Welcome to 50 Barn Poems by Zac Smith, out now from the eternally badass CLASH BOOKS. 50 Barn Poems is an evocative yet accessible sketch of that old barn that haunts the back of your brain. Vague memories of road trips, skateboarding, the ocean and ping-pong are all reconstructed in the shape of a barn and set on fire. Please enjoy the following excerpt by Zac Smith. He seems like a really nice guy. And get the book right now at CLASH BOOKS.
BARN POEM 2
barn on the side of the road
built way too close to the shoulder
every three months a car hits it
every three months the sheriff makes the same joke
something about a drunk driver hitting the broadside of a barn
it’s exactly as funny every time, too
BARN POEM 13
1.
neverending cemetery
with tiny barns
instead of headstones
at night you might see
one of the barns
hosts a small shining light
2.
barn with no doors –
trapped in a barn box
infinite funeral
upon the hay
3.
underneath the mountains
lurk five million barns
and inside each barn
is five
million
smaller
barns
4.
i open the barn
and it is full of snakes
BARN POEM 19
i forget the name of the goat with the long, long tongue and the cleft palette oozing snot 24/7
it must have slept in the barn
but i only remember it prancing around the field, screaming
maybe it never slept
maybe it only pranced and screamed
BARN POEM 33
thinking about our beautiful shining future
humanity in repose, tranquil and serene:
o beautiful for halcyon barns
barn to shining barn
the intercontinental barnway
the transatlantic barnline
the great barn of china
the great barrier barn
the space shuttle, but, like, it’s a barn
hell yeah dude
that’s beautiful
BARN POEM 48
barn carving a wave instead of nestled on a hill
black surfboard and a lit cigarette
when i was a kid, i had a bowl cut. the barber called it a surfer cut
so of course i thought it was radical
maybe i still do
(or maybe i don’t)
but when i think about barns doing sick ocean stunts
none of them have bowl cuts
