Scott - Night & Ox

copyright Jordan Scott, 2016 first edition Published with the generous assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. Coach House Books also acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION Scott, Jordan, 1978-, author Night & ox / Jordan Scott. ISBN 978-1-55245-329-2 (paperback). I. II. II.

Title: Night and ox. PS8587.C6254N55 2016 C811.6 C2016-904398-3 Night & Ox is available as an ebook: ISBN 978 1 77056 483 1 Purchase of the print version of this book entitles you to a free digital copy. To claim your ebook of this title, please email . (Coach House Books reserves the right to terminate the free digital download offer at any time.) Comrade, I beg you to tie me To that tree there and bind my thighs tight. Bertolt Brecht, Ballad of Friendship For Summer, Sacha and Rowan sunny edge of outcrys tastic harpsichord my pleasure eellike living in hostile sorrow in unfulfilled mornings come osteoderm necklace clutching, come pissant sphere of root position live sweetly unownered deer bubbles, stick finger lake taser azure nightdress youre in heartbreak breathable flourish slake calm mouth eyebite loganberries vein comet wrote carnate wiretap lip fistula tizzy circus cell blazeday break by dying between day dark and proton bouquet plankton earworm sunspot fulm and flume windchill reflex starlit parsnips frill underfur cushion croaks elm luminous seasand claspers scapegrace deep blowhole bandwidth sheesh liken this feeling aquatile sun trialect snotpapers night-shirting cuttlefish the coil I am mouth I am silt still planetoid fruitfulness instagramming stratospheres whirl brick dust milk powder milk me facesplitting beehive purpler than cupcakes purple subroutines I sleep street drain seems italic strikethrough night lunacy or rivery rubs alone ankle nude long lines of lynx scat were in were snowsleep flurry mask my chant to follow your placenta a meadow my self a boy licking plates massacre patterns twenty thin strokes October trackless October throw boybird blissed any subtext sacral reaching any table, grape sacral covered mustard stone should I ever feel wonder again colossal leg cluster string drown infant lake system nervous voltage swap vogue my bedwhole loch my spur-fat juiced vapour spur Sockeye egging hormone snag spur glottal gland oil juiced vapour green sweat waterboard heartache its eggskull tiny blot vortices agalaxia tiptoes because I say so youre onthrobs anthill and flickout perfect a scale I cede dysfluent one seme as dessert spoonfuls away tinder drone rain cinder pomace sodden thermometer lyric you tinarsed silly conjure loitering sackdawn weep fuselage displode urchin, means days done transhuman truncheon Pac-Man hatchetal encyclicals and all the kissmore and all dont let me out of myself but krill me completely dully full duty neutrinos jackknife soulcake Im exhumanistically sorry for almost nothing shapes like lip piss I ravish tuck in hide nor tail your life battling breezehands full gibbon raid shit me word batholes skip-rope memory rooms of I will go to my desk silently sit hewn to tongueflop until its what sign a stanzaic glade or sign a morning labyrinth skeletal infinity I tear you apart for pleasure for love lies gangrene deadgone waves out the when of the window Im leaving for work repeat calendar out lasting moms driftface cant I say under what lack of what nature quiet of petroglyphic tilts terraforming lungs ocean cyst diveout jelly seconds go suck mulligatawny go suck an egg fib snout browbeating moonscapes retinal clementines acoustic terracotta lunascious moonsmooth goudasphere tarsal fin pixie sand morning elemental buttbite Im daylights moonballoon invaginal kelprut woodwork slime sundress murrain and nonpsychic shuteye chickendeeds are waterless rawness fore-scent fluorescent blissfulhead wick of pillowlips albuminous scorched wormhole slur slight Pleroma its form for longing for slaughter yes everythings vestibular sac looms ungula beeclouds untwist cosmonauts unclench hailstones you fresh cataclysm prolix whispering asteriod lunchbox stucco twinkle sandpaper body inside mystical alones I worry about this rosepink compression of love-dread reads me infrasound coyote tolling upstairs jammies nightie burrowing pupshins backlit ankylosaurus youre small your small so crys inky stampede blotchy in bee costume in glyph kitchen on glottis island studded sturgeon weighs dashberry mirror drum decimal cosmoglottal mudstone, look borealis its crystalline starboard boyform metadata tone boxlip salmonoid heaviness always magnetic dignity unlicked cub moments curious unsinned celestial bodies spacecraft shot missed trachea scoop indulgence for nightlights haywire tongues synth languor synthetic labour silhouetting silkbait you fluoroscope forest bit off supraglacial half articulate melt me linguistically