The night before I left I
entered an elevator.
I.
Flying upwards into space or
pitching downwards, it’s all the same
Midway each dream the doors open:
Everything stops.
Suddenly the decision must be made: do I get out? Step freely
into nothingness?
Or remain, blind to the rushing air
the elevator / my protector
and casket?
I know, right.
The subconscious is sophomoric
in its metaphor.
II.
Before I left [...]
How could we bear to live here then;
These large green lawns spilling into curbs, winding roads
the flatness of it all
strip malls, Kohl’s, DSW
mailboxes at the end of each driveway
some with a little painted bird
Sweet mother of God I am 26 years old and
Hairphernalia is still here!
Best Cleaners still here
Ax Man Surplus and Eric The Bike [...]
Prologue:
We have always compared ourselves to ugly ducklings.
I.
After the swans had surrounded us
we headed home
Grabbed bicycles and adjusted helmet straps and
got back on the trail,
to land, smack dab eventually
in our kitchen
As if all of this had been nothing out of the ordinary.
I said,
“Did you put the cheese in the fridge.”
I said,
“We’ll wash those later.”
Plastic [...]
Watermelon is what we would mouth on stage when we wanted to make it look like we were talking, its
vowels and consonants conveniently aligned
just so:
Creating the illusion of babble. Muted. An artifice
of conversation.
Watermelon, watermelon.
Watermelon? Watermelonwatermelon!
The tongue curls, the lips purse. Oh?
Watermelon.
When it gets green like this in all honesty I hardly know
what to do with myself.
I’ll wander to the 88 bus stop
like a drunkard
scattering footprints like rose petals, running my fingers
along your chainlink fence.
I am envisioning diving into your perennials.
I am laying face-down in your lawn.
I’d like to throw
my face
into the divine leafy [...]