Single Line Saturdays 1.31.09

What color light will the sun throw today?

...
[y]

Single Line Saturdays, 1-31-09

He died upon impact, which is to say, he was lucky. 

...

[k]

Single Line Saturdays 1-31-09

I'll smoke your whole fuckin planet.

---

{q}

Working for a Hand

At my local grocer
At the end of aisle 9
Is the first time I saw her
On the checkout line

2 lemons to pay for
A stick of Old Spice
Olives to savor
And traps for my mice

Beep beep
Price price
Beep beep
Price price

The girl at the register
Was missing a hand
The customers after me
Won't understand
I think I'll make a scene to take the attention
Because you seem like a nice girl working for a hand

...
[y]

All I Ever Wanted

His father said to him,

and he said to me,

if you're gonna steal,

steal big. 

Steal

a car,

rob 

a bank,

hold up

a liquor store,

kidnap

a child

for a delicious ransom.

But

whatever you do, don't

steal

a wallet,

or a pack

of cigarettes.

Don't bother

with a watch,

or a TV,

or copper wire 

hanging off

an old apartment like

old spaghetti,

because

regret 

doesn't care

if it's a bagel

or a diamond.

It'll settle 

into you

in the same 

sinking way,

stinking like greed, 

and it won't love you. 

...

(k) 

Don't Pay for White Teeth

Kind of fingering the edge of the page
and pressing my lips against the window
before the train stopped
reminded me of one time in Magnolia.

I was a little boy. A very a little boy
and it was time for a cleaning.
I hate the dentist.

The waiting area, in my memory, was somehow smokey.
My
Heart beat fast.
A receptionist gestured to my mother;
My mother sent me on my way

I stared back at her; she was fingering the pages of a magazine.

"Before long" is an absolutely incorrect thing to say.
Time grows old in a dentist's chair.
After the hygienist finished her probing and prodding
The real dentist came inside.

He was a stupidly old man.
His beard dragged on the floor behind him down the narrow hall.
He entered the room and shut the door behind him.
He started talking like a fool.
"Dribbly-Bwibbly-Gibbly-Mimbly"
And some more of this and that
Singy songy old man banter.

I started shaking in the seat as he went for his tools
With his geriatric hand.
He was shaking too--
Like a rotten apple lost in a tree top.

...
[y]

Steam Dream (meme)

I had a dream

I was walking

under and between

loud legs, long for speed, steal for stamina

and you whistled and slumped

back in your saddle

and one of your silky dreadlocks drifted past your hairline,

parting your goggled puss,

like a skinny brown beak.

I told you I loved you

as your mount hissed and squealed

I can hardly imagine you hearing

me correctly.

---

{q}

Old Hat vs. New Hat

I've got a dumb lip-

a limping half of a mouth

like a stuck fish

succumbing to the hook stuck in it. 

It's useless-

It can barely hold a cigarette!

At the dentist's, 

I sat in a long chair

like a reclining stone covered in plastic.

A bib was strapped around my neck-

Bib is what he said-

I'm not kidding. 

He pulled rubber gloves over his hands

and pushed his fingers down

into the space between the fingers. 

He did it on both sides.

For some reason, 

I couldn't help but picture

blood dripping from the ceiling,

until the dentist made a joke, 

came at me with a syringe,

and told me to open up,

just like an old boyfriend once whispered to me

when I was still new to all of this.

Now, I am an old hat

with half a smile,

living the dream.

Sent via Blackberry by AT&T

---

(k)