youre Hephsstus your Hephsstus minibar mind jam ejecta on kitchen floor we wet the bed bedwet cuffs truckpattern makebelieve face wants throughseek hypotenuse nixed tundra nowmind so geodynamic gangplank ablaze I hear now through shower vomit sunsplash cooed sensual hurried titlight my wallet my weave my dadabear biting my chewing aircrystals pronunciation nasty moveless gloam demands lutefish notch gravity encode a sunbath a firebath a hanging yet lip intoxicatingly kneedeep balsamic beyond semitones encode a squids renaissance leaves shiver shrink back to predawn my day too blurred to unread too quiet river be quiet body ache parasail glittering water fracture semi blowhole for day shreds physics intestine sea a Dungeness fantasticating onward electromagnetisms torsos wheatmeal when drown cant resist lettering craves and finally, I think the horde is edible flowers too young to tomb in echo too young to surrender shrimpish body move to overhead sonosphere rainbow numbskull gravity null clusters seagrass coloured percolate thrombolytic body pore nothing subesophageal but waste and anguish and ravenous redclay and assload sincerity my mean face seeing you seeing clouds underlit pink windmill bilocating cornflakes beachcombing hymn cryptology pools foamchild screensaver daybreak, quiet its cinderblock notions lingerie mosslike tent in substratums elusive butterfly mouth Im shadowhunting under glacier Im Lego jitters Jell-O boundary off daybreak scowls symmetry I cant see coming to bed as art big toe in syllable scenery in no milk and out wasting my life in root position in primate streak in gloom cut meteor chord cruel chime chimerically magnificent supernanny of cruel gravity spaceborne embodiments netted in chandelier yarn swallow embodies roses mitochondrial nightwork sonnet logarithms leaning up against Broc or Donato or watching sea cucumbers or bushtits die in form like magnetized candy for tomorrow eating daylike letters in cold bedmilk ran down leg little ones underling things too will become me in feeling blue and iron chaoses mock cheeses of linen beer aside a body a bogs penitence lilac blowtorches goldrush esophagus veins luxury fluvial prose processions to reservoirs transonic thirsting this skin digital gleam I coagulate deadlights upload a forest grove, the lukewarm assess the loving cereals its lassitude Im under fierce bric-a-brac of moments see my walleyed love of nature my skullful carps and tears perfecting snowdrop isnt beastling down there isnt cumblotch enharmonic fern valence sea kitchen bodies sledding Titanomachy seeing exhuminating small riverbanks placate strato-volcanoes cello blast exeunt linguistically owed epigram so berry so wildlife carols waterproofing mezzanines sweet bristle tonsils listless hills and from so much thinking I have given my mouth its slowing me down beetledogs play music overloaded biogluttony blows away corn smut smouldering timber landscape infectious idleness limb homebody plying fungus little necksnack flung curve kid fodder leaves loves uneven sound and sound moves survival oxygens fall burns shitforbrains bottle din membrane crackers interstellar breakages all them Im given Im lisping Im you freerange you musclepuff zygomorphic fleshquiff so tremoring little body case hiss swallowtailed mouths vole bent-over purge the hawkeyes, the frescoing, the maze, your midrash the prayers, the tenderloin, the trash, your hairbrain the narrating, the naturalisms, the animalcules retrenching the both us, our slippering, the velodromes in breath bonkers canyon booming dreamtime sorta crayfish unsleeping irradiance perhaps I say sorta hypnotically bodies hand over giving so much omnivore so fatherhooded wilderness vine gropes glowworm ghosted womb-ways wordsting sonogram brightshines away your first moments trespass jubilant breathing people shadows aphid milk papoose coccoon rockheaping airpowers quailpipe painfulness growing up rampage roused gelatin unthinkingly tetherended autumn in aluminum diapers sudden piano needed to touch it to know your own mindshies blemisheyes timescale radicalized impediment poplars the birch I break for river when next to you nothing in nothing is watercell sleeps nor captive latitudinal angiosperms untangle bedplay bulls play ox xo play sinewcising waterstrap tickletorture as if no more touch pleases unsound pleasures blowtorch river stencils pitchforked eucalypts skin sweven, a dream a vision awake drowned child who swallows dictum divinities who ride a bike who dictum this undoes all day youve been at it all along good for nothing fable over mountain over me on floor mouth the tourbillon world flourish of farewell to sound sound and sound alone finds our pisspoor yard my lost nsis the one thing in time I want is fixed in feelings opera glass tribunal prism body close too hounded hare and my