Category: Auburn

the woman in the crosswalk

she broke into a smile that said
seeing me was the best part of her day
we were passing one another
in a crosswalk on campus
I was sweaty after a long walk
listening to poetry in my headphones
but I could hear her say “Hi! How are you?”
as if she’d been waiting her whole life
for my answer, as if it would contain
the secret to unlock something
she desperately wanted to reach
I answered back, as you’d expect
neither of us breaking stride
as I reached the sidewalk I turned
watched for just a moment
as she walked away
I still have no idea who she was

15 April 2013
Auburn AL

2 Comments

boomslang snake with flap-neck chameleon

my ex-husband’s drug dealer’s roommate
took me out to the desert one April night
I want to show you something, he said
we walked out through the tall saguaros
they looked like those guards you see
in all the TV shows about London
the ones that nobody can get to smile
over here, he said, look beside this boulder
the moon was bright
even at night the boulder cast a shadow
at first I couldn’t see anything
then I caught some movement in the dark
it was a lizard. a chameleon, to be precise
a flap-neck chameleon moving slowly
almost invisibly, across the desert floor
that’s cool, I said, thanks for showing me
that’s not what I want to show you, he said
and then just like that, out of nowhere
a long bolt of even darker shadow
shot out from the boulder, jaws wide
in a second the front half of the chameleon
was gone, sucked into the snake’s mouth
its back legs flailing wildly in the cool air
I stood there like a stunned mullet
caught completely by surprise
that’s how fast things happen, he said
before you know it, half of you is gone
the other half left there, helpless, flailing
we walked back to the car, not talking
why did you want to show me that, I said
because everyone should see it, he said
so they don’t waste their time

14 April 2013
Auburn, AL

Leave a Comment

her eyes

are mostly green
with a bit of gray
they can pierce
all my defenses
slow down time
make the air warmer
turn the night to silk
remind me why
all of this was worth it

13 April 2013
Auburn AL

Leave a Comment

what I learned in the storm

last night in the storm
I was on the back porch
singing a song in Portuguese
trying to keep my ukulele
out of the sideways rain

at first it seemed the distance
was insurmountable
that there would be no
coming back from such
separation, such time

but children are resilient
even in the face of collapse
and love often manages
to stitch up the wounds
caused by life

last night there was thunder
and lightning and music and —
as on so many recent nights —
I felt like it would all be OK
like the next good thing is nearly here

Leave a Comment

Puddin’

they’re in a nondescript kitchen
in some soulless office building
dress shirts, ties, one in a sportcoat
the other is eating, always eating
people say watch out for the quiet ones
they’ll get you
but here the Loud Man reigns
leaving behind him a trail
of dead Nicaraguan cabbies
and a string of junior high kids hooked on oxy
it’s a dog-eat-dog world
Staten Island takes no prisoners
asks for no quarter, offers none in return
Los Angeles is no better
this city of fallen angels on bent knees
under the lunch table, pressed into service
while the Loud Man arranges another hit
meanwhile the quiet one is eating, always eating

11 April 2013
Auburn AL

/ / /

Today’s poem refers to one of the best things on the Internet, the daily live-action comic strip Puddin’. The poem, however, is written as if Puddin’ were a documentary and its events really occurred.

2 Comments

this poem

this poem is a stand-in
for an earlier, better poem

this poem has been watching
from the wings for weeks

this poem sees the scenes unfold
the same way every night

this poem wants only a chance
to step into the light

this poem is not as raw or
as honest as the other poem

this poem, however
is more palatable to the reader

this poem knows its role
knows also that roles are malleable

this poem does not say
what the earlier poem said

this poem is not covered in sweat
is not moaning and sighing

this poem will leave no trace
on the– but that would be telling

10 April 2013
Auburn, AL

Leave a Comment

the wall

there are so many poems
        I’ll never write
no matter how firmly they press
        against my ribs
trying to burst from inside me
        into the heat I was warned about
I won’t write them because
        to set them free
would leave my softest tissue
        exposed to the open air
blood vessels turning red as they
        bathe in the oxygen
though I may be remembering that
        incorrectly
yesterday she asked if you had broken
        some structure inside me
like a load-bearing wall
        that keeps me standing straight
it would be easy to say yes
        but it wouldn’t be true
the problem was never a collapse
        but a slow erosion
like that beach on Cape Cod
        where I played as a child
now just a few feet of sand and weeds
        bordering a parking lot
to go back to the earlier metaphor
        I’m rebuilding the wall
no, more than that, I’m strengthening it
        so it will bear even more
and unlike the last one, my new wall
        has a door
so that when the time is right
        I can let myself out
or let something beautiful in

9 April 2013
Auburn AL

Leave a Comment

dada’s home

Jesse is
associated
with chance
not as art
but completed
through my own
subconscious

court reveals
its dissatisfaction
where artists cope
by making madness
push at understanding

Max used methods
to attack the mind
the mechanical
a violent emotion

HUDSON:
central dream
divine human vision
long tears
have long been

mired in the photogram
I use objects in the dark
expose
and create

8 April 2013
Auburn, AL

/ / /

This is an erasure poem based on one page of the program from today’s Dada exhibit at Auburn University. Oh, and the title is a punning reference to this lovely but lyrically disturbing song by the Delfonics:

Leave a Comment

pineapples

pineapples grow on our pine trees
here where the birds sit atop the stoplights
singing Hank Williams songs
our dogs know how to count
some even understand English
and while you may have to drive forty miles
to buy whisky and beer
when you get there, the package store
will be playing Marvin Gaye
or Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
and when you get back
there’ll be a blanket on the grass
and laughter in the air

7 April 2013
Auburn AL

Leave a Comment

the captain

the captain does everything
with a gentle precision
an attention to detail that shows
in the way he moves his hands
the way he checks the lines

we’re floating on Lake Martin
talking about Tolstoy and mountains
and the best way to react
when you’re hit by an unexpected gust
he tells me to drop everything
stop trying to control it
and the boat will right itself

later the conversation shifts
to other kinds of storms
I say to the captain
in my experience
all you can do is keep moving
gather the people you need
stop trying to control it
and the boat will right itself

6 April 2013
Auburn AL

Leave a Comment

destinations

we take the trips
we need to take
on paths
we never knew
existed
not realizing
until we arrive
this
is where we
needed to be
all along

5 April 2013
Auburn, AL

Leave a Comment

66

when I moved from New York to Tucson
I drove across the country in big leaps
first down to Chapel Hill to visit friends
then over to Lexington, Kentucky, to visit family
then from Lexington all the way to Amarillo
twenty-two solid hours of driving
in a Ford Festiva with nearly bald tires
and a tape deck that broke halfway across
I was fueled by cheese & peanut butter crackers
and the desperate need to Go West, Young Man
as an anomalous kid who grew up on Nat Cole
I made my way to the highway that’s the best
but like most things I grew up dreaming about
the reality was shabbier, or forgotten entirely
there were a few half-open restaurants
selling half-remembered knickknacks
with those two famous digits
but the highway had passed mostly into legend
like Plymouth Rock or the OK Corral
so I pulled back onto the big beast 40
left those twin sixes behind me
drove toward my new life

3 April 2013
Auburn AL

Leave a Comment

beachhead

waiting on a bench
with the sun in my eyes
my hand slipped
off the rudder
this is the spot
where my boat ran aground

2 April 2014
Auburn AL

Leave a Comment