The regatta winds its way downtown
You are somewhere in the crowd on shore
On the other side of the harbor on a park bench I’m alone –
All this for you
I forgo a better view
so you can experience it alone
To experience it
alone
This is the way it ends I’m going to be
honest.
A low-pressure trough over interior California
will persist through Sunday.
Tonight and tomorrow the swells slowly weaken.
I have taken my celestial barge and docked
at Point Conception.
I must avoid prolonged activity
due to exposure.
look i’m a show you a single stitch
anything you can do in the car
well i just make it up
it’s still moving in the same direction
i have two eyes!
why does it know which direction it’s going
it just does, i don’t know
why does it know
i think it knows
sweetheart
here let me show you
you never go in the first, you go in the second. i’m pulling
but this one I’m pulling up
and back
see
i bring this around back over see it’s beautiful! i’ve taken the sash from the window.
you go in go in pull it through see
and you weave you weave you weave
it’s the hook one time go in go in
and this is my favorite part
erotic table design indefinitely i open
mamaw aline gave me popcorn balls
apples & oranges
when i accidentally kicked her under the table she kicked me back
in the shins
which at seven i resented something fierce
mamaw ruth gave me hamburgers pizza
bags & bags of candy
coddled adored & loved me
to death
gets frozen on your face
once you experience great physical pain
anguish suffering it’s subconscious
if you’ve been in physical pain for a time
anguish pain and suffering
are frozen on your face not yet
thawed
not yet melted
for some, that expression sticks
when they told you ‘go to god’ you didn’t know the door you knock
on a place where somebody hands you a new scared expression
they photograph it frame it put it on the living room table
kind of picture you imagine your dad has hidden away somewhere
of his time fighting a war he didn’t want
now there’s a picture of the remnants of pain frozen on your own young face
you’re the next cover model for National Geo in your sister’s photography collection
some bird with an expression of pain frozen on her face
not that you can’t experience happiness
not that you can’t smile for the camera
not that you don’t get why people are smiling
you can
you do
you do
you
just also identify
with that pain in others
before it melts as it
melts
you want to be part of the reason of melting it not
keeping it
frozen
there
like something stinks
a half-sneer
to ward off many a fair-weather friend
or suitor I suppose
who may mistake me
for someone who
smells something pleasant but let me tell you
whatever it is
it’s
how I was born
“What’s wrong with you”
“Oh you look so unhappy”
I was born with a look on my face
like something stinks
Now you mention it standing here so close
It does I swear Whatever it is
It does
I am a tree grown on your shore
even if I were cut and burned
my sticks and flints and roots and flecks
inside your mud and rock
churn
So dig this big crux
not even the sand
not even the sand
can part us
not even the wind
not even the wind
can part us
not even the waves
not even the waves
can part us
not even the shore
nor the sea
can part us
Good Manners
Courtesy bows genteelly. Respects urbanity, soft tongues
Fair words, regards love politely, embraces complacency.
Cordial honey-mouthed behaviour in easy-tempering civility,
Obeisance is all things to all men. Curtsies, nods, presses, squeezes hands
Salutes, hob nobs, pledges, kneels, genuflects, visits obligingly.
Mannerly with good grace, P’s and Q’s move to present arms.
__
Ill Manners
Discourtesy glowers at arm’s length. Looks coldly upon, snarls
Uncourtly precocious words, frowns ungraciously, rudely gives the cold shoulder.
Sullen saucebox frumps language in caustic, acrimonious cynicism.
Insolence sours tartness. Ogles, cuts, shows the door
Answers back, snaps, scowls, makes free with, sends away with a flea in the ear.
Brusquely unaccommodating beast, adding insult to injury.
It was a poor choice
to go that way.
Make better choice next time.