1. the blame
I fell off the teeter-totter
I was kicked out of yoga class
I drank the wrong stuff under the sink
I fell off the teeter-totter
I was kicked out of yoga class
I drank the wrong stuff under the sink
My cat was abducted
My parents were foreigners
My hands couldn’t keep to themselves
I threw something through a window
The news the next day read
Terrorist in our midst
I took the bus to Houston
I took the train to Hoboken
I took enough speed to fell a horse
They blamed it
On the imitation
Stratocaster.
***
2. bilingual
my dreams
could wallpaper
the Louvre
***
3. leah
I miss the names of your children tattooed to your wrists
I miss watching you shoot cocaine into your stomach
I miss vodka orange grapefruit and handcuffs
I miss spanking your wide muscular ass
I miss the holes punched through your bedroom door
I miss Taco Tuesday and you snoring softly
I miss watching football on Sunday in our underwear on speed
I miss cooking eggs for Pierce your son who wanted to play drums in a band
I miss the fact we knew that the next day might be our last day on earth together
I miss sitting on the barstool next to you smoking and making fun of our friends
I miss catching you on the toilet with your pants down doing the last of my coke
I miss your scared drug-addict eyes wheeling about insanely when I’d get pissed off
I miss your huge tits slopping all over my face as you rode my Jewish cock
I miss you telling total strangers how I make the best grilled-cheese sandwiches ever
I miss you smiling and laughing about how nerdy I look when I use my inhaler
I miss how jealous you were of that silly tramp Melissa
I miss hearing about how you whored for old men out of a sense of pity for them
I miss holding your perfectly proportionate feet in my grip as I fucked you
I miss the way you’d hide your works from me in the bureau drawer under your panties
I miss the cab rides where we’d antagonize the driver to no end until he kicked us out
I miss making out with you a couple of years after we broke up
I miss the utter despair of our union
I miss the fact we were not made for each other
I miss the first day we screwed like an act of desperation
I miss the guns tattooed above your buttocks
I miss teasing you relentlessly until it turned into a fight
I miss your clothes strewn all over the floor
***
4. drawing from life
in the back room of the old shingle factory
they draw furiously
and the model keeps running to the bathroom
to puke
and someone points out how poor the light is
someone else complains that the pose is too rigid
and yet another artiste resents that the model
is constantly running off to puke:
fuckin’ junkie!
there in the dusty back room
of the old factory building
where every Thursday night
they draw furiously
as if invoking
the wrecking ball.
***
5. let’s go camping, she said
my legs, a
landing strip for
mosquitos
face,
a strip mall
for spiders
I shiver
in the obscene
moonlight
eyes like
filmstrip, rattlesnake
theatrics
oh will you quit
whining, she
said
popping me another
beer
as the firelight leapt.
My parents were foreigners
My hands couldn’t keep to themselves
I threw something through a window
The news the next day read
Terrorist in our midst
I took the bus to Houston
I took the train to Hoboken
I took enough speed to fell a horse
They blamed it
On the imitation
Stratocaster.
***
2. bilingual
my dreams
could wallpaper
the Louvre
***
3. leah
I miss the names of your children tattooed to your wrists
I miss watching you shoot cocaine into your stomach
I miss vodka orange grapefruit and handcuffs
I miss spanking your wide muscular ass
I miss the holes punched through your bedroom door
I miss Taco Tuesday and you snoring softly
I miss watching football on Sunday in our underwear on speed
I miss cooking eggs for Pierce your son who wanted to play drums in a band
I miss the fact we knew that the next day might be our last day on earth together
I miss sitting on the barstool next to you smoking and making fun of our friends
I miss catching you on the toilet with your pants down doing the last of my coke
I miss your scared drug-addict eyes wheeling about insanely when I’d get pissed off
I miss your huge tits slopping all over my face as you rode my Jewish cock
I miss you telling total strangers how I make the best grilled-cheese sandwiches ever
I miss you smiling and laughing about how nerdy I look when I use my inhaler
I miss how jealous you were of that silly tramp Melissa
I miss hearing about how you whored for old men out of a sense of pity for them
I miss holding your perfectly proportionate feet in my grip as I fucked you
I miss the way you’d hide your works from me in the bureau drawer under your panties
I miss the cab rides where we’d antagonize the driver to no end until he kicked us out
I miss making out with you a couple of years after we broke up
I miss the utter despair of our union
I miss the fact we were not made for each other
I miss the first day we screwed like an act of desperation
I miss the guns tattooed above your buttocks
I miss teasing you relentlessly until it turned into a fight
I miss your clothes strewn all over the floor
***
4. drawing from life
in the back room of the old shingle factory
they draw furiously
and the model keeps running to the bathroom
to puke
and someone points out how poor the light is
someone else complains that the pose is too rigid
and yet another artiste resents that the model
is constantly running off to puke:
fuckin’ junkie!
there in the dusty back room
of the old factory building
where every Thursday night
they draw furiously
as if invoking
the wrecking ball.
***
5. let’s go camping, she said
my legs, a
landing strip for
mosquitos
face,
a strip mall
for spiders
I shiver
in the obscene
moonlight
eyes like
filmstrip, rattlesnake
theatrics
oh will you quit
whining, she
said
popping me another
beer
as the firelight leapt.
