Temple of Phthalates
Yore and Lift
were gods
to which days and curses
belonged
Weepers had their Finders
back then
and Firsts had
their Earths
Isotopes had their bonus
neutrons and detritivores
ate up detritus
Stone huts and perfect yurts
surrounded the Seven
Reservoirs whose surfaces
glittered and shifted like
cool practical effects
Back then efforts
were recovered
from the perilous
and forbidden
Temple of Syncretisms
and if not
from there then
from the Temple
of Movements and
if not from there
then from the
Temple of Perfect
Movements where the priests
used to say
Just as Each
also Ever—
the many Odd Ways
also Stillness
Down the Old Glacier
Highway to the crowberry
bushes and the shieldfern
gullies
and down on the other side
of those to Stillness
And on the other side
of Stillness
Negative Stillness
And on the other side
of Negative Stillness
peak compound words
like spacetime braingut
axis heatdeath and
livingproof were
and on the other side
of livingproof
the knight’s hamper
was and still is full of nutrients
and the midquel shed and still
sheds its infrared ingratitude
so lightly
and druids from the future
and dinosaurs from the future
had and have sacred migraines
and on the other side of their sacred
migraines the gardens flex
their pixels
and the algorithms flex
their suggestions
and the usages flex
their farms
and the prototypes flex
their rooms
and the rooms house the brains
of famous mediums
and on the other side
of the famous mediums’ brains
the pressure point of no
return is vulnerable
to ocean spray and all
the ocean spray sprays
in unison and surrounds
the final fant short for fantasy
and the close prox short
for proximity
and the reverse chron
short for chronological
and on the other side
of reverse
chron are
maximum experiences
and maximum sights
and medium laments
and endangered species
and unsolved laments
and impossible laments
and laments from beyond
the forgotten crypt
of the unknown star’s
lagoon and beyond the forgotten
crypt of the unknown star’s
lagoon are gifts
gifts gifts gifts
positions and more gifts
and on the other side
of the gifts is the deepest
known underwater cave
in the world which has a chamber
called New York
and another chamber called
Secret Recipe and another
chamber called Secret
Formula and another
called Secret Ingredient
and another called Secret
Message Secret Code
Secret Word Secret Agent
Secret Police Secret
Base Secret Passage
Secret Garden Secret
Room Silent Letter
Silent Film Silent
Partner Silent Running
Silent Auction Silent
Majority Silent Bob
Silent Treatment Silent
Night and on the other side
of Silent Night is Brood
Cicada gentleness
a failed star that was
here first and the
rare chance to behold
a famous omen
collagen molecules
famous extinct plants
marine plasma
but on the other side
of marine plasma rooms
were out of the question
Rooms had left the room
and topics were showered
with articles and the darkness
was not quite virulent
enough to camouflage
this mesa that time forgot
to include in its listicle
of exotic biases
and on the other side
of the exotic biases
was the presence of a partial
panorama and the phases
of the panorama
but on the other side of the
phases of the panorama
the blue trees aren’t flat
and they aren’t aren’t flat
and they look flat
and they are flat
and there are therefor varieties
of blue tree experience
and on the other side
of the varieties of blue
tree experience is Wishing
Well 2 the sequel to Wishing
Well in which the hero
asks the antihero Through
which blood
does arrival do its
overachieving? To
which the antihero
answers The blood
of desire’s stochastic
process maybe
Or perhaps the blood
of the crystal clear maelstrom
at rest or perhaps the blood
of the crystal clear
material at rest or perhaps
the blood of the crystal
clear utility at rest
or perhaps the blood
of the crystal clear
compulsion at rest
or perhaps the blood
of the crystal clear
black hole at rest or
perhaps the blood of
two crystal clear black
holes colliding
in the amphitheater
of the so-called firmament at rest
suggested the antihero at last
And on the other side
of the so-called firmament
the antihero went on
All the parties and nowhere
to go except heaven
now must come to an end
for Christmas on the Western
Front and on the other
side of the Western Front
are the fire’s flowers
and the famous rivers
of the famous cities
and the famous substance water
and the famous atom oxygen
and the famous property mystery
and on the other side
of the famous property mystery
heirlooms bob in the calm
Caspian Sea and the Snake
Oil Sea and the one-inch voices
prevail in the library
of microplastics
and on the other side
of the library of microplastics
various schools of eternity
debate in the Temple of Phthalates
and on the other side
of the Temple of Phthalates
there were and continue to be
astronomers who see when
they look up a vast—
and this is remarkable—public
And when they look down
claytonia mercury
greenthread lead
cardoon oganesson
hopniss radon
samphire astatine
tastes allocations
and on the other side
of the tastes and allocations
sitos opson oinos cheetos
and on the other side of the cheetos
there are so-called holdfasts
and so-called redoubts
and so-called dead links
and so-called fixed spells
and so-called rocky planets
and so-called acid grassland moons
and so-called adaptations
and so-called summer nights
and so-called deeds
and so-called songs
and so-called cum jokes
and on the other side
of the so-called cum jokes
there is a special word for surface
that deserves a second chance
and a million year old volcano
crawling with stick insects
reefy water ultraviolet light
hammerhead sharks
paragliders A magical
place the specialists call playing
a sexy game of Go Fish with death
and the managers call
a geode planet sometimes
and other times a list of every known
concept and other times
wildflowers bright Pleistocene
Cerberus meadows of them
and if the wildflowers are always
wilder on the other side
of the Cerberus meadow
and if to pair High
Existentialist Nausea with
like a gag is as enduring
a coping mechanism
as it has been proven to be
why put it to this newfound test?
Why rewrite the labyrinth
when it has closed in around
the self so absolutely any
sudden movement no matter
its source of dysphoria
is a form of solution anyway hmm?
One answer might be felt
in the spirit of the lichen enthusiast’s
dopamine rush or perhaps
in the thrill of prudent and virtuous
betrayal or perhaps in the single
piece of mosaic swallowed
or perhaps it can be felt
in the nursery of the earthquakes
and the uranium sandbaths
the petroleum springs or
perhaps it can felt
in the groundwater
the foxfire the cliffface
the archetypes perhaps
it can even be felt in the
quaking aspen metaphor for everything
that back then sufficed
that back then was called
a sacrifice hearty enough
anxiolytic enough
to subdue gods
like Yore and Lift
gods whose
divine traumas and
divine narcissisms
were earned on
the other side of eternity
where there is no such
thing as medicine
**
PETER MILNE GREINER is the author of Lost City Hydrothermal Field, a collection of poems and science fiction. His work has appeared recently in Fence, Works & Days, and the sci-fi anthology Terraform: Watch/Worlds/Burn published by MCD x FSG. PMG is a high school English teacher and a water quality tester for Newtown Creek Alliance. Join his Sci-Fi+ book community @chimaeraflats.
