A s W e A l l C h a n g e

b y W y a t t S p a r k s

p h o t o g r a p h y b y
K a t e E r i c k s o n

l o v e s y m b o l
p r e s s 2 0 1 3
PRELUDE CHAOS
PART 1 INCESTS
PART 2 LOVE LOVE
PART 3 CATALOG OF TREES
PART 4 AS WE ALL CHANGE
and I wasnt there
and you werent there
and everyone we talk about
wasnt there either
AS
WE
ALL
CHA
NGE
First the cosmos was swung by an old man in a painting
on a used globe from a library and that's how it all looked
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS begins to assume a form
and it looks like a couple
First the cosmos was swung by an old man in a painting
on a used globe from a library and that's how it all looked
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS
CHAOS begins to assume a form
and it looks like a couple
Pt. 1 INCESTS
THE SECOND CREATION
If we were the last two humans
we could finally be devout
and say things about killing ourselves
if the other one of us died
and finally mean it.

If we were the last two humans
we would throw rocks over our shoulders for the heck of it
and they would become softer and softer
until they turned into our children.

If we were the last two humans
we would end up fucking our family
dont lie you know it would happen
it happens in every story like this.

If we were the last two humans
we would float to a mountain on a raft
and drink the water that killed all the humans and all the animals
If we were the last two humans
we would live in the swamp.
New creatures would grow from the heat of the puddles
and years after everyone in school would say it never happened.

If we were the last two humans
I would break my teeth
so that youd have something pretty to wear.
TO THE MAN
WHO KNOWS EVERYTHING

this is where the snow comes from

from all the hearts

and whether lighting is the byproduct of bad love

or other hidden things

that keep the northwests bright beacons

from flying away from us
WHERE THEY ARE
if I look at the birds
then they look like magic
birds are hard to photograph
Anything thats hard to capture is magic
clouds are magic
cats, love

*

All the good radio sunday night
its almost impossible to match neon with neon
old neon with new neon
this is paradise
if youve never been happy
TO THE MAN
WHO HAS EVERYTHING

jump into the river

dive deeper into the water

grow a beard

cut your hair

become a druid

get a set of pipes

and some decency
TO THE MAN
WHO HAS EVERYTHING

jump into the river

dive deeper into the water

grow a beard

cut your hair

become a druid

get a set of pipes

and some decency
THREE
ONES

her poem of endings

loose in the night

of incests

watch her angry

the old woman puts

a hand on each of their wrists

and pulls them together

into a kiss where she promptly

vomits and then smiles

NARCISSUS
tell him
to never learn anything about himself
it is too dangerous there
and twice as beautiful
NARCISSUS
tell him
to never learn anything about himself
it is too dangerous there
and twice as beautiful
there is a tangle on the deck
like a knot
it is purple
because it is a human head
with purple hair
we knew it was special
when we cut it off
everyone seemed like
they wanted a head
but now no one does
NARCISSUS (2)
then looking for himself
he drowns in the water
and these events are unconnected
except by theme.
he is so stupid he cant see it
we all see it but we cant help.
but we still scream like children would
NARCISSUS (2)
then looking for himself
he drowns in the water
and these events are unconnected
except by theme.
he is so stupid he cant see it
we all see it but we cant help.
but we still scream like children would
Here is a letter,

a baby is telling me
to sleep with you.

You are magnetic really.

I am in a frenzy.

I will chase you naked
until you die
its that simple
Pt. 2 LOVE LOVE
you are wealthier than
seventy five percent of the world
you are wealthier than other girls in India
you are wealthier
and i am in love
with the things you say
that speak to that
ACHILLES MOM IS A MILF
in a neon painting
crush velvet
you see her
3/5th's of the way in the water
naked riding a dolphin

you promptly buy the painting
and hold it in front of you
as you leave the thrift store
hiding the erection
the sea woman has caused

you wait til midnight
and then you bring the painting
out of your bedroom and hang it up
near the kitchen table
and it is so dark her nipples seem three dimensional
and the sunset looks like an actual photograph of
hawaii under blacklights
ORACLES of DQ
because they are sisters
they each share
a part of each other
this item starts as something trivial
they have a charm bracelet
but it becomes bigger all the time
now they are trading each other's men

because they are sisters they eat
their meals together
but only the amount of a single person

they spend so much time together
that they began to instinctively know which of them
is the most beautiful
and which is the next most beautiful
and which is disgusting and hard to look at

they spend so much time together
that this becomes obvious even to the people who
first meet them
it wasn't always like this
they looked like three lovely young girls
but now they are hard to be around

everyone says
the one is so ugly
the other is so pretty
and the middle one is invisible between them

which one is the worst?
it is hard to tell
there is a beautiful lady with horns
she looks down
maybe because she is tired
or distracted by someone under her
(this lady is you btw)
I'm attracted to the horns
I want to go into her hair
and feel the spots where
they extend off the skull
to feel the place where
she becomes different from me
his lightning bolt is so big
it is ten inches
everyone gawks at it if he ever takes it out
in public
and no one calls the police
because they forget the word police exists
she asks for it like his wife gets it
but it hurts so much
she thinks she will die
and maybe she does in some ways
Pt. 3 A CATALOG OF TREES
up in the ravines
in the lonely places
she hides from the ones like her
it is so easy to forget that
you are a bear now
instead of a little beautiful girl
once a woman,
she changed little boys into fish
until something new and unexpected

now there is a scaly thing
that swims through the little pool

in the sun
no one can get her out using the net
(no one really tries either)

everyone admits she is lovely and scary
so the daughters agree to keep her there
in secret
right where she is
MORPHEUS
PHOBETOR
PHANTASAS

