Westbrook

28May08

As I whisper
don’t hold back
to what might be cilantro
the wind plays two leaves
against each other,
like dogfighting dragon flies,
and my enthrallment is
your father.
Very next day
I pass him on a map
in a forgotten book,
the pages turned sleepy
from his tight command.
He asks I relay:
I come back in everything
new, only left
to find more for us
to learn.

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We’ve been approved (Great News)

28May08

Now that the bank has loaned us a home,
the bank has loaned us two cars
and we’ve borrowed careers
with our borrowed degrees
and the loans could get called anytime
and our checks to the dr. for kid no. 1
precede bills for kid no. 2
and our socks, select thoughts,
locks of hair, packs of cards
are not ours, and may [...]

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Fulcrum

28May08

Between the cucumber
and pickle
is vinegar,
the grape and raisin
is sun.
Citizen and criminal
just crime, or a frame,
Homemaker
homeless
a door.
Between devout
and fanatic
is the method of death,
old and antique
just an eye.
Lyric and poem
the intent of a song,
conqueror
conquered
a fight.

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Tell your sister

21May08

He spoke unto me:
praise Him not for that which could
just be goddamn luck.

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Greenpoint, Brooklyn

19May08

Austin to Brooklyn
the van feels light
as if something has gone,
someone
then back again.
White borscht, golombki
still flush in her face
she ascends,
guitar and pilot
chasing her scarlet wake,
no reentry.
Nothing is where she belongs.
It goes like this:
tank full,
she lights a fire
that burns us all
long and quiet,
the van rolling indiscriminately
forward.

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The guys on four

16May08

The guys on four
swing clubs made of composite
marketing bullshit
in their cubicles,
say things like
jet skiing in the rain feels like
a thousand needles in your face,
marketing doesn’t work.
Save three months salary to buy a ring
worked. So did
renting is throwing away your money.
Maybe high performance synthetic
moisture wicking
fabric
is all you need to
win,
but then
this much I just know:
that hunting and [...]

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National Liquor

13May08

Guizhou, your rivers dizzy
the mouths of celebrated thieves.
There has never been purity.
Western boys wahoo piss for beer
from corner stores,
swollen from heavy lifting,
centerfolds.
The spirit of the Chishui,
a warm sixer of Pabst;
both dull the ache for pussy,
real friends,
reason.

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No Right Arm

12May08

behind a lady with no right arm
I feel rude, both arms swinging
to-and-fro
so I will ask her if I can load her car
or no I will not,
just smile, eyes above her shoulders
until I get it, that
some lose arms like others lose minds,
and it feels right to look,
to respect that for all our losses
there are still gardens, [...]

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8 More Weeks

10May08

- For Kelly, Mother’s Day 2008 -
Boxer’s arms
for ankles,
thick and worn
from the long season.
Taught skin pulls
inches from nowhere,
everywhere
your neck, ears
are pregnant
gorgeous
miracles
I love you,
Violet Beauregarde,
how you laugh
when I whisper my sweet
blueberry.

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Watchpots Never

08May08

Well armored crawfish
boiling alive
with ears of corn, potatoes
aches too much like news
to be celebratory.
Are these leaning towers of mud
that pock the backyard rivers of Houston
where suburban cray catch up
on far removed atrocities
and think
still, we are free?
Chimneys that as a boy
were snake markers,
could never get too close
or we might fall for
forever
now seem
like sensible places to hide.
I [...]

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