Having sealed himself in the stainless steel cocoon, he breathed freely. The knocking grew ever fainter, those forever out there no matter.
β
Driving us home from Luigi’s, she wheedled our thoughts on the red sauce. Not having time to consult, we nevertheless agreed to lie.
β
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.
β
Graffito:
Not-cutting is cutting
I know it’s bad
but I don’t believe it
β
Dancing to “Nowhere to Run” conjures the aroma of basil in late August, chicken on the grill.
β
Step off the bus into a snowdrift, the squall the whole of existence for three minutes.
β
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.
β
So often, laziness gets mistaken for pain.
β
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.
β
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.