He could remove his wings
and be any person
flipping his face
like a lid
and back again into a shadow

*

He was for the four
legs of the wild things
in the woods
So he could never love a woman

*

he is a person
he is a person
and all the rocks soil
and tree trunks
could be anything without a mind
MEDUSA THE FRIEND
When you are not too tired
you come to the door of snakes
and its obvious she has been crying
but hides it well under more snakes and rust

you test her, tell her any old thing
to see if shell do it
she says she wont
but of course she does
crying the whole way,
slithering through the daylight
if she cannot have one let her be one
is what he said
THE ECHINADES
John and Matt walked into an ugly swamp
(but at this point it was vibrant and unchanged)
they found it could be dry and heartless still.
cracking the doors of each house
up and down the stairs
they couldn't find anyone, even though
they knew they were there.
Matt heard the laughter behind the closet doors
but was to afraid or embarrassed to open them
blushed violet

On the rough side of town

(we know these things
simply because of the amount
of dogs barking
of broken bottles splayed on the street)

a timid couple eats bark
because they have nothing else
and they love the taste of the dregs
they invite John and Matt in
the old man picks up his wife
and puts her hips on the counter for him
she opens up
inch by inch like a clock
this is their great gift two the young men
small joy hidden town
and the two men take notes
because one day they too
hope to live in a little shack
and please a women as beautiful
for as long as the old man
they love the things he can do with
his tongue as much as the old woman does
everyone is close to climaxing
in the little room

then they reveal they are gods
ARACHNE

She's all belly
it becomes the nucleus
she loses her ears nose and hair
to a spot under the neck
her head attaches
to the giant belly
and then it's all shrinking
she's a spider now stupid
scream as she crawls
on the ground towards you
APOLLO AND THE PYTHON
He has the body of acres
He has the two arms and the curve that
will kill the body of acres.
When he dies he will spread into another hundred versions
of the same story
and you will look at my penis
like its a little more evil
first he kills the girl
he is too beautiful to hold her,
he knows and she doesnt

She hides her own body, for him though
her hard bones with her voice
lost in the woods between the hills

later in America,
a trapper calls and a girls voice comes back to him
but he cant find the skeleton

it was just an echo
he tells himself
Alas
Alas


Fare well

Fare well
now they realize
they're dead
and twist into sick
fantasies of themselves
for each other.
putting things into their holes
they would have never thought of
had they been alive
but they feel alive
it feels so good
with each other
Pt. 4 AS WE ALL CHANGE
THE HOUSE OF
ZZZZZZ
it's all very lucid
a bunch of knocked out kids and dogs
lining the walls and corners
in crumpled piles
so tiny they need to whisper bc
there are no roosters
to wake them at the right time
blowing trumpets
doesnt blow a sound
they're afraid to wake him
their main man, Sleep
capital S
middle pile
with endlessly slid back down eyelids
and the millions of dreams
that trace around him
like the pious
without secrets
he's all one wound
he collects the organs
like living gems, packing each
in grocery bags and replacing
them
in their spots
what will that make healing like?
his skin is brown and crusty every-
where
until he is slick and strong
shiny and taught like a scar
he is a scar
but he doesnt complain
And then I thought I was a grave
and I thought I was a tree
obviously I wasnt either of those things
I was the snow
or at least in the snow
First it started melting all around me
But it stopped it didnt care
anymore
and just kept resting up
until no one could tell where I was
And then I thought
I was a volcano
that melted up all the snow
making the bones move again
maybe I will be bones again
but I wasnt
I was the snow
with the whiskey dogs
those lovable st bernards
pounding around the alps looking for me
i could subsist on dew and teardrops for days. if you bury me, even with all
the sand at your disposal, someone will come for me, take me out of the
sand, and cover me up.
No not a hundred eyes
not an eyeless head
just an overly eager smile rocking
legs off the cliff
On a mountain, waiting for a tune
for you to string the guitar and play
something, or anything that you can
Can you think of anything?
being a slave
first i go and dig a hole
the size of a man
i put myself in it
fill it up and slip away
so they think I was buried there
Wyatt Sparks lives in Chicago. This is his first book.



Special thanks to Untoward for first publishing Achilles Mom is a Milf.
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