Having sealed himself in the stainless steel cocoon, he breathed freely. The knocking grew ever fainter, those forever out there no matter.
Driving us home from Luigi’s, she wheedled our thoughts on the red sauce. Not having time to consult, we nevertheless agreed to lie.
Even during the first, fertilized moments of our love, the snide remarks she thought street-wise annoyed & bored me. So many words! Funny analyses of movies, hyper-noticing gestures & tones, me regal & remote in a Panama hat. It took a mere ten years to tuck into soft-shell crabs in Cape May then ride the silent train to Penn Station then materialize in her minuscule in-law apartment, Short Cuts on the screen, my buckwheat-hull zafu leaning against the red backpack. Oh to zoom again up the hill to Bigelow then swoop along the river then swing silently north.
Graffito:
Not-cutting is cutting
I know it’s bad
but I don’t believe it
Dancing to “Nowhere to Run” conjures the aroma of basil in late August, chicken on the grill.
Step off the bus into a snowdrift, the squall the whole of existence for three minutes.
She said, “All your sentences may as well start with I hate.” It hurt to hear, but I had to admit (though not aloud) she not only had a point but had hit my psyche’s bullseye. “My psyche” is a ridiculous phrase, but I do hate errands. I hate white sky & white pizza in equal measure. I hate running out of coffee & not writing letters & non-words like “tonite.” In fact, it’s fun to chant “I hate” & see where it goes. Feel free to extrapolate from there.
So often, laziness gets mistaken for pain.
His mother sealed
in a cellophane envelope
a tuft of hair from his first haircut,
labeled & dated it,
left it for him to find,
despite intending only
to tuck it next to his booties
& their hospital ID bracelets
in an A&P bag rolled down tight.
The downpour right now raps & pings the gutters, so for a few seconds we live beneath the corrugated tin roof of the lean-to where we huddled over a fire that kept dying. Aroma of wet dog. Outnumbered, out-gunned, we remained resolute & happy.