BYE EVERYONE!

Well, bye.
we would say well and then "blank" but
we've chosen to do the usual thing and just -
bye.

I'll miss you! I ripped the skin off my knuckle
and woke to the sharpness of old blood
in my nose

before I would type in one place and then in another
but now i just do the other, this.

I'll miss you!

Oh I heard that once in school. What is that? It is not some kid trying to be a hottie. It has something to say about my life. It is not some hottie. Hello it costs money. Hello. It is doing something real. And I will go to it now.

lockets

I enclose a window just for your face. There are lockets all over my body. 

In my railroad skeleton you perch at your position on my spine. If each archive of every person i have known perches on my spine, like birds on trees-limbs, than the weight is unbearable. Who carries a spine of birds? Who holds on to each weighty chirp and forgets goodbye? 

I’ll Carry With Me

Ever-lovin’ paw print
Ribbon rings around yr waist
Tiny plastic alien
Yellow cat, brown bear
Quilt heart, gold frame
Straw suitcase, and always

That picture of myself.

-----

What Prayer Beads

Long hair and
All my secrets
The wisdom of kids
Those same tendencies
Towards home.

-----

January

These are work poems
They collide
Night after night
That’s all it is
To be born again.

Keeps

Pickled herring
and soft broken halves.

Are they soft fish?
Are the notes bent?
Will the bones hurt going down?

CALL TO ARMS

Charge the cold, charge
The city and its powers

All the workwomen, their
Electrician counterparts, their
Immaculate craft –

The glass house dispatches
From the shore

Stuck and sailing we
Grovel for means –

Kosher dogs and escape routes -
City on the sea

Trading carpet strips for
Double sided tape, for
Needles and pins -

This is a survival story!

Bambi & Flower

We lie flat &
Dream up skills
Proficiency and singing
Making space & bed
Keeping up I want to
Keep up.

and from the end of the bench

i heard someone else's name called
i waited still
then stood to leave

Baby’s on Fire

Sometimes NYC’s All
Dotted Rage And
Being Stuck
Under The Weather
And Under The
Ground.

go on

to think about the room for everything that's coming
leaves space for this
to be only this

She

built a place for us to hang
paintings we didn't know we had in us.

though probably still not every day.

the 31st ending

i woke up this morning reeking of cigarettes i never smoked
a warm shower never felt better
everyone was late
i never ate
i thought i was doing great
until my parents arrived
they were irate

speed round
dad dropped the ball and it split in four
that wasn't the first time he swore
mom had a coughing fit and started hyperventilating
no time to stop
gave her some water
a cough drop
told her to get some air

12:13 and we were almost done
12:48 more help came
2:01 return to brooklyn
2:25 grab the cat and head back home

thought it would be the worst day ever
a rough start but a pleasant ending
and then two pals brought tacos
a stressful day with a splendid ending

We Are All Here to Help Each Other Be Who We Need to Be

No space backstage,
paid in pasta and red wine
stomping for gigglers
throwing tomatoes for performance art
This is a show we're putting on
Behind the pink door
for you, for your mom
for the faceless black of the darkened room
while we sparkle on a tiny stage
picked out in shining lights
we are more than ourselves then
we are absorbing light,
absorbing laughter
giving it back multiplied a hundredfold
We have been training for this
a long time.

But last night I watched my friends break up on stage
he played the cello, which he has never studied
and she wore what made her feel most like a goddess
he strummed,
she wiggled
he tapped
she reached for him
she looked out at us
well not at us but at the audience
whose hearts were mostly not breaking
and when she was done dancing
she gestured at him with her hand
'its time to go'
and he kept playing
and she rolled her shoulder and tossed her head
'its time to go'
and he kept playing
and she walked offstage slowly
leaving room for him to follow
and he kept playing
until she walked out of the room
then he finally stopped
and he left.

sometimes dance is beautiful
sometimes it's grotesque, sometimes funny
and sometimes it just is
and sometimes it goes.

EIGHT

we discharge our dreams in helium balloons

TWENTY-ONE

The desert will grind an anxious mind
to fine grain whispering sand.

THIRTEEN

Jamie told Susan to tell Amanda that I liked her
so we were going out, walking next to each other wordlessly in gym class
and then after awhile, just as silently, we broke up

i'm not gonna stop

NINE

Brown ground beef.
Remove to paper towel to drain fat.
Return to pan and drown with ketchup.
Serve over two toasted buns.
Play ball with crumpled napkins.
Wait until mom gets home to clean up.

who says we have to stop?