cell lit memory of no shadowy crustaceans no too skinny three-year-old boy for whom I sit quietly and will heart un ending if Id starve precipitous birds over a nook ravine I cannot hold no trace no instant no of no who was dad but mans dress a diary catapult above a non-mansion magnitude of glaciers beatbox pare lamin rine global ligature make this wheat youve dropped grubstakes antfights upon us unsweetened lake wound of this foxs red-eye eyeing nestbites coals cryptogram dumbed spirit I barely inhabit my body houses containing visions of houses of a sit still Summer I think of anything I can to slow humid mornings in blaring touch you soulsuck my child my gooseneck remember our gardens then the dark ace came down boughs reach hinder look watch closer someone is in our bed across light to crawl to thwart everything sea-purse into actual treescape is ruinational complexions of snails convexing some aperture mucous cape morphology snaily turtledove gall beachfrost plummet when told intimacy gone form lagoons clutching hillful rammed strand loop earths inescapable speechreach I want this sound of capture bellybitten moan stutterkiss in blithe scorpion some endless typhoon spill I here endless obedience forms sight wounding longer I wait for little things to cross a threshold unsounds with all its underfoot hoof gone running with all its cherry juice and foxfur hush wishbone hill clutching lagoons carload glottalkids cuffed lark speechmaking mommy brigades gathering air burning leaf edible instant at such mercy forms cocapillary scree cerulean window halves sound mesocyclone coldroll oatclap tryst explosion minefields aplomb this morning barfed tresses prosthesis sun flykilling allocution as tragedienne redbricked but inactitude still-mouth popping velvet sound and sound and soundsound moves moonskin wolf of the story tinges of me recorded ravine drawn geometrical against nightlight mitochondrial ferticule, poeticule fern coos the climax forest for silence is I am nothing not a notch colour of floral but not the chroma but waits for all entrance gnashing crib patterns chant sequitur dim wire sequitur burying creeks watercheek in hand I often think I am too far too lean souled too dull shells of half my face the scrotums, and dungeons, the browsing modalities the snacktime, and workshirts, the loving requestioning some minuscule orb some toe footdigit under leaf under us satellite cuss that night in my hand phytoplankton moonsong flashbulb zoolicks undercloth downpour entrails shelling, etcetera clam prattle muscle some fetishistic puddle birds for birder look its ruined animal purity silly behind cosmos slashed trail dogfollow blurting abeyance I type stupor broken woodland Im lost in flowerchart birthstone woundsore lamin planned pebbles gaze feet before entering coniferous jerkoff pumpkin be dazzled salmon gauzesea riverlips no more than sleep is afloat I to the mobile secretions I perforating thrush pussywhips I their flavours henbane divinity I antiorbital slick antiviral noose I am a boy on a beach on a pincushion kelpbed dadbod mellow grapevines through pillow waterbed grass cut grow want lawn treble want shear landscape duty clinical vocal deft wombs phonocule bionic cosmogonies I to electroluminescence say groping is wrath err our polarity locks our stutter frostwork rectify galaxys nonviolent stammer Im boogeymans house, sty nightgown ravine everything legumes matchbox boy in lightyears entrails equinox purring kid sounds translunar and clay parsec Im my sons deerhound skin in barleycorn surplussage of prey soffit flames fluoroscopy silvers incoherent greenloads hunting face shady blue space current when that seal washed up New Brighton translucence siege engined tethered pores away with words remember how we mono-pile Pacific digging vein such silence and nothing wakes blubber writhe world youre in my jacket my waistband my downvest short-haired you are supraglacial a gladis veins refolded obelisk an hour you walk insignificant chromata flood small clothes flykilling venous dizziness weathervane cavities tenderloin tetrachord simple as genes well, wood, lace sticks bowel hounds mythical tantrums crass gorgeousness cross lustre klempt and kazoo clear nude weeds hearts together jewel littered grammar I to the thrash ceremonies Waldo compounds looseleaf dollfuzz homozygous torso subantarctic fabrics emit closeknit bluegreen subcastes flipflopped bywords playschool brickfields convulsed thropy breathings Coquitlam Lougheed Hatzic lipteal microtonal tempest downpath wander somewheres beach hallway folding beachchair fossilsick nonsense away in blemish lawn see light renting garland see opulently orangutan tankers interslice sugarloaf Im anatomical cardamom asphyxia fogs itchy wasps fresh chest bees heavyset and decorating lakes seacoast colour jiggling buckskin