This week in the PEN Poetry Series, guest editor Brian Blanchfield features five poems by Rodrigo Toscano. About Toscano’s work, Blanchfield writes: “Rodrigo Toscano’s forthcoming Explosion Rocks Springfield consists of eighty iterations of a kind of book-length system, a machine—as I read it—that runs class and labor and collective anxiety and grief through a single disastrous urban American incident, an event frequent enough to be generic, a lesser item in any news cycle. ‘The Friday evening gas explosion in Springfield leveled a strip club next to a day care,’ the journalistic title of each poem, resets the operations of an inquiry that moves in and around the news of a violent blast. These are five of the books’ poems, continually combustible at the limits of our untenable pressure.”

The Friday evening gas explosion in Springfield leveled a strip club next to a day care.

I remember the breeze right before…
Burs of—was it willow—slant-falling.
The gray sidewalk, schist granules, scattering.
A brown dumpster lid smushing its green plastic, sandwich meat.
A rat made its debut, but for a moment.

I remember an awning string’s knotted tip soft-thudding a windowpane
—tympani’s uneven beat.
The rustle of stray trash—bass strings, almost rising
—but never.
And the chopper, the chopper—spittletatootling, spittletatootling—
A proud boot landing on obedient asphalt.
The stern, uncrying chrome.
The flighty flames decorative gas tank.

I can’t forget the beryllium blue sunshades
—orange hued at a glance.
And the stars and bars, starched, pressed, bandana.
Nation Idol Gorge
But for a moment
Then
Boom. 

The Friday evening gas explosion in Springfield leveled a strip club next to a day care.

Spartacus sprinklers (top rail)
Serial no. 21809A
Inspector 480F
Jiangxi Quality Products
Night Hawk Importers, San Bruno, CA
Roman Roads Distributors, Phoenix, AZ
Port of entry, Tacoma, WA
Tankard 10179.03
Inspector 4201
ILO quarterly report:
Case study 1142
Tingting Liu, 23, female
I.D. 41732
Platform 12, line 8, station 4
Muscular skeletal paralysis
3rd metatarsal taped to 2nd  phalangeal
4th proximal splinted to 5th distal
OSHA Region 1 final report:
Incident 2267, explosion (gas)
Inspector 505F
Sprinklers inoperable
Logic Tree branch 20
System of Safety failure
Mitigation device
16 drill holes stoppered
Weld burs not filed
Citation: 29CFR.1910.159(c)(12)
Notes: inspector 505F on leave
DOL budget sequestered
PUB.L. 112-25
District 2, 112th Congress
United States of America

The Friday evening gas explosion in Springfield leveled a strip club next to a day care.

I remember the plume right after…
Orbs of—was it cinnamon—black-rising.
Vapor gray whitening shingle powder rain.
A dumpster lid sheered off a gravestone’s angel face.
A hawk’s claws claimed the stump.

I remember two spouts of thin flame, blue, making an X
—mind’s waking dream.
The hissing of gurgling plastic, supplicant—sick
—stomach’s inner eyeball.
And the bathtub, the bathtub—sittin’ pretty—sittin’ pretty—
The hysteric roof flopping on an unfazed floor.
The wise, ever-wakeful steel beams.
The cheery glass—beaming—everywhere.

I can’t forget that purple doorknob
—horny at a glance.
And the plump couch stuffing foam, blazing, angry.
City’s Final Chorus
But for a moment
Then
Shsh.

The Friday evening gas explosion in Springfield leveled a strip club next to a day care.

Spartacus Sprinklers (top rail)
Serial no. 21809A
Scrap metal yard F-2
Stripped steel tankard 28
Sampson Recyclers Ltd., Pittsfield, MA
Steelworkers local 4-12026
Smelting furnace 48
Slab beam rollout batch 81.2014
Semper Fortis Steel Precision Corp, Brooklyn, NY
Steelworkers local 4-200
Section cutting station no. 12
Steel cylinder hollow type 2b
Store & send department 4
Spirit of 76 Commercial Furnishing Corp, Slidell, LA
Steelworkers local 3-275
Sargon Sprinklers (bottom rail)
Serial no. 321911B
Sink coating station 12
Sanding unit 25
Seal testing station no. 7
Sprinklers standard specification 29CFR1910.159(b)
Station inspector 13
Sales packaging room H
Sort and storage garage 4
Second incidence of forklift crushing worker’s toes
Spirit of 76 Personnel Motivation Free Cupcake Fridays director, Chet Baker
Steelworkers local 3-275 chief steward, Marynella Fernandez
Section 5, clause 2 “Management shall comply with all state and federal standards”
Safety committee grievance no. 78: unannounced station rotations / inadequate training
Staff training regulation arbitration hearing 501.P.36
Sargon Sprinklers 1st annual wet t-shirt contest
Super Sonic Dance Club, 3rd Floor, Picayune, MS

The Friday evening gas explosion in Springfield leveled a strip club next to a day care.

I don’t remember the very moment…
Flashes of—was I daydreaming—Biloxi Bound.
The termite swarm at dusk, balling up, sprinkling.  
A skeeter swirling in its hotel pool—for the first time. 
A no-see-um bug popped out from nowhere—but for a moment—to romp.  

I can’t say I recall Cleopatra’s hairpiece flying off in a speeding four-cylinder vehicle
—Empire of the Great Somewhere, but never.  
And the flying fish, the flying fish—hither-flopping, hither-flopping—
The carefree palms, twerking, injured. 
The bald, unyielding sun, giddy.  
Tentative feet in knee high water, gripping.

Have I forgotten the name of that triple IPA—something like
—Rondez The Moon à la Batshit.
And the ample sized black polkadots—in my eyes, twerking, carefully.
Empire of the Great Somewhere
But for a moment
Then
Then

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Once a week, the PEN Poetry Series publishes work by emerging and established writers from coast to coast. Subscribe to the PEN Poetry Series mailing list and have poems delivered to your e-mail as soon as they are published (no spam, no news, just poems).