Blog Archives

Glossy Magazines

6/16/2012

I suppose summer days
along South Boulevard
where it passes in front of the elementary school
were no hotter than anywhere else
along the Bible Belt
and maybe no quieter than any other small town
neighborhood
at noon in July
when kids like me were inside
away from the white ambient, shadowless heat
under which I rode home from Center Street
where The Bike Man lived
and steered my own up into the u-shaped driveway
toward a pile of glossy magazines, and,
kicking with one foot the pages while straddling the
crossbar
looked around the empty school yard
at living room windows
and the Antioch Baptist Church across the street
trying to decide
how to get them out of sight
to peruse and perhaps
to keep a select one or the other.
So I raced home and back again
paper bag sailing in the wind
returning to that same spot
even quieter and more empty
than before.

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Turtles and Snakes

6/16/2012

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pages flapped and fluttered in the breeze
and all seemed to know clearer than I
but only George declared in a loud cry
and another down beneath the tracks climbed
to where it lay on a concrete ledge
against the trestle’s round columns
while others looked behind and ahead
or listened for a train coming
though none did in the time it took
for the limp rag
to be passed up between ties
toward hearts beating and anxious eyes
there behind mounds of overgrown sand traps
and reedy ponds
said to be full of golf balls
but I guessed mostly just turtles and snakes

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The Freest 15-Year-Old Boy in Conway

6/16/2012

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Scott was a dishwasher
just kicked out of house and home, and,
knowing his rebellious nature
we all figured for a good reason
--the very fact that he worked a 40-hour-a-week job
during the school year
said it all
--that 150-dollar-a-week pay checks
--enough for a whole month’s rent
       in that old duplex on Donaghey Street
       where I used to throw papers
       for that much in a good month--
were all he needed
--the rest he spent on porn magazines
and the busboys went over to see him on Saturday night
--but mainly to see his porn,
and there he sat in an old Lazy Boy
zit covered face as round as those plates
shoved into the washer, all smiles
convinced that he was the freest 15-year-old boy
in Conway

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Put it Away

6/9/2012

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I'd rather leave all
those unfinished novels
--never afraid to start
I fear one day the story will end
so I'll stop where Sue finds her babies
from the closet hooks hanging
why weren't they more like
the neighbor children? smoking
strutting, shirts off, confident
two cocks and a hen in a barnyard
you take away my God
and tell me to use the Claude Glass!
and let me learn from Wile E. Coyote
his example of perseverance
A for effort, model Sisyphus
put it away for wise crastinus,
let be Aner Agathos,
sipping cappucino, distracted
or concentrating on
(though noon auctoritee)
his own thoughts and feelings

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She Said

6/4/2012

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I watched this
backhoefrontendloader
being driven
by a woman
just tooling around
digging
and piling

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Giant Steel Pipe

6/3/2012

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a giant steel pipe
hanging by cables
over the edge of a
concrete shell flushes
great amounts of water
foaming down ten stories like
a cascading stream like
a slit in the mountain like
a humongous faucet that
goes on and on running
like something
very, very small

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The Northwest Wind

6/3/2012

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out almost of
the 42nd gate
he knows, does
or just realized that
A.K.A "also known as" means
and what he is eats
the Northwest Wind
clear and bright, crisp
it bares itself,
clearly revealed
in the 42rd period
he hasn't and won't learn
how to learn, and
all occurs afterward
all unimportant things in time
like train 1-9-7-zero
up to the platform on a dime
7 more cars
--that makes 50

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