Pt. I

Rice paddy portion control
Don’t release the general rough road baguette
This generation bongo destiny brood faces
In cooperation this visit is strangled
This vacation dangled over bedazzled bullshit

Wrong way repetition is a cynical statement on the efficacy of the paperweight
Which Ponzi scheme plucks strings singled in carousel collage
It’s dulcimer on let down
Absorbing Bojangles in the boarding order
Open a moon landing school for apathy apathy

Open for harried doorman semantics in apathy apathy
Roman church set down disintegration loops for taking on the Eastern order
Troubled shingles are only sideways when the sparkles stop

But why wish smoke on the clavicle of backroom card games
when the dealer strums tender the grid
of deciduous greenery?

Upcycled laundry conveyor belt garbage action
only attracts spectacle seekers when
grade school dance girls yelp

Don’t swing strings so widely
when the yup-yup net is
radio for shindig survival

We all wish the ease was something we were born with
When the yodeling stops
it’s politics for everyone

The space in the garden is
only accidental when
professional holler hogs
got to auction for
the beer they bring to bear

Holidays holidays holidays
Horizontal it’s clap songs for the record and
Canada mumbles a call together
in the name of the perfect fifth.

-Jay Mollerskov 2/19/26

I was talking recently with former ArtRoot Writer-in-Residence Joe Engel https://racinewir.com/meet-our-writers/14-joe-engel/ and we were discussing various approaches to these weekly posts. Joe pointed out that he normally shared poems of his, whereas I have spent each week writing *about* writing. So I decided to change things up and share some of my actual poems for a bit. This one was written while listening to my friend, John McCoy, perform a solo electronic music set back in February as part of the Formations Series for New & Improvised music.

I intend to share a few more poems over the next post or 2 before getting back to other sorts of things. I hope everyone has a great rest of your week!

Jay Mollerskov, ArtRoot Writer-in-Residence 4/29/26