Two poems by Joel Dailey from "Lower 48" (1999)

For Joe Sprang

Sometimes I think I feel

Loss of the Z wrench

Chest like odds beaten

Granted high flown

The heart denies what the feet are about to step in

Stubble

Hair triggers nose

Window treatments

The sequel in a minute

Egypt in pantyhose

The organism experiences formica

Along the daylit shoulders of Interstate 10

Strange fits of passion have I known

Vibrant hubs

Lower 48

Double barreled exhaust

+ mental frigidaire

= trip out of Coincidence, New Mex

Your host Rude Beauteous

To avoid undue introspection (luck

Police hot button greens

Happy B'Day AK-47 (50

Focus on your daily activities

Rather than on your symptoms

Internalize the octave

Sonnet recoil'll land you elsewhere

BLINK AREA (transit rapido

Tops heavy machinery

"Can like a guy be a suffragette?"

In this, biased innards

Bobs the big reality (world

Now Post All Star Break Slump

American Troops Space Station Mir

The airwall clear brows

Probable callee didna talk

Close caption road rage

Wrongful attire I'm a unit

Years of Blink Rehab

Tops of the fondle (frontiers

"For Joe Sprang" and "Lower 48" by Joel Dailey appeared online in his own site, Fell Swoop. His collection Lower 48 was published by Lavender Ink (New Orleans) in 1999. Joel Dailey has singlehandedly published Fell Swoop for more than ten years in New Orleans, more than 47 issues, making it one of the longest running journals in the South. His most recent collection is Surprised by French Fries (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2011).