Tim Botta across two issues
Tim Botta appears in Issues 20 and 29. Issue 20 records “Generation Y”; its poem text is absent from the surviving page. Issue 29 preserves three short poems in full: “Science,” “Paranymph,” and “Channel.” Their compressed couplets move through touch, electricity, carnival imagery, blue dusk, phone calls, museums of punishment, voices, and stories.
Botta’s later literary record includes the poetry book Vegan Horsewhip, published in 2008. Contemporary notices also place his poetry in Absent Magazine, extending the publication record beyond these two historical issues.
Science
Who was going to say science
mouth, when you lick ambrosia from
your fingertips, and feline tongue
the ambrotype clean.
Or else, sigh séance moth
shudder, and rub rubies
against me, electrical quiz
for lovers at the carnival.
Paranymph
We idle in blue dusk. You let
each ringtone go, and I’ve
(three times we’ve said goodbye, kissed
goodbye that many times)
a smoky look for the spherical
punk and his paranymph
in the parking deck, violations of
your windshield.
Channel
Near the guillotine crew, the wax
aristocrat, thumbscrews, and gull
of spikes, my voice in
this channel, yours in the other.
Through a sordid hallway, the mouth of
a wooden pig, piled
with wergild, I’ll stroke
your stories.
Publication record
Goodreads identifies Tim Botta as a poetry author and records Vegan Horsewhip. A 2007 literary notice for Absent Magazine lists Botta among the poets in its second issue.