Beichuan the Assassin

31Mar09

Jianjiang river
undulates
to a deceptive cadence,
grinds her hips like Brazil.
Jesus, jumping or no.
Happy Buddha,
the man and not the dish.
Professors of geology, everywhere:
We congratulate you on
a most spectacular opening.
An evening of murderous reverberations.
Brought us to our feet.  Our knees. Our longest rest.
Cut-rate coffee,
great businessman of the East,
lead-based paint,
take note:
Every courtship, marriage,
the birth and death of every daughter
everywhere
is [...]

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In Queue

29Mar09

Netflix sent Gandhi.
I eat Cool Whip from the tub,
wishing I had faith.

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Heads will roll for this

10Mar09

3 dozen men
from Santiago
flew in for our pitch.
Said thanks, gave them each a flashlight.
Deals will be done.
The evening headline reads,
‘FAA to 36 passengers:  No Chile for you.
Matching flashlights cause airport scare. ’
There is always next time.

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Layaway

09Mar09

As long as it was from K-Mart and could be put
on layaway for 3 months I could pick out anything I wanted
at Christmas and birthdays.
This let mom make easy payments
that weren’t easy, could never have been
with dad’s salary, new Western needs.
School clothes, too;
Outfit after outfit, my faith placed in them to
make me cool. A suede [...]

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Summer 1993 (For Becky)

06Mar09

Tony Spatola’s cold hard cash
was sno-cone red,
wadded fives and wadded ones
drizzled medicinal grape.
Earning it meant 10 hour days
at the igloo, shaving ice and counting cups,
tallying styrofoam like there was an
accounting department, loss prevention, something to even lose
that wasn’t long since gone.
How we basked in fringe benefits like cavities,
juvenile onset diabetes,
the ability to mound ice flawlessly
with [...]

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