
littoral space the front is coming I’ll grow there yes there
I’ll grow and by watching someone else I’ll see myself
and I’ll be aware of myself as someone else which is so basic
and basically selfish so don’t skip on me now you un-
reliable fool so don’t make the front embarrassed
when you’re selfish I’m also and you don’t get to hog your-
self all to yourself while I watch I didn’t see myself and I
didn’t see myself like that I could hold out not describing
what is desired and instead always desiring I could
hold out and wait for the littoral space to take
its hold it’ll happen it’s like a massacre it’s like
a pestilent massacre involving the beak involving
the feather involving the distance which is why
the need for the littoral to close us in to enclose us
be so very convincing right now we are neither
enjoying ourselves nor each other but when the space
holds us and it will and holds us onto each other
ii.
the structure of the gesture will be tested the very
good pestilence the very fog of pestilence will be
good will be undeniable it will be the most healing
affront upon ourselves and each other when the
littoral holds us and it will and holds us onto each other
and the structure breaks and does not heal will
our parts be surreal again will we have the chance
then to discover our parts again our each and every
ii.
the radical gully
this is my guile
everyone knows how to beguile
you have mentioned insouciance before
you need not even the hammock to make
observation
this is my guile
everyone knows how to beguile
the necessary distractions in life
you have sought the places with
other tortured souls leaving seagulls
do they protect you or do they
continue to?
continue to contact you?
there is always an epileptic photograph now
there wasn’t always an epileptic photograph then
now you have your running shoes
commotion doesn’t jerk you
off a fine example of practice I am not gonna
live through what I lived through
again with you
vi.
the radical gully
They have disobeyed In the palpable epoch
of epileptic doe
two sleep
sleep-talk for ten hours
They have disobeyed Their conversations
adhere
to the guidelines
Their conversation is nothing out of the ordinary
Their conversation
conveys inherent guile
Misfortune extinct
misfortune extinct
inherently as scientific
instinct or superstition
lave
We live more how
we disobey in conversation
than how in superstition
the guidelines are sleeping
while we are awake
No here we sleep and sleep-talk
and the guidelines wink awake and the
extinct beguile brief business around us
iii.
the radical basin soul
it could be an underlying
it could be for our best interest
it could be an underlying darling
it could be just over the shoulder
it could involve evolution
it could evolve involution .
it could be a lack of company
it could be an uncordial flame
it could be a lacky unaccompanied
it could be the concept of us
it could be the lineage
mixed up or messed up
sometimes in stinct has no fire
in fact i’ve been looking
for that kind of product
that kind honesty
so that the heavi ness won’t
mix me up won ’t mess me
up un less a good instinct
wills it to i’m asking
is that even possibl e
or what would i need to look for
because then i fear
which is to know
fearing is knowing
because then i fear
if i have a system
in the most unaware consciousness
we do not think about thinking
because we feel about thinking
viii.
so i think it is good it is okay
that two wholly broken things
should be instinct ively honest
viii.
the radical not for nothing
You were giving yourself a chance It wasn’t omission
You were giving yourself a chance In your channel
there the embarrassments and the shame to be focused
for once now or not since
It couldn’t be never in your channel the other estuaries
would channel since the focus was crucial
to chance anywhere in the channel
As an an embarrassing estuary and a
shameful estuary were you becoming your
estuary? Would that have been a sentence a
beautiful sentence? I know how this ends
You are in the estuary
again except after you return to be showered
you will be completely crucial then you’ll be released 
Valerie Hsiung is an American poet, singer-songwriter, musician, and performance artist. Two of her books—incantation inarticulate and under your face—were published in 2013 by O Balthazar Press. A recipient of the 2012 Frances Mason Harris Prize and a 2013 Mabou Mines Artist-in-Residency nominee, her work has appeared or is forthcoming with American Letters & Commentary, Apiary, Denver Quarterly, Mad Hatters’ Review, Moonshot, New Delta Review, PEN Poetry Series, VOLT, and elsewhere. Her first full-length album, IS, will be released in the summer of 2014.
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