Written by Joyelle McSweeney 
Art by Ira Joel Haber 

Published 2/14/2014

for Bradley Manning

bright bomb, would I were as lit up as thou art
for I am an assistant reducer for a reduction company
on my smoke breaks I apply reducing cream
would that I came in powder form
when mixed with aviation fuel, could separate
but mixed with gasoline, accelerate
slip the massy nozzle with my stream
lyse the rocky cavewalls like a dream-
drain punched in a wound and pour
out the fetal liquors: an ardor,  an arbor, a bower, an odor,
a puncture, a cincture, a spider, a skull
-bone-comb that splits my brain as I recline
on a black and oily mattress like a lie that lies
like all my fatty tissues on the outsid

Watch Joyelle McSweeney read her poem:

Joyelle McSweeney is the author, most recently, of Percussion Grenade(poems and a play, Fence) and Salamandrine, 8 Gothics (stories and a play, Tarpaulin Sky Press). She edits Action Books, contributes to Montevidayo, and teaches at Notre Dame. She sees Bradley Manning as a figure who makes visible, both through his own person and through his leaks, the intolerable damage wrought on this planet by the imbrication of military and digital space.
(Updated Dec. 2013)

Ira Joel Haber was born and lives in Brooklyn. He is a sculptor, painter, book dealer, photographer and teacher. His work has been seen in numerous group shows both in USA and Europe and he has had 9 one man shows including several retrospectives of his sculpture. His work is in the collections of The Whitney Museum Of American Art, New York University, The Guggenheim Museum, The Hirshhorn Museum & The Albright-Knox Art Gallery. His paintings, drawings, photographs and collages have been published in over 150 on line and print magazines. He has received three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, two Pollock-Krasner grants, the Adolph Gottlieb Foundation grant and, in 2010, he received a grant from Artists' Fellowship Inc. He currently teaches art to retired public school teachers at The United Federation of Teachers program in Brooklyn. 
(Updated Dec. 2013)