shallows piper tyrannys treetop kilogram of sorry for what will come fluids of all tubsized inattention verdure I to the perfumed, quiet bodies beside sliding water beside bric-a-brac tide sag storm we keen currant colours whole beachhead metathoractic salmonred grief tenderfooted boybody Ill give you back silvery rage face piles on agonies draws me home birth kidnapped hemispheres acrostic chokepoints positioning deerskin in firth meadow as if it were a full deer burning leaves while whizzing Rosetta, skin wonderland wonderlifts blink impossible I can only think in threshold oolican greasevoice millilitre language tailings pondrests body obeys me vanishing and you in bee costume disquiet cervix islet soaked in glitter sun molecules fill skin watered down unfashionable gullet looming storms unspoken ill even for what you say is sunfish putty on limestone so postnominal is every larynx haughty lot of bumblebees are grandiloquent bandsaw blades when I so much as vanishing throats are sawblade nocturnes beheading open air your orb implacable diamond hanging hair treedwelling shallotcurl darkwards what form what form Im here in run blood sap trip patience gladding the subject of an act in our house last diapers last tickle house an organ the kitchen autumnal bee costume orange graft outside neckroom where smell like snow in trembling hectares south by northwest singling flosculet paint covered stars moving snails dilate geodynamic eyes open to sun and I could live my life this way in strokes of worktree glowtops orange trails leftover hair a bodys sonic fictions is incandescent for a moment for what lasting like clamour one June murknight pink and blinking ridiculous crust caps melting I could live drawing curtains looking out of sorewater transcendentals down to morning again to bind me in joyride dress tie me to lightveins are workhouses heart its a wonder I can even wonder what what love lays bare in me is energy some riparian speakingtube tasking weight as snow in soft sleevecone does break upon thigh syrup believes tongue at some point speech under trees fall thieving sleeping cells and I could live like this topsoil vials writing goldmine continuous fingernail aroma burlesquely open dirt mooning body backbites coral engagement spine archipelagic when bronchus shines when Im noodling red mouth toy bathing buttercups buttercups tidbit skinflint pinkish gamma on netherverts lid say something from hear believes in utter parkland in piecemeal in purer in palpitate engorge in cloak between teeth I do air still shoulders just above grieving it out and I could live like this crescent day laundry and bald rye milk and Cheerios other planet my nothing but cool lavender magnitude edible slip from tent to what boreals guess are bodies because of the birds I told you about because blooms piss in every direction because brainstorm syrup grouse this age of triple superconductors and nonhuman gorgeousness a body can be cold notion blood blood prosodifies smalltalk wings some frustum wings shaktism because you theatrically outside unvisited bush debar riverbed dada mattress treeline coconut starfish and yours is so mine to reconstruct for us as briefly as you can say mineraloids frogspawns oral haunts inglamorous talk this joystick earth subsoils chirping cerebrovascular Summer is so wolves in meadow portals sonic portage, sun grazer pronoun rhythm mammal braids risky openings all elegant tidal thinks giddy unspeaking must misspeaks fungal clots minor bodies after all these years still nothing trifled I light rig bodies for pleasure is what you see I give tongues what eaten is gone years at my door I stand in some concussed peerless air fed children of mine bound symmetry ruthless proofs and its dusk outside see and raining see the front of the house thirty seven memories after so many and nothing but morselline dream to be fucked and correspond ritual fringes hinterland parlance bouncing off pubis fingering autopilot lifeforms spectre ration in greenwood now labiodental coastal ogres dressing mosses gradual vaultlips hunting ground storylines mind arbour cells artery vocals suck demur scriptural nodes soften footsore balsam we hold hands anyway anywhere over anxious I to the scrawling acrylic steepness in starkweather blackwhite accept and longing animus overtexting eyes you say necks dwell sometimes meat and sometimes touched and I am yours and so on and so heavier than whitefish than comet tail or I kiss you as suggestions of re painting and wiping down some earth space some cottage pine vernacular acres parallel lipcut loads of suet loads of you here body dressing by laced bricks and you between house rows glomerate tinkering shell kaleidoscopes lawn playthings giddy-go-round torso too till exithole too blue afterbirth wildfowl after cleft love grasslines faked tundra by and by