Watch this (new) space

I am slowly moving this blog to wordpress; the new url is below. Unfortunately, I am having to reformat the old posts. But as long as you're only looking at the most recent entries, everything will be fine!

http://thetemporaryarrangement.wordpress.com/

I see a few different options with this one...

...but decided to post it anyway: 

Wire

It does not spell out what happened to my brother

so I picture him twisted into the cable

of his own communication with lines crossing

and woven until strong enough to carry waves

through the doorbell of my house in electrical

impulses into the neurons in my body

connecting synapses until the old snake king

who lives in night stories and keeps night in a shell

swallows them and all the sparks are interrupted

as the power goes out his daughter arrives with

a tapestry she starts weaving and light slips

in more and more like a curtain on a line.

I Wanted To Call This 'Doll', But It's More Of A...

Catalog

The Cinderella Slipper: high-shine
heels turn you bibbity bobbity beautiful!

Would-be princesses, keep an eye on the clock!

Running 15 k every day has caused callouses to form on the soles of my feet. They are clean and slightly translucent like plate glass windows.

The Sexy Dress: maximum curve, minimum effort.

In flamingo, frond or knife with removable

silicone pads you will really add up in this!

Hereditary thinning of bone tissue means a certain tenderness in my hips and when I smile I can feel the calcium that is left coalesce and slip from rib to rib until tidy pintucked rows of Egyptian cotton  is left on my small shoulders.

Near-ly Revised

Can't recall if I've mentioned that I am trying to write about ten particular words that are often used both as a noun and verb. At any rate, the first one was called Near and I really hated it, so have been revising: 

Near

The rule is we all move to the new

suburb that everyone else is in

built entirely out of boxes

filled with the selves of our old photos

where the pictures are still chemicals

and labeled, everyone handles them

you can never be too sure these days

now that you too have oohed and ahhed and

given way without knowing what was

closer than your veins and skin almost

elegant the way it gets inside

like a virus.

In Honor Of The Bittersweet But Best Dream I've Had In My Life

Flash

In the dream I am supposed to be

in Spain under an old aqueduct

tunneling my way to a party

and run into you in one of those

dislocations that only happen

when we sleep and the car alarms slip

into all that we are not thinking

and that we touch there like the granite.

An Accidental Poem

Shift

The man at the airport told me

we are running out of spectrum.

Smart phones will idle

on night stands while we

in the interregnum of departures

and new arrivals

talk of how

China steals our secrets, the pros

and cons of kissing foreign girls on

holiday, the going rate for

soft shell crab if it cuts

like steak two seconds after

red turns a less virile pink

sticking to the deep fried bits

and leaving what we cannot eat

for the woman in the shapeless smock

come to put up chairs and clean so

none of our choices remain to be seen.

Mark

Mark

I need a souvenir; you

say fine and take an old car tag

straighten the crimps with a hammer

that makes blank tones, only beating

the metal smooth enough to pack

and carry on, to place under

the one-of-a-kind whorls of my

skin of my smooth uncalloused feet

to find, when unpacking, you were

careful not to scratch the surface.

Visit

Visit

I would say he is thin

as ginger but I don’t

know how thin exactly

that is. We buy it shaved

into jars with tight lids

the slivers clink against

glass and could be a toast

to themselves shaken out

with or without omens.

Touch

Touch

jets throttle windows, the metal
s-curves my teeth and bone
until aluminum

shows up in blue-white
veins and my face cream
rattles

Wait

Wait

Galaxies move away from us              

everywhere the line is long

wrapped like a dangly necklace

made of people dangling in it

who say they can’t wait to get to

the front. What that means is they do

just that and put up a small tent

outside the shop door with others

opting not to take a number

but rollerskate freely, nowhere

near interstellar space the wheels 

on their boots go faster, faster.

Scratch That

I'd thought I was writing poems about a particular set of verbs. But they are turning out to be more interested in parts of speech in general. So, no more of those for now. You'll just have to watch this space.

Fold

Fold

The rain dream again

nothing to hold overhead

except newspaper
its insides can be

folded like a boat
set at the pond edge
except the banks are

flooded. The ink runs
from its columns
society ladies

float from page one

report all formal wear

sold

the full page ad

shows their pixel

make up supposedly

translucent

they have not felt

like partying since

flash bulbs made them

crumple under

someone’s arm.

Now that we got that over with...

...something new. Pretty soon I will be taking down the Alphabet poems. But wait, there's more, albeit not necessarily in alphabetical order. What I am now working on is being called Near (and) Other Poems. I think. For now, anyway. 

Anyway, for now: 

Near

Outside we sense the natural law

in this town as it was first platted

houses by the river could snap

like a wish bone

on the hill the homes of the city’s

first families have stamped brass plaques and

protected designation: this far

and no further

expectation to move to the new

suburb that everyone else is in

built entirely out of boxes

weighing on us

photos and old clothes once lived in

when the pictures were still chemicals

on shelves, not even a negative

to resurface

with anyone’s fingerprints on it

you can never be too sure these days

by now you have probably touched it

oohed and ahhed and

given way without knowing what was

closer than your veins and skin almost

elegant the way it gets inside

like a virus.