a
poem by
Matt Schumacher
> bio
SCENES
FROM DARING
AND
OTHERWORLDLY RODEOS
Remember
when I'd trick-ride giant fireworks
And make my blazing ascent into the sky?
Surely you recall my gunpowder-loud cowboy howl
Corralling clouds as high as I, as I signed the sky
The true shooting star of pyrotechnic rodeo
Remember when I lassoed two semis,
Then took flight--chaps flapping, spurs twirling the air,
To plant one bootheel flat
Upon each trailer as the pair sailed parallel?
My beaten jeans spreadeagled passing zones
As if I might unzip and expel yellow highway lines by the roadful
Remember when I sidestepped my breath
And rodeo-clowned my own bones
Then stunt-jumped from my horse into prehistory
Simply to calf-rope T-Rex
And pin his scrawny arms to the ground?
Remember the sweet whimper of that giant reptile?
Remember the upsidedown rodeo, aglow
In the amphitheater of the U.F.O.?
Gravity fled. Cowboy hats loftily floated off.
Deep space fashioned lassos into snakes.
Casual ropetricks ran away from the circus, unnerved us--
Perfect at undreamt-of distances, sure around corners.
We held on tight. Like violent archangels
Shouldering us toward their soulless god,
Our horses reared in fearless slow motion
Soaring toward open portholes: death and chaos...
