Three Pieces

by Joshua Kayo

Note: This work is best viewed on a widescreen device.

Jump to: 8:51AM ・ DRIPS FOR EYES, MY CANVAS; I SEE IN JACKSON POLLOCK ・ PHONE EXTENDS REACH TO PALM

8:51AM

A silhouette stands at the top of a flight of stairs that extends to each edge of the horizontal-oriented page. The silhouette’s head is contorted in a seemingly inhuman manner; their shadow looms over the staircase. Other shadows are present, but they appear more fragmented and indistinct in appearance. Text is present in the bottom quadrant of the page, reading: “8:51AM: I don’t like the violence of the commute—the timbre of this atrium staircase, the staccato of heels cutting concrete, vibrating this epicenter like ants fighting their way through tunnels to seize the gray matter peeking behind my eardrums. Just another staircase to another money store, another place you hurry, to hurry, clock in and look at bad screen, clock out, hurry, look at good screen, to shovel dirt, hurry, for the dirt factory, to eat dirt, to be shoveled as, to bury other–to dirt, to dirt. I rummage through my fingers, feeling the texture of nausea as I descend, my torso just another thorax in the ant mill, waiting for the day that I hear that the budget ran out, that every budget ran out–just waiting for the day that I soften.”

DRIPS FOR EYES, MY CANVAS; I SEE IN JACKSON POLLOCK

PHONE EXTENDS REACH TO PALM

A strip comprised of three thin lines (red, blue, and green; the colors making up digital pixels) is placed on the right third of the vertical-oriented page and extends from the top of the page to the bottom. It appears to be slightly digitally distorted near the top of the strip. The title, “PHONE EXTENDS REACH TO PALM,” appears isolated near the top-center of the page, separated by the color strip. Text is presented in a rectangular block in the bottom-left quadrant of the page and runs off the bottom, with the final 8 words just barely being legible. The text reads reads: “Phone feels pads and creases predestined to pillow 5.18x2.53 inches of recycled aluminum caked in thin film of epidermis grime sweatily secreted over 2 years of use right thumb tip clicks external side button receiving haptic feedback greeted by 800 nit Super Retina XDR all-screen OLED displays days of the week and coordinated universal time and other logistical pillars of other logistical pillars of recognition by 12 megapixel front facing camera catalyzes A15 Bionic 6-core central processing unit to grant access to a 6x4 user interface grid housing applications each simultaneously sounding a call to thumb’s void answered in the form of a tap awarded to the square emitting the most blue in the pupils dilating to urge corneas and lenses to focus eyes on dark mode application front-end enabled for eye strain when typing username password incorrect prove you are human by sorting these pictures of bees password incorrect enter e-mail account recovery 6-digit code enable 2-factor authentication click link expire 1-hour confirmation window pop-up splashes a newsletter tick box to miss nothing welcome firstly Roger Federer is retiring then Dunkirk is re-released on Blu-ray then a screen capture of StarCraft posted by @retro_techdreams because Zerg rushes are now 25 years old then thumb drags up then Greg Abbot cuts over $200 million from agency providing mental health services then an unsolicited video of a naked woman receiving assumingly solicited head followed by a forefoot striking a protruding screw thumb drags up because Roger Federer is collaborating with Wilson to release a luxury tennis racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations charge against Young Thug then videos of sinister billowing of natural geysers followed by videos of more gore which somehow make smokestacks and overhead shaving and oral sex and blood and Dunkirk and assembly lines and luxury electronics and user interfaces seem inevitable then thumb hovers Roger Federer voraciously eating aluminum foil”

Joshua Kayo is a visual and conceptual poet from Hayward, California and Montgomery, Texas. He received both a B.A. in English (Creative Writing Concentration) and an MFA in Poetry from Texas State University. His work has appeared in The Very Edge: Poems (Flying Ketchup Press, 2020), Sybil Journal, Los Angeles Review of Los Angeles, and The Table Review.