CURTAIN TWITCHERS
As I run the day to begin it
the sun comes up and I want to get out before anybody sees me and sees I have used up my quota for the day.
I think I can go out the front way once and out the back way the other time and no one will see me. Maybe I can sneak out two or three times in a day before all the curtain twitchers see me.
It is only a matter of time before the have a hot line.
I saw him going out again twice yesterday and three times on Monday.
People
coronavirus
TIM STALEY – 2 GUZZLES
2 GUZZLES ~ pronounced two ghazals
4.29.20
All this time I’ve been talking to myself:
meet me in the weightlessness between breath
The moon pouts and is unsure how to age
Which of our masks protects us from our thoughts?
Eyeballs slither like the sliding glass door
heavy like shadows against the curtain
A fleck of gratefulness comes at what cost?
which one happens to correlate to you?
All my actions grease the slipping of time
as manufactured love crumples the foil
~
5.4.20
So a part of your blood I’ve already
fast forwarded your best intentions
Your family matters because they complain
but inches below the water they glow
The spilled milk is 14 billion years old
the space time continuum continues
Like the Milky Way, be deliberate
acknowledge the itch, but do it slowly
Yo! how much have you paid per square moment?!
My stomach is my own Magnum, P.I.
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TOM MONTAG – from “The Woman in an Imaginary Painting”
from “The Woman in an Imaginary Painting”
As if to split
the world
say: this is
a real chair;
that is a
painting
of a chair
and of a
woman.
Say: I am
here, before
that which is
not here,
except in
color and
line and play
of light. Say:
that light
touching her
breast is not
real light. Say:
that breast is
not real flesh.
Read more "TOM MONTAG – from “The Woman in an Imaginary Painting”"JOHN GREY – 2 POEMS
THE TRUNK
I nudge aside some old poems
to get at the real poetry:
love letters from a former flame.
I’ve no idea why I’ve kept them
only that I’m a hoarder,
even of affection.
There’s something of nostalgia
to them,
like the Marvel comics
in very good condition,
or the copy of Sports Illustrated
with Larry Bird on the cover,
celebrating a championship.
The writing is neat,
the passion likewise,
nothing, I’m sure,
like the long-trashed missives
I sent in response.
Reading between lines is called for.
But, to be honest,
I find more neatness,
only it’s invisible.
From memory,
there was no great passion
between the two of us.
It’s what comes of listening to Yes together.
And decking ourselves out
in bell-bottoms.
But they’re part of history.
And, to my mind,
must be preserved.
But I throw in a few
more useless items,
bury those letters deeper
going forward.
It’s enough to know they’re there.
No place else would have them.
~
THE CIGARETTE LONG AFTER
A double downer:
I feel dirty as soot,
sheets smell like dumpster fires.
And here,
on a motel side table,
one cigarette burns a long, neglected ash.
No need to smoke it.
This room’s like a cigarette
with me cocooned inside it.
You and I shared this roadside hideaway.
Years ago.
Before there were flat-screen TV’s.
Before there was flat anything.
Now I lie on a lumpy mattress.
staring up at the nicotine-stained ceiling.
My teeth grind the grit
of what was once desire.
Read more "JOHN GREY – 2 POEMS"HOLLY DAY – BLUE CAR
Blue Car
The car appeared outside the house, as if by magic
dropped from the sky into a pile of snow, tire tracks obliterated by fresh snow.
A sleeping bag blocked the back window completely, candy wrappers
could be seen on the front seat.
After a couple of days, my neighbor came over and asked me if it was my car
if I wouldn’t mind moving it so that her nephew could park there. I told her
how the car had just appeared in that spot, and that I didn’t think anyone
had come back for it since its arrival, although
I thought I saw a couple of people sitting in the front seat very late the night before
hands frantically moving in the dim overhead light
but it may have been a dream.
A week or so later, a tow truck came and got the car, probably called by my neighbor
the one who came over or perhaps a different one entirely
the spot where the car had been parked was black and green with oil and antifreeze
dirty snow and a couple of smashed beer cans. I watched the car get pulled
backwards down the street, waited for a door to fling open angrily
in the car or in a neighboring house, but no one came out after the car
no one chased the truck frantically down the street.
Read more "HOLLY DAY – BLUE CAR"
Michael Lee Johnson – OPEN EYES LAID BACK
Open Eyes Laid Back
Open eyes, black-eyed peas,
laid back busy lives,
consuming our hours,
handheld devices
grocery store
“which can Jolly Green Giant peas,
alternatives,
darling, to bring home tonight-
these aisles of decisions.”
Mind gap:
“Before long apps
will be wiping our butts
and we, others, our children
will not notice.”
No worries, outer space,
an app for horoscope, astrology
a co-pilot to keep our cold feet
tucked in.
Read more "Michael Lee Johnson – OPEN EYES LAID BACK"