undergroundbooks.org - PS: Your Poem a Week w/ Philippe Shils

19.

3/12/2020

19.
Two Pear
1.
Was the
workday
carefree
as we were?
Is it the job of
each generation
to find the juiciest
half of a peach
and then throw
the rest away?
2.
I tried to demonstrate the uses of a peach the taste of a peach the superiority of the peach to the apple but could find only half of one that seemed right. I tried to get her to ignore the shriveled and manky side but can't remember if she did before I threw the rest away. Or was it a pear? A pear I think it was a pear. What was her name? Should I have married her? We moved in together. What was her name? We were quite a pair. Was it a peach or a pear?
3.
Goats are nibbling on
Lucia's shirtsleeves.
She's got no dues to pay.
We threw
a perfectly
good peach
on the path
so the goats
would wander
away.
4.
I was
nurtured
behind lead
My mother
was raised
beneath
peaches
#weeklypoemandpic

18.

3/5/2020

18.

War letters.

That afternoon I read letters that had been written during a war and collected into a book. They were rearranged as modern verse and rephrased in a current vernacular.

1.
Fancy paper huh?
The proposal of Sir Isaac
to Lady Gertrude is in grey
lengthwise within the linen.

We work our
Danburg forms daily
like we were taught.

2.
There is
money to buy

William
some chocolates
enclosed.

3.
So many of the
boys are sick
and shot and
missing their moms.
There’s boredom too.
We’re tired
as though old.

4.
Receipt:
4 pounds.
Don’t worry
about
repaying.

It was a weird form of delirium. There is a movie planned. In the movie soldiers are landing on a beach just south of a famous forest because one of the letters is from there.

#weeklypoemandpic

17. Empty Town Ship

2/27/2020

17. Empty Town Ship
A.
My kids went around a corner and were gone. Only a city was in the field. Buildings and tents. I didn’t ask the one man that came out looking curious about the names I called. My terrified children had heard me yell. I had to walk somewhere to make a report and by then it would be too late. The police would scoff. There was a man in a mask at a bus stop because of snow.
I awoke
afraid to
open doors. B.
Every day for years this neighbor took
pictures of kids getting on their bus. He said he’d give them the photos when they were old so they could remember. The members of his church thought it was so lovely. I went to his house selling charity candy and he said: we all end up where we are meant to be. I said: are you saying people in hell don’t know they’re there? He said: there’s no telling.
His walls were
empty
and very clean. #weeklypoemandpic

16. Going solo

2/21/2020

16. Going solo

When I sat next to the rock star at the restaurant
or just above behind and to his left I listened but didn’t
intrude. He was with his wife or his sister and some
other friends or helpers. When he was leaving and
as I was ordering dessert he said my name in the
way that people who don’t know me think it’s
pronounced. I complimented his shoes and asked
what I’d won. He said: nothing just saying hello. His
song As the Light Is was in everyone’s heads.
People think it’s religious but it isn’t at least not to
me.

#weeklypoemandpic

15.

2/14/2020

15.

Hikers

A forest of siddarthas
and the trees they're
wrappped around.

Wander the woods
and catch a glimpse
of the gardeners.

There's no need
to be the best
boat in the water:
you just need to float.

I've never hiked.
Well once as a college
traveller. A buddy and
I trailed along behind
goats. We whistled and
stole their bells. We

worried about the
shepherdess but she
never appeared.

My son said
'We'll win the rain'
Who wins the rain?

#weeklypoemandpic

14.

2/8/2020

14.

MVA

I crashed with a familiar
sound. Your first accident
I was asked? It must not have
been because it wasn't
a surprise. I leapt
out of the car before
it was hit. The acuity
of the stoplight’s grimy
backing was its own prediction.
I said to Felix later
that someone had tried
to kill me but had failed.
I'd met a meteor.
Earlier there had
been an eclipse.
I stopped on a corner
and admired its silent
machinery. Next to
me were two men.
One of them noticed
that we were standing
in a line and breathing
together. We got
bored by the moon
and drove for our collisions.
#weeklypoemandpic

13. Weather pattern

1/31/2020

13.
Weather pattern

My wife made us
go out in the looming
ice storm’s January rain.
The restaurant was
empty and warm
and the food was good.
There were
three people
at the bar and
us four at a table.
We were treated like
family arrived
bravely home.
Now everyone
is in bed but me
and the cat
has got out.
I hear tires
spinning
without traction
in the alley.
I was right
to spread the salt
on the front walk.
I was right
to have her
drive not me.
I was right.
The cat is out.
The wind has
picked up.
I was right.

#weeklypoemandpic

12. Laptop

1/24/2020

12. Laptop

The age of consent
for pictures is zero.
You wearing makeup.
You wearing cowboy boots.
You pouting past your bedroom door.
Whatever you’re doing
is what you just did.
Your sister can't say ok.
You will not say ok.
It's not about me and
it should be about you.
I'll take under consideration
that I did not have this to consider
when I was your age.
I was a lightweight.
You are a computer.
You have been documented.
I’m sorry Felix
for being unthoughtful.
I was unthinking.
My thinking was nothing
next to your thinking.

#weeklypoemandpic

11.

1/17/2020

11.
Klimawandel

What a warm winter.
There were occasional red ants
and unhoarded acorns amongst
the bursts of green shoots.
My son laid his hand on a rust
colored wasp that squirmed
sluggishly then flew heavily away.
Skudding leaves were
mistaken for butterflies.
We marched more than expected
and wore through boots.
If it had been colder we might
have stayed in, watched the news,
and noticed disasters unfolding.
By the time it snowed
and we came indoors
it was too late. There had been
missiles and murders
but we’d been busy outside.

#weeklypoemandpic

10.

1/10/2020

10.

Decisions to be made
1.
I’d forgotten she’d
lost her foot.
How had I
forgotten
forgotten.
How
had she
lost
lost it.
She walked as
though she had
her leg in a
coffee can.
The two of us were
being kicked
out of our hotel.
Broken windows
windows
and a big
mess.
Underwear and
liquor on
the piano keys.
Clear the room
she said.
There are
decisions
to be made.
2.
Beneath the
base of
each mountain
there are
spools from which
unreel all of
the ropes
for climbing
and for tying
placed there
in prehistory
unwinding and winding
and kept untangled
by uncertain mechanisms
of handlike machines
But we know
from victories
and deaths
that there
are still
decisions to
be made
#weeklypoemandpic