"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.
