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Morning rain
storm
Who are these people twisting tongues in the kitchen?
Why are they laughing in my sleep?
Coffee pot empty
Boil water they’ll go away
Flood of night
toys
Musical gutters
Worship
graven images. TV’s on the fritz
In the desert
an idolatrous wild tribe
*
think more, some
more, think…
High wind
warning, thunder lightning
Hail aquaplaning commuters
Mudslides, limbs down
Highway crew, yellow parkas, orange trucks
Deluge at noon
Here pieces
slipping
If I could remember I’d see a whole life
But I can’t & I don’t
*
Blah,
blah, blah, jingle, jingle in my head
Memorial service, Ft.
Mason, 10am
Rain blowing
Prime Minister Tony Blair requests a seat beside Barbara Streisand
At Clinton White House Dinner Bash. Barbara Walters: “It Was
Fabulous!”
*
Over coffee:
“If you had job
9 to 5 you’d know what it’s like to try and keep a relationship
working!”
Walk in my shoes a couple months, baby, then tell me what kind of
job
I’ve got, exactly . . .
*
Back in town,
can we get together? How’s tomorrow?
“Free,” he says, one foot in his pants, the other leg dancing
blindly
When?
“Lunch”
(I drop gratefully to my knees)
Then:
“I wish I could help but I want to stay friends”
Could you explain that?
Then:
“I don’t want to get divorced until we get along better”
Could you explain that?
(It’s getting harder)
Then:
Double-booked, cancelled a song…
Then:
“Hey,” I shout through the naked bathroom door, “can’t ride you to
work. Sorry!”
(run out the door)
Then:
First clear day in exactly 7 days
Then:
Crawl claustrophobic through plastic playland tunnel slung from the
rafters
soaked in joyous screams of my son & the garlic waft of pizza
Then:
When you frame it you never know how it’ll look
*
Eat tuna on a
toasted bagel. Chew a stick of Big Red gum
Take “Democracy In America” off the shelf
Cosmos marches
down the hall with a trumpet. Obscene blasting
Feet cold, feel
like crying. Read experimental poetry book
What kind of language is this?
Can’t sleep.
Call a friend. Need someone to talk to
“Sorry,” she replies, “Too tired to talk”
Hang up needy. Go to sleep fearful. Fearful
Then:
*
Sexy makeovers
on “Sally” and coffee
Ocean wavering under salmon mustard grape light of Fall…
Long after
midnight the silent whir of clock
Position telephone on electric blanket, call & call
Relapse into
despair
You don’t work
regular hours, she says, again
I don’t
understand (we already talked about that)
Haven’t you heard enough?
Make life over
with a new doo & new wardrobe
What do we know?
Down the hall
the dog scratches, stretches
Maybe I’m hard on myself
Today maybe wake
up and lose weight, get rich, wake up history
Maybe if you
ask. I’m up to the task. Maybe you don’t
*
Here comes St.
Valentine’s…
Arrows & hearts,
hearts & arrows
(Go away)
Cherub slayer
muckraker dreamer raising expectation
Come back in a couple years with your enormous puffy pink innocence
& barbed weaponry & romantic resurrection
Come back
Broadcast
this tense strung obituary with unfailing strike
(Go away)
Point dipped in the dark night of the soul & a rancid shrug
“Sally,”
When bloody rouge spikes gracefully thinning affliction
Come back. I know what I’ll do
Now that I’m
strapped for the long haul & all
1/6/98- 2/14/98 |
