van floor: scuffed white Crocs
now playing: “Franklin’s Tower”
a great horned owl calls
///
Jason Crane
25 November 2020
Tucson AZ
Category: My poems
The Ballade of Billy Montana
an infinite number of monkeys are making a ham sandwich
later the sandwich is indicted by a grand jury
somewhere Sol Wachtler is laughing
meanwhile the jukebox is playing “The Gambler”
as Billy Montana speeds by the bar on his lightcycle
we all stopped dancing hours ago
in fact, nobody can quite remember where this place is or
how we got here & there doesn’t seem to be a door
the barman keeps serving us, though, so we stay
you’ve got to know when to hold em
and so forth
///
Jason Crane
20 November 2020
Tucson AZ
wildly toward the sun
let’s stop all this
clearly it’s not working
no one can say
we didn’t try
but it collapsed under its own wait (sic)
instead let’s make ready the soil
plant seeds & care for them tenderly
until something (new) & (better)
springs wildly toward the sun
///
Jason Crane
16 November 2020
Tucson, AZ
Oasis
It’s such a cliché even Looney Tunes covered it:
the desperate man in the desert, crawling toward water.
In the cartoon he usually dives into the pond
to find only sand where he sought salvation.
Me, I’ll be driving a minivan to the water’s edge,
and I’m fairly certain it’s actually there. At least
as certain as we can be of anything in these times.
At some point you have to ask yourself why you move.
What possible promise could await over the horizon?
Does forty degrees of longitude matter that much?
I’ll be the judge of that, says the little voice in my head.
I don’t trust that voice any further than I could throw it,
which is no distance at all if past is any kind of prologue.
“Go east, middle-aged man” doesn’t have the same ring to it
as the other, more famous phrase, but what the hell.
YOLO and whatnot. The tank is full, the nose is pointed
toward the rising sun. I have nothing to lose but my chains.
And probably some engine parts I can’t identify.
Save me a spot on the dunes.
/ / /
Jason Crane
25 October 2020
Tucson, AZ
the dharma according to Norman
4:14 a.m.
he jumps on my ribs as
I sleep on my side
I get up to pee, then
lie on my back
he settles on my chest
5:30 a.m.
this time he meows &
gently bumps my nose
we get up, trying not to wake Owen
I put on shorts & a t-shirt
beside the kitchen table, then
feed Norman
6:10 a.m.
three bells ring
I bow as I finish zazen
turn to find him sleeping
on the recliner behind me
he yowls softly as I scratch his tummy
/ / /
Jason Crane
5 August 2020
Tucson, AZ
the little things
Yesterday I texted you to tell you
I’d gassed up the car
The day before we talked about
joining Costco
I love it when you ask me if I
have thoughts about dinner
Or when we schlep our bags
over to the laundry building
We spot lizards along the way
or, more often, don’t
I’m not afraid to say
it’s the little things
The moments when we
finish one another’s sentences
The smell of tuna rice
(your own invention)
Text me when you get home,
OK?
/ / /
Jason Crane
20 June 2020
Tucson, AZ