This week in poems 6/26-7/2
Orange Slice Opener
It’s okay now, in a manner of speaking. In a room, working to distance me from my own fevered projections in a way that’s maybe 5% working. What’s true relief in any day that feels more test than day? Dear Visions, I hope this prayer finds you well. Please don’t.
Failed by Lamps
How to explain the fool way I’ve landed here. More coincidence than confidence. The exact figures are unknown. Or so you say from the mineral birth of my origin story. Full throats, empty bellies. Such is the pride of our nation as turn inward again, stumbling to the river not to drink but to piss. A little further still, my friend. What am I driving at here? But I am only driving to drive, which is maybe the heart of it. Cold french fries in a cardboard container. Heated argument over pastrami on wheat. We sail forth at every moment, you know? Into the what, I don’t know. But it’s a little further. A little further still.
Dark Arts, Dark Hearts
Warm opera at night. Falsetto in the garage. I dreamt we could collect ourselves before the dust collects us. But oh well. I know we’re here, I just don’t know where that is. The debate is a program all to itself. And this remains. Words on paper. Eagerness at the ends of the world. As life gallops on, its forms infinite, its purpose unknown. I’ve left myself on the floor. Not because I like it. Though I do like it.
WARM ORDINARY
What needs remain, remain poorly hidden. No matter. We've come all this way regardless of the rivers we ended to get here. I knew something once and happily that day's behind me. Sunrise over a baked mountain in the middle distance. All these energies discover their own reckoning and release on whatever timeline suits them. I was there, remember? I wore my "funeral suit" as you called it. The sky could not be bothered to go beyond studied indifference. Well, we'll know more when we know more, as you also say. I expected nothing less and now I expect nothing at all. Orange slices in a plastic bag. White lines chalked on grass.