Friday, February 25, 2011

Shunts, Crampons, and Dongles

slipping on ice, snow, etc.
we passed a whole winter

a spiked iron plate worn
down with wear

a device for grasping and lifting
heavy loads, usually consisting
of a pair of hooks; opposable thumbs
and fingers menacing as claws

boots or shoes aid in climbing
or to prevent sores all over our feet

suspended from a chain or cable,
upward pull of our funny little jobs and needs:
tension for the hooks to grip the load

the act of shunting; shift

bridged across a circuit or a portion of a circuit,
establishing a current path auxiliary to the main circuit,
as a resistor placed across the terminals of (I am)
or increasing the range of the device

(a railroad switch.)

blood or other bodily fluid is diverted
from its normal path; my mind is buzzing
with my own medical misunderstanding

a hardware device is attached without which particulars
will not run: used to prevent us from staring for hours
at a single word; three words annihilate an entire morning

3 comments:

GUL SKORPE said...

hi shafer from texas, it's jamie from texas. i love the title.

Lindsay said...

I like it!

Anonymous said...

it's funny how you say that you have shoes to keep your feet warm but i don't as a dog i rely up the pads on my toes to keep the freezing cold or burning tar from causing me pain, which is why for that reason i am standing on the back of my couch looking out the window just waiting for the winds to blow the cold off the sidewalks and free the grass to grow again. just last night a crocus popped through the frozen crust, so it will only be a short while until i can roll scratch my back on the warming ground.