The Cento for September 12, 2023

During every First Tuesdays open mic, we communally compose a cento using language taken from each open-mic reader’s offering. On September 12, 2023, those readers were: Peter Marra, Liz Gray (reading Robert Duncan), Nicole Woods, David Siller, Dan Fleshler, Herb Rubenstein, Andrew Dick & Adam Watson, Henry Sussman, Shams A. Momin, Ayo Inerhunwunwa, Amanda, Monija Rahman, Lily Georgick.

Whirling Dervish Brushstrokes

1.

Dirt diaries of ordinary days:
No, I didn’t dream of that city

2.

The bounties of the nightingale’s remorse:
there’s only ever the moonlight.

3.

Take account of my soul.
Look up from the circle jerk of imperial acquisition.

4.

You are nothing but dead skin cells.
Their tongues have a penchant for jabbing.

5.

I am lost in these fucking vines,
a suited man coming out of the ashes.

6.

Like every fierce lady whose name ends in a,
we didn’t talk, but we met.