"The Distance" by Danny Sherrard

 

"The Distance"

by Danny Sherrard

put me in the distance 

now if you guys don't know

the Distance 

it's out there 

it's kind of like where the truth has this way 

of answering all your questions 

without even having to speak 

like the first time you set eyes on the first love of your life 

as they were just walking down the street 

put me in the distance 

where you can riddle rumors out about my existence

like maybe the mighty Mike McGee will say

"I heard that Danny was kidnapped 

by a renegade Amazon tribe in the Amazon 

and they took him under their wing 

so now his blowgun skills 

phhhhhhhhhhhhhhhwop!

are impeccable"

See when I'm in the distance myth-making it ain't gonna be my job anymore 

it'll be yours 

and I think it would be just what the doctor ordered 

if I was in the distance so long

that there was a band of Danny impersonators 

running the streets of Providence 

like quicksand horses 

that everyone's eyes could just sort of sink into 

and I feel it like our hearts are all in the distance 

pumping vision into our blood and blood back into our vision 

distance is being able to see things from the inside out 

distance is where the future grows 

distance puts the marrow in tomorrow 

distance is what I want to eat for breakfast 

it's the bullseye tattooed the inside of my solar plexus 

and only the sunset can pierce it 

so CR when I'm gone 

I'll be gone 

my back would be turned 

by the time y'all's arrows are drawn 

the distance that I'm all wrapped up in 

will put the potential energy in your quiver 

distance is the backbone in my swagger 

and the twang in my stupid honesty 

see without the distance my gunslingers wrists 

hang lifeless with arthritis at my sides 

and gypsy of my lips forgets how to kiss the sky 

without the distance 

some nights I grind my wisdom teeth into a fine powder 

and I lace my cigarette other nights 

I use it 

to fill the empty hour glasses 

I put them in the world 

where things always get turned upside down 

to feel like I have more time 

I do headstands 

on escalators

I'll hit my spirit with the reflex hammer

just to see if its knee jerks 

I get used to the different-day same T-shirt 

I'll play with symbols and reverse and reverse till I bleed earth 

listen, these words are patchwork nothing 

I left my patchworks right between West 4th and Bleecker

so now I band up the box 

of the past 

with a blindfold on 

I'll keep tomorrow a breath away 

and break dawn like an egg across the home of your hate 

because distance 

is a dynamite psycho static patchwork matchstick stuck on motion 

and I'm a riverstone explosion 

a chiseled whisperin' echo crumbling in on itself 

a clover grown its fourth leaf 

check your kinetics 

check my kinetics 

striking lightning off the Braille of our pulse

put me in the distance and I will go 

I will go to the pawn shop at the end of the universe 

where the pawn shop owner 

keeps his beard in check 

with that razor blade you may have traded in for a second chance 

and he'll look at me 

from behind those elusive crossed arms 

and that wayward smile 

that pawn shop owners often have 

and I'll just take a look around 

I'll see the angel wings slung up on the walls 

and all of our old dreams 

bottled in jars on shelves 

that slant for the weight 

until I realized that this 

is as far as I can go 

I'll move the distance out of the way 

walk up to that pawn shop owner and say:

"listen, I've got a great story

it's about a spirit 

trying to find his way 

back to his bones

and I'm willing to trade it in

just so long as you can give me directions

on how to get back home"

 

Danny Sherrard wows the crowd at the Applesauce Teahouse in Flagstaff in November 2007

Born in Seattle, Washington on August 29, 1985, Sherrand he won the Individual National Poetry Slam competition in 2007, becoming the youngest competitor at that time to win such a title. In 2008 Sherrard won France's Poetry World Cup where he competed against national champions from 15 countries.

Sherrard was on the Seattle poetry slam teams in 2007 and 2008 and the 2009 HawaiiSlam team.

At the beginning of 2009 Danny Sherrard toured with the spoken word group The Spilljoy Ensemble composed of himself, Jon Sands, Shira Erlichman and Ken Arkind.

Sherrard's first book, "Cast Your Eyes like River Stones into the Exquisite Dark," was released in 2009 through Write Bloody Publishing.