FOURTEEN

I wanted to be taken in by something
so I took a saxophone
and chased clarinets around the field.
I put on short red shorts
and ran ten miles up and down hills.
I could sit for hours at the kitchen table
and sing along to the radio
absorbed in a geometry book
while my sister's friends giggled up the stairs.
I didn't know yet how to kiss or cook.

Fear Of

Reckon the name and the names
Not seated at some heavenly party
No, not grouped like that

In name, in face
Reckon the vinegar surge
Up chest and temple through –

The five thousand dollars
Death and debt and deathly debt

Fret not owner-death,
But the locomotive sting,
Heart it stutters, lurks –

Some don’t know it yet
But those who do will tell:

It comes to with a hunger, a holy drive
Clear-cuts the cliffs of comfort
Slips light through wood and skin –

To smell that voice on breath again -
My old man, old hand
Shake on through the doorway.

I'm Too Lazy to Practice the Things I Love Unless I am Forced To and This Worries Me Sometimes

tails and heads look up

moved among left behinds
thought best of intentions
the tour guide knew so much
he was not afraid of the sticky traps
but for us or for something not seen
he picked a strand from the ceiling
dangled in front of our eyes
he told us things we wondered about
like the glowing was from the worm's butt
and not the beads dropped from there
one by one
and like they were watching us
like we were watching them

choices

they say that i am but i'm not
so many suitors but not
there's only one that i want

"I'm At the Printshop Doing a Bunch of Stuff I Didn't Mean To Do"

"I'm still at the printshop. I can't believe I'm still
at the printshop. I've been here for 10 hours."

Oh. Motivation.