clinging blue excrete diphthong pellet of love and water loanwords lagomorph landfill hubba think in clime in gong think weigh a feather child feather-edge may never know glass skinlike deers sylph arbour secret legs scintilla me hush too debarkful forest I am moving teeth soft ache in yes panting dislikes all think this ah this rain hulking waterholes holes where water goes trepang ink Im embroidering serpent melon textile fauna in wincing pelvises shuntup stars fasting vowel mountains cutthroating evening throat sun melodic cell death, my vandalisms perch torsos claypool treelike and dispersing wince, please tentacle embrace I octopus costume thumb architect windy love me magnetizer whine childrens urethane winds traipsed perky clinging merit having urchin fibroblasts a once backboneless rumpus perogy sweetlooking whammo boycule outgassing give all I can give exhaustion eaten riddles eating surface persimmon lips eating sunchair beyond compression monomouth galaxials agave salt gazing plum notions my sweet boy disappearing midwinter meteorite chemtrail crumble pie enormous buttering hookworms checkered and telegraphing your roundhead soundless backstitch pigeonhole glimpse bedsides its slaughter I told you about-shy slurpwaves prosodies bombproof bedblooded gobshite when we messaround nebulas wettest cosmonautical imagination is sparrowing our animal alones sail, sail sail and I think of next August that thing I want to show you when a fire burns outside and also the word rocket-propelled heart fatigue is swinge hectographed fire early I said it snickering kilowatts nudethrobbing memory swineherd bends into tree loss of murkgrass the grass facemask now pancake shaped birds how space grows now as two wills within me body multi-sun threemoon futurity our percussive story sunrose your head just out between curio thighs unword blood mellow uncome lovers dog engorged fainting bodies kelp fit voice in respiratory ways it was then then I tied you to me tired beachcrumpled child filthy in sand weighs mere lips my lifelong nuisance is talk endure air how ritual fingers moon up against my leg bushtits or seacucumbers die unswizzle mouths tune atonal moment then venality, cadence freon violets kilowatt vanish as if the whole world were spores fleeing the woods wet animal grams deep in shade and somewhere within beesmudge cold cryptograms simply intimacy simple food crisp light visible corpuscular water stashes under eyes gyprock body papering floral pollen wood carver orange blew mores blew entomologist breath I to the headstock to the intercessions listen unsound is electolyrical grass is wet pictogram hill lost in dew I return with your sock and disassemble the minds agglomerate minds wolverine disassemblage birthmark your whole body covered red some fabric cock in wind leaking armour had to be our flavour four footed revolving papillaries satdown tinkly miffed culling ripped owllight bronchia think form a bombsight think periosteum singing particle falconry workpiece two lowcut hills seeking what stone is for body is herd bracketing towelcovered against body again glabrous again colourfully smother litters body gooseberry in which I say yes to everything yes in form odour goes goes back daylike mild sun does rock tendernoon does cut timber pixelglass tiptoes your weirdo body exact in space leaning on forehead a mountain sorry boy sorry simple botanical grief is lakehurt waves prolonging sorta lifebook cream-coloured seakale sorta fear stricken carbonlyrics ova and aplomb and these are things I remember Coquitlam glass ravines Burquitlam brush like eulogies Belcarra crags the tittymags injectable as blackberries hinterland stabbings underpant lichen refineries a stumps porn my furor my future voice in secret pathoformic bodies outfoxing formatters wellturned vortices boomerang gloom the sweatshirts and hereword breath a gown godown bruise of so many knuckledraggers touchingly short ivy me pigment lick me rulepig of minuscule corcule soul flows chronophagia zephyr turn stingray archive in flitter-mouse crossfire cross amphibian auburn flesh lapilli liquid stills intravenously my nothing more open axe more galaxy headlock littleones polypore in blankets in wilderness plinkferns plankfires its me, boy its crawl overhung yet formic and afire consonant pacific cant I to I crisping forms turban like bodies anticoagulation fits shearwater semiholes wonderfully alloverache not tactical anymore circumpolar bonesets melodies I picture dik-diks rushing hibiscus coldwater sepsis thumper birthmark brachial roam geode like my immoveable heart a boys sparrowblasting a boys skywriting festoons his softfooted torsonic run moonskinny inkling for days and days drape light seme of Rowan on Slocan loon fog horn luminiferous handshadows flock, lapse long before astronautics braze our moltenness