Two Poems
Layne Ransom

The Roof

No one owned the kingdom of urchins. Owls warred on brickburners' children while St. Michael laid in ambush for the kitchen boy. A dim sense of politics and grandeur phantomed behind the city.


(erasure of The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, Chapter 3)



Little Methods

Almost anything I loved later on realized there is a beginning. New doubt. The gap spawned from time. Are you learning? Your first something is holy. Have a sandwich. Keep moving constantly, firing and firing out. An arrow harnessed the right way can hurt like little keys in a fire. A wild field of circles. Amidst the onslaught, you are the meat.


(erasure of Blake Butler's HTMLGiant article "22 Things I Learned From Submitting Writing," posted July 18, 2011)