MC HYLANDRESIDENTIAL AS In

BLUE HOUR PRESS1709 8TH ST

TUSCALOOSA AL 35401

http://bluehourpress.blogspot.com/

bluehourpress@gmail.com

Copyright © 2009 MC Hyland.All rights reserved.

(AbseNt pLurAL)

cipher. cipher. let timeslip through thisisolation, as nationso self. as self, sosubmarine & thereforeundering. thereforereticent & glow.

resIDeNtIAL As IN

incremental. as inbuilt. as in tires & clay,windshield, straw. as in gunmetalsky, tornado, heat.

as in dogtrot. inverted roof, wings& gripped down in soil.as in here is the church madeof two hands. opened.crowd.

a house is a house only in isolation. an interior space. if skin is other than skin. if bones form a frame. repeat this motion,homing. repeat this sound. buildingsmade of breath. vibration. a refrigerator coosinside your stomach. you are particle. molding.

house of severed headshouse of lunar aureolehouse of diffidencehouse of underwater luminosityhouse of detractorshouse of distractionhouse of hollow chambers

living funny in rented rooms. televisionall night & abandoned text of the frontdoor. says enter.syntactic & wooden. says let all the bats out into nightliness.let all the raccoons of the neighborhood stand on hind feet sniffingfor you on the air.

refrigerator which sounds likea bird trapped in the house hauntedby bees. this is not the moviewe thought we’d be making.

residential as in residue, as in provident. as in bodyat red dawn. gasflame massed. crouchedbelow the iron pot.

how the body responds to this homing & light.as though solemnity. as though a hand.as sunrise deferred, a lateness of season.

a house is a house onlyas past expands to fill its rooms. the new architecturelike the old architecture. about loss. no sooner builtthan declining, rain in the eaves. abandoned architectureof intention. abandoned architecture of failureto speak.

wanting to smell your hair, a thing which has comefrom you & is already dead. report what the televisionsays to the windows.report their reply to potted basil on the sill.leave a map in every room exactly the size & shape of that room.

dialectic: cleanliness& godliness, scrubbed linoleum& silence between walls.if hopefulness is next to waywardness.if the popular front of the house opensto reveal jeweled miniatures, thumping floorboardsof upstairs strangeness. brass chandeliersgrown black with tarnish.

house of arterial blockagehouse of forgotten siblingshouse of impatiencehouse of undeniabilityhouse of sleeping dogshouse of the improbable

as in excrescence. for every bodya body again. food shelter water& a window through whichbreezes might pass. look at this skin.how it ages. how it wears. my roomhas got two windows / butthe sunlight never comes through

if reticent, then providentif repentant, then ascend

if exhaustion, then lightningif therefore, then breathe

if hostage, then Texasif pharmaceutical, then substitute

if human, then underingif abject, then bells

what pipes & warmth movingfrom floor to floor. what winter.a bevy of forgottenbeneath snow obscured. teethvulnerable, slow disintegration undercoats of candy.

this is not the movie we thought would make us, low comedy salving the winter. write me when you getto Texas, open my body into somethingnew. write me when you get to Texas to say that the house is growinglarger. countryside shifting in reference.

living room to kitchen, kitchen to living room. livingdemands room, rooms, & breathto fill them.

noun, noun. shoes on the floor.

the body’s turning in on itself. body leftwithout food. ragged left, ragged remnant. these stanzas.little rooms.

in this house of my dead & the dead they carry with them.they are burying the letters by the live oak. they are calling indecipherable wordsinto all the dusks of summer. murderous summerin the split small towns. murderous soil turned suddenly walls.

Scale 1:1; the bookcase is a precipicebest scaled by night; the front door groansand opens in the upstairs closet of your childhood home. The closet with the circular window. Readright for up; so climbthe narrow stairs. Light bulb swings& shadows lurch, leer.

house of malingeringhouse of discontinued correspondencehouse of wanderlusthouse of foxed leaves

& then you. how northward you are. how glowing.how snowed.

so gripped by unnameable on hands & kneesdusting baseboards with paper towels. so neglectthe body. remove the housefrom itself. your hand here framed in the doorway at dusk.the milk of memory sours.

& so the house creaks& settles. a thing which comesfrom you & is already dead. all your deadlaid end-to-end in the hallway.eyes to ceiling. sing.

This book was designed by Justin Runge for Blue Hour Press, printed digitally and distributed online. The titles were set in Helvetica Neue, a 1983 reworking of the renowned Swiss typeface designed by Max Miedinger in 1957, and the textblocks were set in Perpetua, designed by British sculptor and printmaker Eric Gill in 1929.