June 20-22

Finally
        again    the hour to submit
the soccer crowd's pulled on cardigans
& the empty lot is barking & the sapling's
dead, or a dead weed

Remember November when you feel unhappy
Recall correspondence, ponder a collect call

Some wore suspenders & like potted plants
tottered at their windows

Going up the chimney was easy
one carbon         one oxygen
met the stiff standard


*

New things become old
Sunday's parrot sat on the panel
while I watched the cat in the bushes
Feathers blue blew into the mew
cadence of billy-club-behind-the-back

The next day at breakfast it was only the two of them
Fred said "hush now" and kicked the dog

*

An incipient species of alligator
a five hour drive from water
Forever, shards of brown bone
a gunbelt, desperate men, blood tea
Wanting to crawl under the alligator
who's wanting to curl up to me
And high up on the rugged ridge, at home
a moth-eaten moonbeam aggravates the rear
Seditious soldiers wear bananas on their shoulders
(I keep some brown stuff under my nose)
Wanting to lip-gloss the alligator, alas
the moon sets its glass gently down on the grass.
It's an underdog kind of a story.

*


  Saturday, early noises     & comminglings
below
    her parents are coming, so
   I take out the compost. Down the   side
stairs, past the neighbours fly-
   covered turd     truly appalling
noises     roofers & groaning
   grounds & wilted leaves bequeathed
   to the ground

Then out for mayonnaise in the lovely
    fly-covered morning.

    Hello,     have a minute? I live up at

 HAND-PACKED LUNCH BOXES    get a paper
with my may-o     covered in miniature
     mental cases
         Thank You, no onions
(she is a large Korean woman with small breasts)

roofers with expansive chests, but at home
   no groaning

a hiccuping bird fans its ass for balance

           she's in the shower
the counter's clean    & the bed is made
      for mom & dad

*


    no man can race a base
ball

"what's his game? not baseball"


they eat a watermelon with a couple of forks

$25 haircut seems like    a lot   but     she said ok
       & now I'm waiting

the sky
      dribbles      out     of    a    g     l    o ve

   I know it's not that much, even cheap

cool
    afternoon alone       ticket girl cries "I'm looking for Tim!"

  "a hole where the rain comes in"

  he strides casually to the bag and waits

here she comes
    big    S    L    I       D     E

 under the big tree, where the rough
       dudes sit

well, just below it     me on the grass
                  & my green-skirted girl

*

Sure, it's romantic
   an apartment with piles of books
   two patchy blue spruce
& socks on the floor

In the drawers
           ammunition!

   the pun is
   stripped, stretched
over my head

red cheeks & grandmotherly giggles

turns away, fake out
    burning desire
scratch   the grass
knees     chock full
   of wanting      guys on a hill

and    this my     discipline
   birdsnest and wind     through
needles the new roof blows
    o   ff - she wants to fuck
me while I'm writing - who?

   it's delicious - but    into
the scrambling    pan - we made
  burgers     lifts her skirt, slides
me in     green     skirt