*

i went to the acme to get some chicken
because it was not really in the oven
it wasn’t even anywhere

on my way there i walked past a long gone supermarket
and in the parking lot grass was growing
in a series of grids
which i found very exciting.

i walked down a side street and i
walked down a main street and then
several more things like that happened.

it was late and there was a park with some benches
and i wanted to sit down and just not do anything else
but it was too hot.

*

this is for you,
it feels like forever ago.

there are things moving quickly overhead
i think they are clouds.
it is easy to think a gunshot is a bottle rocket,
or a car misfiring it is easy to think
that everything is a threat and that
there is nothing we don’t understand
there is no great mystery here
or else we’d all have magnifying glasses
and special hats.

i wanted very badly to swing something above my head
i did eighteen push-ups
i ate an orange popsicle
i took out the chicken
i told myself several jokes
that i will never repeat.

*

she came home with a tree under her arm
i looked at it.
she was holding it awkwardly and looking around for a place to put it.
i said what are you doing with that tree.
she said i am saving it
i said for what?
she said no. i am saving it. i am giving it a better chance.

i said in the living room?

*

someone once told me that it was very important to them
to be making history. to go down in history, to make things
that become historical.

i wanted to say to them look when you make history you do just that.
but i just sort of sighed.

i thought it would be nice for a giant amount of water
to come crashing down and carry them away.
or interesting.
it could be interesting.

*

i felt like i was beginning to feel alright.
i went to the roof with a beer and waited for the sunset.

i started thinking about things to see if they would come true.

i thought about being buried alive
i thought about being swallowed by a whale
and living there for a small period of time
and what that would be like
i thought about a giant flood coming and everyone being drowned in it
i thought about things descending from the clouds
to take you away
you in both the communal and personal sense
i thought about how it would feel when my dad died
and i thought about comparing situations to pearl harbor more often.

i thought about global warming and its effect on polar bears
about them migrating to land sooner
on emptier stomachs
and this increasing the possibility of polar bear – human conflict.

i thought that the perfect time for an enemy attack
would be during an area-wide power outage
i thought about bringing things on home
and competitive cooking shows.

i thought about the chicken that was cooking for dinner tonight
and rapidly descended the stairs.

*

a long time ago we hurled bottles into the sea
on a deck that was slowly being devoured
by the beach on a beachfront that was slowly being devoured
by something else.

we stood there listening to the waves crash and break
because those are the sounds they make.

everything was very dark.

there were stars in the sky.

here there are just these low-flying planes
and chicken in the oven.

*

there was a kind of bland despair
and the sky was filled with tin foil

everything crackled and hummed and felt buried
or just out of reach.

you asked me if i’d returned that package yet and i said no
i said i was busy investigating
you asked me if i’d gotten dinner ready yet
and i said it didn’t matter
i said you couldn’t even see through the skin of my hand.
i said i had noticed a thin circle of white flames
licking the center of my hand
for which i had no explanation.

you said you had no idea what i’d just said
but that you wanted to eat soon.

i said the chicken is in the oven.
it needs twenty minutes.
give me a fucking break already.

*

i felt an overwhelming urge to sit down
but i didn’t. i felt decisive. i took a bite
of my burger, and it tasted exactly
the way i needed it to.

if i was a detective i could get to the bottom of things
if i was a gunslinger i could shoot you between the eyes
if i was more efficient this wouldn’t be a problem

i thought about all of this as i cleaned the kitchen floor the other day
and then i didn’t think about anything
except how i’d managed to clean the kitchen floor.

*

i didn’t feel like making lunch because
there wasn’t any food in the fridge.
i walked down to broad street and then
i took that up to mcdonald’s
where i stood in line for a very long time
and in my head
a great speckled bird with teeth descended
from the clouds and swallowed everyone there whole

shrines were be built on the corner
and everyone stood around
like a fire drill.