I Skipped “Maya The Psychic”
I raced home to tell you about
the production of Hamlet I saw tonight.
You would have loved it, or at least
you’d have loved that I loved it,
back when that was how things were.
I listened to our playlist on the way home:
“Supersoaker” and “National Express”
and “Stronger” and “The Ballad of El Goodo.”
I skipped “Maya The Psychic.”
Not because it’s not a good song
but because it sounds more like you
than I can usually handle.
Same with Hozier, who has new music out
and we play it on my station
which means every day
I sit there and listen and his voice
is really your voice.
Anyway Hamlet was fabulous
but when I got home it was empty.
/ / /
1 October 2023
Charlottesville VA
Category: My poems
First Poem At A New Desk
There’s an orange apron hanging
on a peg next to the sink, which is —
for no good reason other than that this
was never supposed to be an apartment —
in a closet.
I looked at it and imagined wearing it
as I make dinner for someone who’s
coming over for the first time.
On a date, I mean, but then I think:
If I didn’t do that, invite someone over
on a date, I mean, but instead stayed single,
perhaps you’d eventually come back.
I’m facing a blank grey concrete wall.
The desk came in a flat-pack box.
I assembled it with the included
Allen wrench, named after the
Allen Manufacturing Company
of Hartford, Connecticut,
the town where my father was born.
An Allen wrench is also called a hex key.
Will it, if properly applied, free me
from this curse?
/ / /
25 September 2023
Charlottesville VA
Describing A Satellite
For the Earth,
both hands in an arc.
A fist for the moon.
Gravity a rope,
unseen in the dark.
Palms up for the tides,
both high and low,
the hands raise and lower
as they ebb and flow.
The planet spins,
the pull taunts,
the moon is what
the water wants.
/ / /
20 September 2023
Charlottesville VA
The Eternal Question
what do you do
with an excess
of rhyme?
/ / /
16 September 2023
Charlottesville VA
This is a quasi-found poem based on a misreading of an Instagram post by Jenny Mackintosh.
Leave a Commentbarefoot singer:
beating the rain
to the basement
/ / /
12 September 2023
Charlottesville VA
floor-to-grass
relocation program—
“palmetto bug”
/ / /
11 September 2023
Charlottesville VA
I Wanted You To Know
I wanted you to know
I turned 50 today.
When I used to picture this day,
I imagined you with me.
We’d hug the guests goodbye,
close the door behind them,
put on some music while we
washed the dishes,
then curl up on the couch
to watch Vine compilations
until it was time for bed.
Maybe next year.
/ / /
10 September 2023
Madison VA
dawn breaks:
night bugs
still singing
/ / /
10 September 2023
State College PA
On The Last Night Of My 40s
On the last night of my 40s
I had dinner with my former wife
and my current sister.
French dips and Thai wings
in a 19th-century Pennsylvania tavern.
I talked with a friend about chess,
traded jokes with my son,
and listened to the crickets
sing through a gentle rain.
Tomorrow is the big day.
A half-century.
I’m not where I thought I’d be.
But I’m still here, and that counts.
/ / /
9 September 2023
State College PA
This is poem 50 in a series called 50 Days Till 50 Years. I’m writing a poem a day for the 50 days leading up to my 50th birthday. I’m going to try to focus on memories of my past, and the people who inhabited it.
Airwaves
When the Ford Festiva’s tape deck broke
it was all radio, all the time.
The Afghan Whigs & Goo Goo Dolls
& Blues Traveler & Tracy Chapman
& Alannis Morissette & Jewel
& Dishwalla & Deep Blue Something
& Coolio & Hootie & The Blowfish
& Oasis & No Doubt & The Bodeans
& Natalie Merchant & Melissa Etheridge.
Driving the meanish streets of Tucson
with a styrofoam container of burritos
on the passenger seat, coming home
from a gig at 2 a.m. to an empty apartment,
and later to a less empty one.
/ / /
8 September 2023
Charlottesville VA
This is poem 49 in a series called 50 Days Till 50 Years. I’m writing a poem a day for the 50 days leading up to my 50th birthday. I’m going to try to focus on memories of my past, and the people who inhabited it.
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