…by guest poet Shonny Vortex.
In my blue house
Everyone is I, I
Talking about themselves
In my blue house
Hearts bang on your head
With drum sticks
And stars twinkle
In the daytime
And fish swim into your mouth
So you can eat them
And flowers grow out
Of your head
And people have square heads
And people love squares
And a blue moon
Floats at nighttime
and a yellow moon
Floats at daytime
With the stars
A purple oval-shaped moon
Flies at daytime and nighttime.
And there’s a butterfly-shaped moon too.
May 18, 2003
Category: Book o’ Verse
-
In my blue house
-
A world of tears
a moment to mourn.
that’s all. -
Stacks of digital photography books
And a long line of enthusiastic neatly dressed retirees.
They're pressing toward the front. And now they're strip-mining the table saying:
tell me sell me
how to stop time.
-
trash
At every gas stop along the way, he pulls out trash with his wallet.
A scrunched up sheet of off-white paper
and a smaller one – a post-it.
Out, up for air and then he
bends over to close a hand on them
and pull them back up
off the shadow stained concrete where they fell.
He straightens himself out a bit.
He slaps his pants.
And then he pushes them back down.
Back down deep.
Into place. -
Doorway conversation
Talking with her about her brother's death years back now. And it's the first time we talked. She just had a kid first kid last month my son's almost four good guy big boy.
Their house looks the same even the table even the carpet and I tell her that. The house even smells the same. But you can't say the house smells the same. Or ask if the sofa's still covered in plastic.
I think of him often. I tell her that instead. I tell her he meant a lot to me, which is true. She says thanks. And then I use the word "maudlin." I say: "Sorry to be maudlin." But it's the wrong word. And that's what sticks with me later. It's not maudlin.
Her brother's dead.
-
Burble
Tonight in his sleep, Sam said:
“He wants a chocolate Gogurt
and to fight bad guys.”
He said it a couple of times.
Always like that — in the third-person.
And then he fell back asleep.
And I say:
Congratulations!
Enemies of evil!
Congratulations!
Gogurt people!
International chocolate conspiracy!
You own part of my child’s brain. -
Party time
He wasn’t very smart,
or very rich,
or very successful.
But he was six-foot-three.
And at parties, he would
slide up silent
behind his smarter, richer,
more successful,
better-looking friends.
Head to head.
Back to back.
And hang out for a while. -
Driving around
He said we're longing for a simpler time something easy refreshing familiar a malt shop.
He said the polyester backlash is still in progress.
-
She played that harp like it was a three-piece band
Last night I saw the best argument for 6 billion of us.
A musician so talented.
You don't get one so talented
if there are 600 of us. Or 60 million.
You need really big numbers.
So maybe that''s why.
Or at least that's why it's OK sometimes.
For example: Last night.
-
Dropping off my daughter on the first day of school
The hallways smell like paper and scissors and elmer's glue and parents roaming around inspecting the tile
quietly comparing notes amid sneaker skid boom.
This is America. We come here from different countries, from different cultures.
We speak different languages. But there are two words we all understand.
And those words are: "multipurpose room."