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Like you, I was coerced into crafting my own
Head from a bundle of sky, clouds of perception. Like an onion, my head, I am peeling it plum Down to the center where my crisp intentions & my harsh attention & latent vague memory Dangling by my fingers in a silver chain net All meet, noticing now how attempt & succumb Live on the same haunted block. Like you, I feel so Terrible for the guy or gal whose phone number Gets cropped as the fake digits on this one program Some made-up line interjected crossways right through The episode where one cousin buys a handgun As the other cousin remains still shivering In a hospital gown, like the drooped branch outside My bedroom window shakes, periodically Aroused by the wind, the same over & again. The phone number owner finds himself or herself Every half-hour or so rising up from what is Considered a most-prized comfort, pastel blue Chair, & shuffles across the stained linoleum To end the ring-ring-ring. This mess is all because An intern did not check the number to ensure It was not the least bit occupied & now We, each in our own homes, spend all day attempting To be present in what gifts us charm & some joy As the forgetful intern chews some bubble gum Oblivious to what trouble he delivered Unto others, mainly the one mid-waddle now Drawn ever-loyal up & towards the ringing Coming from the kitchen, neatly right on schedule & on the other end, you guessed it, me craving A voice, a good bit flustered, every bit as kind.
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Do not blame me for this
Thousand-volt hummingbird. Despite its appearance In the front yard, it is Not Spring. Winter begins. A man hollers “fuck you” Over again, pointing At each of his nine cats. Car passing, passing thought. Thousand-volt hummingbird Too close to my parka. I am relieved lately Knowing my head is not Some felt satchel cupping The metallic orb of Consciousness, but rather It is yet another Object in the litany Of existence. The toilet Overflows to the hall. Brown river of muck, yuck. A pic slips from my clutch. A girl on some bleachers Leaning forward, knowing Nothing that will come. Just When I think I forgot The thought occurs to change Myself with a jelly Bean or two, the heart of this Thousand-volt hummingbird. It is beating so fast. These thoughts rush in & fade. A hiccup causes pain. Leave it to me to be blathering on.
Your advantage, though who needs a record Of any of this anymore. I can’t Read my own mind, let alone yours, far-off Far-out blue fantasy, um, galaxy Away. I hear the ding of the doorbell Pulled from its white plug way back in the year 1999, a year some others Remember with much more clarity & Fondness than I. I tend to remember I wrapped my nipples in cheap cellophane. I could not let you witness what I was Becoming—part aardvark, part back-up third Baseman, one-part optical illusion Covered in soot. This was before I knew You but also before I did lose you. “And that is how I have cherished you—deep inside
the mirror, where you put yourself, far away From all the world.” -- Rainer Maria Rilke A self-portrait is hardest to locate in a place. Otherwise difficult to render. Be it Beijing or the Smoothie King Center. Your charming local deli or a dark corner. I am prone to distraction. Often via the beautiful or the gruesome or the disappointment. Often a thing covered in fur. A frame cannot contain it. The reverberation of the aluminum reflection forced upon me here. I am chased by a sense of deterioration. I am a half-filled human mask. As in, the person I encounter each day will not, has not, will not always be me. Or I melt away. That old dull argument against the ordinary, the opposite of fear. The mirror calls me out of myself. Or perhaps it beckons me towards the deepest pit of myself. Induces a sort of trance. I peel off the layers of my apparent dome. Like the rinds tossed into the trashcan. A symbol of the poverty of a great raw longing. I know I shouldn’t look, but I do. Up against the embarrassing nakedness of living. I am smudged with makeshift habits & blurred desires. I stare into my fish eyes, my little nose, my antiquated teeth, the dent. O to translate my radical deficiency into something else. To swap ordinary living for the spiritual quest. To jot down my dreams each morning. Otherwise, I witness & then it is gone. The boundaries of the dream contain an image & whatever else might coincide. Conscious, self-conscious, subconscious, unconscious. Knitting socks out of the hair of the dogs. Attempting to capture the lesser-known qualities of light. Drowning myself in the tub my grandmother died beside. My grandmother & I shared more than the genes for diabetes. I am distracted by human relationships. Even with the dead, even with myself. Badly handled objects scrubbed anew, fresh granola in the cupboard. Till the age of three, I was a perfect little girl & then the family discovered my ragged inner emptiness Which I would like nothing more than to fill. Yesterday I strolled out
To the barn to get something, the drill Or maybe that pink putty, it turns white When it dries, & the window was black, buzzed. Overnight, two hundred Or more flies birthed in the barn & then the swarm swarmed the window. Thoughts, these flies, headaches, pandemics--they sweep The psyche, the window, this noggin, this nation. I woke to a nuisance I didn't earn. When I flushed the toilet, the sewage rose. This is what I've become, squatting, shitting On paper towel in the garage. Suddenly it begins to snow. I don’t know how to say it, but The cashier at the grocery has begun To harass me, comments on The length of my cucumbers, the girth Of the chicken breast I buy For homemade dog food. Today she called me a skank, in question Form & even worse, the shelves were still Bare of toilet paper, matches. Still I can’t blame her, remembering what I said here earlier About thoughts flying, the headache Of a pandemic, unknown Accident or incident prior. I zip up my coat & move on. Once outside of an alehouse In Muncie, Indiana, someone mentioned Last night’s Sugarland concert. I said, “I heard they really brought the house down,” A stupid joke, my goof-timed cheeking At the tragic collapse of the stage. A guy said, “My cousin died in that collapse.” “O fuck,” I said, “Punch me. Free of charge,” but he refused. Surely, countless other accidents & incidents I have forgotten, folks I have disrespected. I have lived a long time, made many moronic maneuvers. Thomas Edison originally believed The phonograph a tool For recording voices, memos to mother, meanderings best Kept secret, though necessary to let Fly from the snout. Not songs, no, he argued. Songs are already recorded elsewhere, have to be found. Here’s how dumb & pathetic I am! I still take one of my wife's hairpins To clean my earwax, though I know Lee Gerstenzang invented the q-tip in 1923. Hi, you must be a robust person.
