--YOU LOOK LIKE I NEED A DRINK

 

 

Another Way To See Me

Another way to see me

Is to take a potato peeler
Strip away each layer of flesh
Don’t mind the blood or mess
Just work your way to the marrow
Through the lungs and rib cage
And find my still-beating heart
Its fisted hand and
Upraised middle finger
Waiting for you

 

A Kind of Eden

I find you where

Water comes together
With other water
Where there is no tide
Only a kind of Eden
Verdant shore side foliage
Smell of mango in the air
Midstream eddies swirling while
Egrets hike up their skirts
Like skinny nuns afraid of getting wet
And then you  
Lazy as lost feather
Floating naked on a raft
Sun striping skin
Eyes to the sky
Asking, “What took you so long?”
 

 

Makeshift Merchants

We were the two white kids

Burned brown by the sun
Selling cucumbers outside of Albertson’s
Permitted because Mom was doing
The manager
If not half the clerks, too
We had cukes and zucchinis
The size of rolling pins
Heaped in a red wagon
Sometimes a granny would buy a few
Once or twice we ate half the wagon
Skins on, no salt
But what the hell
We were young and poor
But our bellies were full
And tomorrow was a moon away

 

Too Young To Ride

The man at the bus station

Said I was too young to travel by myself
Though he had no authority
He said, “I’ve got a car if you need a lift,”
Tried to take my hand, tried again
I was on my way to live with grandparents
I’d never met, my own folks dead
The third time he grabbed
I reached inside my boot
A knife attached itself to my hand
And went swinging like a whip
I didn’t know there’d be so much blood
Didn’t know I could kill someone either
Me just nine years old
And wanting to be left alone
Wanting a decent future
The same as anyone else

 

Blow-back

He is sticking words in you like
Hatpins through an eye
There is no air
The light is too bright
Tomorrow could be a hoax this time around
You’re thinking, Mother was right
He’s never used fists before
But here you are again
Enduring another blow-back
For whatever reason
You find the clock, hold your gaze there,
Wait for minute hand to twitch,
Begging it to
Thinking to yourself
Move.  Move now.
Nothing to do now but
Wait and see if midnight comes