two poems up at pineapple war

so i guess just click this

well

i recently misplaced something that was probably important
in my hip pocket,
which i probably folded up
and put on a shelf. i am sure this was done with the best of intentions
i attempted to retrace my steps and visit all the shelves
i'd seen since i felt there was something important around,
but this is proving to be very difficult.
and no, i do not work in a shelf factory
as that would have been too obvious,
but if you were thinking about a library,
well, you certainly might not be wrong.

put your makeup on fix your hair up pretty

when lazarus was brought back
the stars went out
and came back on
like when you have to change a christmas tree light.

when i was younger, there were people who called that sort of event
“the electricity that binds the nation”
and i feel like i’ll never know why.

you should never even think about the icebergs,
for they are always hiding something,
and we don’t need their kind around here anyway.

i took two hundred dollars in fives out of the atm,
because it is happy hour somewhere.

the weather may change and the leaves may fall but this is not a metaphor

i asked her how things were
and she said things were colder
i asked her what she meant by that
and she said that things were a lot colder now than they had been around 9.

afterwards i got up, and brushed my teeth
vigorously.
foam built up and spilled out of my mouth
and onto my hand.
i spat, and it felt great.

later, once things began to change,
we sat outside on collapsible lawn chairs
and watched, as two children ran at each other
head first
from a great distance.

we are up on the mountain top we are preparing a dish with shellfish

sometimes you make me feel
like a stick prodding a gaping wound
in the sun
on pavement.

sometimes you make me feel like I am stretching very powerfully
and accomplishing little.

sometimes you make me think of rome
and the pigeons moving through the air
like a sea of so many marbles on the floor
and other things that have mass
and take up space.

if I am coming off as harsh,
it is because sometimes it makes me feel like I am breathing in cold air.

and if you go as patty hearst
I’ll go as stockholm syndrome.
and I won’t even tell them
that you used to have a 21 speed too,
because nobody rides mountain bikes anymore.
everyone is getting ready for the smooth ride up ahead.

we are out there on the streets they are repaving,
I am spinning my tires
I am stretching for my back
I am trying to remember where all the cuts
on my fingers came from.

rumblings of a sale on menswear

the survivors had gathered on the beach
near the fuselage
which was most likely on fire.

certain tricks of light were applied
the ocean seemed alive
and everything was breathing
as a form of coughing.

later they found spools of christmas tree lights
which were powered by jet engines
obviously.

these were strung between the clothes lines
as slowly,
very slowly,
couples began to form
into a muted line dance.

weeks later, there was still no rescue in sight

that night, from the jungle
a man with a limp was approaching the line dance slowly
without warning.
their faces danced in the lenses of his glasses.
in his one hand he held a sign
which they were struggling to read from a distance.

patricia

everyone sat around in the room,
listening to the thunder clap
on a portable stereo
with a plastic handle while
out the window and behind another
a woman
turned a very bright light
on and off.

as the election results came pouring in
nobody even noticed him slip in a tape
marked i never had a dream i didn’t mean
while everyone in the room saw something
at exactly the same time.

outside, what she saw as stars,
he saw as several low flying planes
while certain people standing around
assumed they were some sort of backdrop
from when everything seemed irrefutable.

dark was the night cold was the ground

when asked what he meant, he responded
"it was like your feet were in the icebox
and all the lights in the room were turned off
and not necessarily in that order."

there was a notice in the paper today:
a man was found
wandering the desert
in a dark double breasted suit
and baseball cap.
we could not comment as to if he preferred suspenders or belt.
he had been seen placing water from rusty spigots
into open or partially closed containers
and listening in on mailboxes.
he had been seen carrying a heavily annotated tv guide.
he had the bearing of a man
who had invested in a parking lot.

later, several german doctors
began to congregate.

patricia

everyone sat around in the room,
listening to the thunder clap
on a portable stereo
with a plastic handle
out the window and behind another
a woman
turns a very bright light
on and off
in the sort of pattern which is easier to see without glasses.

outside, what she saw as stars,
he saw as several low flying planes
while certain people standing around
assumed they were some sort of backdrop
from back when everything seemed irrefutable.

i spread my arms wide to emphasize the point i am making

later and after everyone had left the party
we thought about cleaning up but didn’t
because we were tired
also we had had a lot to drink
and were feeling what you could call frivolous
if you actually used that word on a regular basis.

in bed instead of having sex we talked
about what a great party it had been,
and how everyone seemed to have a great time,
and really enjoy themselves,
and how we hoped they had all gotten home safely,
especially john,
who had had a lot to drink,
and how we really are the type of people who know how to entertain.

it was at this point that several assumptions were shattered
when john piped up from the bathroom,
answering all questions
regarding his safe return,
and insisting that he woke up this morning on the floor of his apartment
and our country was at war, which was the same way
things had started out several years ago, or something like that
and that he wanted to know if we were still at war
and if this was what would happen every time he woke up.

we had a laugh at that and told john that he was just drunk
and had nothing to worry about,
and with that gave him a blanket and a pillow and set him up in the tub
until he was comfortable.

in our dream several soldiers were marching around carrying
planks of wood, thick ones mind you, on trays
and all kinds of things were being built off in the distance
along with elaborate fireworks displays
narrating the birth of america
which is probably in many ways related to a forest fire