Self-worth is something, Grasshoppers elsewhere in the tall grass. I like myself. I Continue being just as nimble & punctual as I Can be, one who never dares leave My home without hands & feet. Last night I dreamt about The Jerry Springer Show. Specifically two memories. In one, a dwarf leaves Her husband for a guy named Hambone. In the other, Gwar, That messy metal band finds itself Confronted by parents Whose kids keep ruining the laundry Insisting on fake blood For customizing their t-shirts. This morn, I remembered Jerry Springer was once mayor of Cincinnati, Recorded a country album, earned A law degree. Some Things always change, are possible. Roast-beef-colored car! This string of seashells on display illuminates
Life. Look how delightfully it resists being Interpreted, interrupted, relegated. Slippery, was merely pieces once, haven’t cinched To maintain a singular space. We can all see The friction invested in their surfaces over The centuries. Much bounces off my string of seashells. Humor, agony, ecstasy, boredom, doubt, self- Referentiality. Say God put these shells Here. You would be wrong, interesting premise, but You would be wrong. One cannot glance upon these shells Without maintaining his or her own preference. We all misbehave for our own purpose. A kind Of collection of what I was thinking at each Given moment. This one for when grandmother died. This one for the envelopes I dropped beneath The tires of the tractor. This one for the snake The redneck kid pulled out of Lukens’ Lake. This one For my first dislocated shoulder, my seventh. This one belonged to Matthew’s dead hermit crab. I Never cared if a seashell signaled a thing, more Interested in the next seashell I will happen Upon. You can feel this sort of energy grow. I was thirty-one & I thought to myself: This is a nice way of making something, a way To remember what I’ve seen in the crashing waves. Two unanswerable questions rose to the surface. Are we ever beyond the pulling? Do you think? Always seemed harder to surf without a surfboard. Failures of reference, shifty variables Near the equator. You & I both know I am Talking about something without saying exactly What it is, a fairly recent concern. I hope This will take my string of seashells to impossible Limits. On the other hand, it might just be this. First day on the bus, I couldn’t have been
More than six years old, yes, mother dropped me Off each day of kindergarten, baked in The loaf of her brown sedan, no A/C. A single seatbelt, mine. But then she flipped Jobs, from the Crisco plant to the psych ward & no way she was rising so early. So thus take the bus I did. Anyhow That first ride, no seats are left, & yes, scared I am halfway to hell. My little sack Of bones, my little sack of ham sandwich. My little sack shriveled upward inside Till the dang kindest cowboy to this day I ever met, a high schooler named Jude He lifted me without a word onto His lap, & no, not in a way creepy Sexual, or uncomfortable, no. It just was & I rode there like he must Atop his horse & my heart sequestered Its mighty pitter & my blue eyes brushed Off its patter. I saw it right there out The dusty window—the fattest turkey In the whole county. Knew it to be true. It ducked behind the truck Dad left behind. I spent today insulting him.
He had to argue. I banged on the wall with my bell. I entertained the thought. He ran into the road. I carried the smell of whiskey. He wondered aloud if the law had been broken. I distrusted the government, only briefly. He sympathized with the bug on my windshield. I sliced his thigh, got it over with. He misses driving calmly together. I developed a new tick. He wiped his hands on my pants. I was defeated by time. I've decided no more traveling
To the future, which was far Easier than shifting to the past Which was chock full of problems & trees. Personally I would love To catch up with the present. These gadgets I can’t properly swipe. These words can’t help but lead to Stark, untimely death. “No more dying,” Replied Frank O’Hara, who After saying did a bit of his Own dying, squeezed from the tooth- Paste container of life by what I Assumed for nine years was called “A doom buggy,” a mistake Frank might Return a nod, slight giggle. My mom She once demanded I eat as much As craved & act terribly. We arrived at Daytona Beach & I learned if a family Listens to a sad sack yap for some Thirty or so long minutes About a condo, or seven if Your pale child behaves poorly Enough, they’ll let you grab freely from Their rack of donuts, Slurpee® Machine, plus you will receive A coupon for a free dune buggy Rental. Of course, this happened after Someone done ran over Frank O’Hara on Fire Island, but Before it was said “Uh...no More dune buggies on the beach.” Simpler Times, my hair was thick like sand. |
You can call me a project-oriented poet. A big beam of obsession & confusion & delight shines down & I'm hooked for a bit. My two full-length collections of poems are WHAT IS WHO (my self-published MFA thesis at the Michener Center For Writers, 2018) & More Wreck More Wreck (published by Coconut Books in 2014). My most recently-released poem-project is FUTURE BARN, available for FREE both in PDF & audio form.
I'll post new poems every Friday from my forthcoming collection, I ONCE WAS SOMEONE ELSE & OFTEN STILL AM. I'd be honored if you gave it a read, a possible share. Thanks! ArchivesCategories |
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