an excert from 'blind contour drawings' by Joe Blades

pencils poke through my hands
clenched in my fists i think of comic book
advertisements for magic machines with nibs
and pencils at the ends of their arms
that can reduce or enlarge anything
by tracing simply originals adjusting
that is all I hope to be what we all might be
i hang myself on a pencil and create this
blind contour drawing - what is felt
of what is seen transcribed without
watching the transcription onto vellum
or parchment onto sanatorium walls
with medium of the body
dreaming of drawing in beach sand with
a stick watching the waves roll in
and carry the message out to sea
the beach streaked with wet salty
sand where waters flow and run