The Torrid Zone
{An Umbrella Special Feature}


Zachary Jean Chartkoff

is currently working with the graphic artist Diane T. Sands in creating a book of illustrated sonnets, done in tiny “graphic novels”; it is his hope one day to be able to hear Pablo Neruda’s “Cien sonetos de amor” remixed into into something he can dance to.

He lives with his wife in Grand Rapids, Michigan.


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Chaos in Flesh

Often the body acts like an engine,
or if not an engine at least chaos
in flesh. All this bloodroot, all this brazen
passion boiling over, seeping across
our palms, between our fingers, down brute wrists.
Chaos in flesh. Why talk about pain? loss?
shame? Let us have rendezvous, affairs, trysts
today. I will call you Boss Eros, Boss
Venus. In your boots come calling. Let me
seek a slit in your denim. Let me come
to warm flesh, then curls. Let me find sticky
what I hope. Let me grope. Until your numb
flesh curls. Buckles. Spurting volcanic fur.

 
 
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