At the desk where the boy sat, he sees the Chicago River.
It raises its hand.
It asks if metaphor should burn.
He says fire is the basis for all forms of the mouth.
He asks, why did you fill the boy with your going?
I didn't know a boy had been added to me, the river says.
Would you have given him back if you knew?
I think so, the river says, I have so many boys in me,
I'm worn out stroking eyes looking up at the day.
Have you written a poem for us? he asks the river,
and the river reads its poem,
and the other students tell the river
it sounds like a poem the boy would have written,
that they smell the boy's cigarettes
in the poem, they feel his teeth
biting the page.
And the river asks, did this boy dream of horses?
because I suddenly dream of horses, I suddenly dream.
They're in a circle and the river says, I've never understood
round things, why would leaving come back
to itself?
And a girl makes a kiss with her mouth and leans it
against the river, and the kiss flows away
but the river wants it back, the river makes sounds
to go after the kiss.
And they all make sounds for the river to carry to the boy.
And the river promises to never surrender the boy's shape
to the ocean.
Mangled bodies litter our streets:
the trash of a recent time.
Hatred shines wetly in our eyes
and our hands slash with
undeserved fury.
We are all victims
and our killing, this murder,
can be justified.
This is our revenge. Our hate dims
with the release of blood.
Mangled bodies litter our streets:
we ignore their pleas
as we slip in their tears.
I can’t. Arguments and petty wars.
No money. A house with no electricity.
No food—though goodness knows we can survive
on very little.
No, I said to myself, it is better this way.
cast a rotund shadow as she placed a white hand on my arm.
Come down, dear. We can work this out.
I hated her then—that plastic beauty with perfectly red lips
and dark brown hair. She had no heart, I was sure, no brain.
So shallow. But it was her security being threatened and she
had to sound like she cared, at least.
I tried to pull away but she held on tightly.
Darling please, she said, don’t do this.
I pulled harder. I felt something give in my arm.
Now look what you did. Look.
She held my arm in her cold hands. Her perfectly lashed eyes
stared reproachfully at me as I looked over the drop again.
“Look! Mr. Potato Head
can balance on the play pen!”
off my hat and arms and stuffed them inside of my back. His
little fingers twisted and pulled
and I heard my wife
sob as the world faded away.
Cutting wind and brown hills
Telephone lines rolling beside
black asphalt strip
Naked branches starkly lined
in shadows of faded sunlight
Dull plastic, discarded, rattles over
frozen clumped dirt
Crumpled cans clank across
dotted yellow line
roll to rest in
stiff white grass
Brown paper bag flutters beside
black asphalt strip
torn edges wave and twist
brief spasms before long pauses
a winter butterfly
A curving line twisting beauty
Painter’s touch winding colour
Calloused fingers reached for colours
Musty yellows to the left
Shriveled orange in the other pot
A glass bowl sat on the tabletop,
facets reflected the captured red…
vibrant hot swirling dancer’s skirt red
Her hair swirled around her face
caught in the corner of her mouth
Guitars flirted with her smile
and drums answered her laugh
and remembered their colorful clothes
fabric played like an instrument:
bullfighter’s cape of the dance.
your retinas are shining: your pupils dilated
your epidermis is rosy: your hair, so lustrous—
i contemplate the allure of your flowing dead cells.
your eyelashes so long, so thick and so dark
you have graceful appendages—thin, yet strong.
you’re welcome. take these chocolates, they’re for you too.
open your door and pull out your chair,
my grammar is gone—my lexicon lost.
my neurons are drowning in a cocktail of hormones—
i think you’re talking, but i really couldn’t tell.
i straighten my collar and pull at my tie
i smile and nod and you ask for dessert
you sit and you talk, and i eat and i nod
i wipe food from my shirt and once in a while
i flash a big smile.
