{"id":2616,"date":"2026-04-23T08:38:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thespectaclstg.wpengine.com\/?p=2616"},"modified":"2026-04-29T12:10:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T17:10:57","slug":"from-spill-life-with-hammerspace-by-henry-goldkamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/?p=2616","title":{"rendered":"from “Spill Life With Hammerspace” by Henry Goldkamp"},"content":{"rendered":"

For as long as societies and economies are inexorably limited in their growth, bound to agrarian cycles of famine and plenty, and incapable of generating the surplus necessary to finance the development of industry, the deflection of surplus wealth into luxury and display represents an authentic destruction of goods, a sheer squandering of resources whose bounds cannot be increased.
\u2014Norman Bryson\u2019s \u201cAbundance,\u201d Looking at the Overlooked: Four Essays on Still Life Painting <\/em><\/p>\n

. . . but each of you hungry tramps who read these lines avail yourselves of those little methods of warfare which Science has placed in the hands of the poor man, and you will become a power in this or any other land. Learn the use of explosives!<\/em>
\u2014Lucy Parsons, \u201cA Word to Tramps\u201d<\/p>\n

We march \/ to bring all men paradise. \/ If we fall, \/ millions more rise up \/ from below. \/ Earth\u2019s emblem will be \/ the sickle \/ on fire \/ with the hammer in the rainbow\u2019s bow.
\u2014Vladimir Mayakovsky, \u201cThird International,\u201d trans. Peter France<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

2<\/p>\n

i wish we could eat
\nbut we gotta just sit here
\nwaiting well<\/p>\n

it\u2019s still life
\nits sound familiar<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

25
\nfreckles on a migrant hand
\nearth in the nail
\nbluebirds chirping in the root
\ntake this from the fee of knowledge
\neat the cost<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

30
\nlife ain\u2019t no riparian picnic
\nthus the miss river
\nas perforated edge
\nbreak bunny bread
\nrip this country in half<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

32
\nok so maybe i did ask to live here
\nor for these arms and legs
\ni maybe asked for such beautiful
\nluck of flora, fucking my eyes out
\nbut i definitely didn\u2019t ask the murderous death machines
\nto watch me while i work<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

48
\nwell yeast my ghost!
\nif i died and you spat
\non my grave well
\nthat would be kinda hot<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

53
\ni\u2019ll trade you
\nthe last laugh
\nfor the first and all the middle ones<\/p>\n

do we have a meal?<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

54
\ncanned laughter
\nfrom a bomb shelter<\/p>\n

perfect
\nsense<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

61
\nroses at your sneakers and loafers
\nlovers in your futons and on floors
\nlures in your tackle box mouth<\/p>\n

something fishy going on
\na dash of splash at the horizon
\nbut it hurts to strain your eyes to see it<\/p>\n

and the click-clack of heels
\non the gallery floor
\ndeafening<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

73
\nthe text is a still life
\na contagious one at that<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

80
\nw-wilting lily
\nlike a child\u2019s attempt
\nat folding a fitted sheet<\/p>\n

you\u2019ve got a little mealworm in yr
\nbeak
\nallow me ow!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

84
\nholding court and breath at the big city dive bar
\n\u201cmartini, olive stuffed w pentimento\u201d<\/p>\n

you\u2019re there on scholarship<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

91
\nyour last meal what\u2019s it gonna be
\nwhatever it is it\u2019s gonna be
\na gonna-be slopped atop a deadpan<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

96
\nwe pillow-talk in tongues
\nthrough the glass shattering of storefront windows
\nthe blowing up<\/p>\n

of a balloon and the strike
\nof a thin cheap matchbook<\/p>\n

desire has royalty cooked into it
\nall thrones made of kindling if you squint good
\n\u2014they can die when they sleep<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

99<\/p>\n

think it will come true?
\neven if the whole world knows what to do?<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

101
\nok we\u2019re moving too quickly
\ni\u2019ll ask it again
\nhave you ever actually bent your body down and got on your hands and knees
\nand put your lips to the ground and kissed it it doesn\u2019t matter where<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\n\n

102
\nsidewalk or dirt either is fine<\/p>\n

i\u2019m saying you should try it<\/p>\n

you don\u2019t have to give it tongue or
\nanything
\njust a lowly little kiss<\/p>\n

kiss the ground
\nit would mean the world<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Henry Goldkamp lives in New Orleans, where he teaches at Louisiana State University, hosts the reading series Splice, edits intermedia for Tilted House<\/em>, and acts as Communications Director of the New Orleans Poetry Festival. He is the author of Not My Circus<\/em> (Ursus Americanus, 2025) and JOY BUZZER: A Clown Show<\/em> (Ricochet Editions, 2025). Recent work appears in Grotto<\/em>, Denver Quarterly<\/em>, The Texas Review<\/em>, Apartment<\/em>, Rampage Party<\/em>, and Discount Guillotine<\/em>, among others. More at henrygoldkamp.com.<\/p>\n

He can be found on Instagram @poetrysystems.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

if i died and you spat \/ on my grave well \/ that would be kinda hot …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[112,110],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thespectacle.wustl.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}