Look
I think you know
I may remove my products from your shelves
Because I don’t care about getting a profit
And the cash I’ve made
feels counterfeit
I’ll just be constructing a barrier
that’s the length of my arm
You walk past where my fingertips would land
It’s not your fault
Anyway, when I recuse myself from others
life reminds me
that I live a valuable currency
This has to end not because you’ve done anything wrong
But because I’ve already left
When you arrived
I poured disappointment all over the table
Drowned the doilies
Drenched the dandelion greens
The frenzy was silent
But the overflow soaked the silverware
It flooded the restaurant
I promise
That bottle got knocked over by accident
Found amid dry lowlands
along the Pacific seaboard
where no one ever doused the sand in sunflower seeds
during mornings bereft of peanuts,
when it rained water and
not snacks delivered by an Instacart driver,
this natural bird persisted
Despite an absence of lazy 11am cooing
couched in obscenities directed at the family,
the California scrub jay did not go extinct
it perched on
the Norwegian brown rat, however,
also known as the roof rat for its keen ability to climb
burrowed beneath the sidewalks
and emigrated to a nearby neighborhood
as soon as
pellets of store-packaged handouts disappeared
in an apocalyptic event
that the scrub jays could only describe as
…some other day
when that lady wasn’t there
I did not realize
until right now
that you
and I
have
known
each
other
this
well
for
this
long.
My friend,
It’s so nice to see you
I wanted to tell you that my heart broke last week because of some boy whose name I’ve forgotten
It was urgent that you know
Then, after I recounted the events to you
It was clear no one would need to remember
The man is now a story
He’ll be a note in the song we’re playing some afternoon
if anyone can recall him
He is, all of a sudden
of no value
That’s what friends do
Rearrange your perspective
Help you find where you stand
My friend,
It’s a better world you let me live in
It’s a better world
the man’s been sliced through three times
— and with reason
aloof is not a free pass
still he walks like the sun is just rising
I wait for the signal that’s coming
a hand shifting to his holster
a motion calling his horse
so, as the sheriff, I haul him to the station
before he’s stopped smiling
read him his wrongs
slam the cage shut
it’s just a fact though
the man’s a stag
he extends long legs in his cell
I keep expecting
to see his boots kick up dirt in a proposition
reminding me who runs this town
but the man is not trying to duel
he’s forgotten his hat and his drawl
and this badge will stay mine
i’ll continue to patrol 1881
not noticing
until way later
that he smells like a new frontier
Recent Comments