let’s dance
debt’s lance
bent to me
meant to be
love of treasure
trove of leisure
death of retail
wreath of detail
hustled a mystery
muscled a history
found a buyer
bound a fire
car wash
war cash
pays dues
days, pews
scattered showers
shattered, scours
debt bubble
bet double
party on
arty pawn
tragic mopes
magic tropes
ballads of sadness
salads of badness
various cultures
carry us vultures
near and far
fear and noir
crackles and grows
grackles and crows
eat the flowers
fleet, the hours
boring, the meetings
mooring the beatings
looted and burned
booted and learned
popcorn
cop porn
amuse without bite
abuse without might
random tongues
tandem rungs
a platter of latitudes
a ladder of platitudes
the ways of mind
the maze of wind
a massive past
a passive mast
the iconic law
the laconic awe
of golden ages
of olden gauges
of glamorous cliffs
clamorous glyphs
a cute stupidity
astute cupidity
sung us in the fauna
fungus in the sauna
lakes moving
makes loving
license
silence
***
no lore, no mess
no more, no less
fuck labels
luck, fables
habit, roles
rabbit holes
good marriages
mood garages
the rest is naked
the nest is raked
the worst of birds
the burst of words
lots to pick from
pots to lick from
a lottery for posers
a pottery for losers
reading the news
needing the ruse
the whole of rumor
the role of humor
scary prisms
prairie schisms
buffering is seeing
suffering is being
at fashion’s pace
at passion’s face
the nature of storms
the stature of norms
weird how stealth
steered how wealth
harried the bidden
buried the hidden
deeper by the chosen
cheaper by the dozen
verses howled
hearses, voweled
bland with fame
fanned with blame
a nailable vow
available now
shop, dine, fly
flop, shine, die
stamped under cars
camped under stars
the roof of the prison
the proof of the risen
brought to sing
sought to bring
song, but rain
wrong, but sane
brought to sake
sought to break
hung from a limb
lung from a hymn
din wowing
windowing
numinous light
luminous night
clear as day
dear as clay
to every road
to reverie, owed
a psalm to come
a calm to some
—
“Spoonerisms” is taken from Returning the Sword to the Stone, Mark Leidner’s latest poetry collection, just out from Fonograf Editions. Leidner is also the author of two feature films: the sci-fi noir Empathy, Inc. (2019) and the relationship comedy Jammed (2014), as well as the story collection Under the Sea (Tyrant Books, 2018), the poetry collection Beauty Was the Case that They Gave Me (Factory Hollow, 2011), and the book of aphorisms The Angel in the Dream of Our Hangover (Sator, 2011).