Trauma Fetish as Genie in Bottle
Jeffrey Jullich
in an office, medical insurance
covers transference in psychotherapy. There’s
a framed picture on the wall, paperweight on desk
in some ways absorbing grace of affection where
fondness, that is, the minim of love, is
ricocheted onto equivalents of toys,
more deeply impressed on mind, like thumb into clay,
by their unchanging perseverance,
that they stay there, watchdogs after we leave,—
without ephod commodification
for high priest role a political transparency—
The paperweight, too, is pure functionalism.
Passing seasons, the weather outside left outside,
maybe coats changing on coat hooks,
largely irrelevant to—question and answer
as Golden Fleece stolen by Jason from Colchis.
The cinematic montage of
stepping back into weather as weltanschauung
afterwards out on pavement, New York, New York,
like in the songs, has a prelude to solitude
feel to it walking to subway not subconscious
people on the street as blurred as traffic
as a hummingbird’s tongue
~~~~~
Jeffrey Jullich is the author of Thine Instead Thank (Harry Tankoos Books, 2007) and Portrait of Colon Dash Parenthesis (Litmus Press, 2010), and has work in literary journals including Fence, New American Writing, and Poetry. Audio recordings and videos of Jullich reading can be found on the Poetry Foundation or on Youtube.