2014: Let’s Begin

Little Bones, a limited edition art book set from Thoughtcrime Press, will be featured at Printed Matter’s giant LA Art Book Fair this year at the table run by Kickstarter’s curators of new art! We will also be mentioned in their upcoming fine art catalog.

Here’s a piece from Little Bones, which also features poets Ben Clark, and Stevie Edwards.

Vacation Request (Josh Gaines, 2013)

I asked for a day off and he reached across that cherry wood desk

Put his hand on my shoulder

And set me on fire.



At first I wasn’t sure of the smell

What it was—

Now it’s painful, obvious.



At home the stables too were burning

The horses, pawing loudly

At the creaking slats ready to collapse



Four horses and the smell of that rising heat.

Even burning, I couldn’t get close

And anyway, something told me it was too late.



I kept trying to forget the morning

I tried to sleep

But the bedding caught fire,



My sleeping wife, who was always too cold

Burst into flame like she’d been waiting a long time

For something to ignite her.



I remembered speaking with her that morning,

but the way she didn’t move

Made me think she may have died weeks ago.



Outside the window the stable collapsed

In a startling of fiery moths clawing updrafts

Landing on the house, the field



Setting the smoke above

In a reflection of its own orange glow

Like some terrible mirror.



Everything seemed so damn dry

And my thirsty hands had already began

To tighten into forever-fists



Blackened with rage, or loss, maybe heat.

The last damp bit of mind considered my boss

And how avoidable these ashes



How tinder guilt

How resignation pyres.

How little it takes



When trading life for paper

To ignite us.