aviator sunglasses
over baseball cap
it's not an interesting thing
to tell the world
you wish to control it
get out as many questions
as you can before they answer
it would be more interesting
to see you bite your fingernails
on a fire escape in the snow
Sunday promenade
it's that song again
about tattoos and drinking
on the roof
you don't even shop
at duane reade
you step back into myrtle
where the empanada ladies
sell cold orange soda
and the dogs all get
vaccines for free
the slices at san remo are
beginning to congeal
you step into myrtle knowing
the first three counting
crows albums are important
and the sidewalk
is like a jasper johns
and you treat it like sweatpants
and leather jackets
which hold hands and playfully
tell each other to shut
the fuck up
The salesman waits outside
this stillness
punches
in the blood
we fail to bury
what is still
this stillness
the silverware is oily
hair is oily
music becomes oily
when it leaves the speakers
the stillness
weighs down the drums
beneath the quiver
of a doorbell
that is a kitchen knife
rising over a block of
cheese
so well dressed
no hot water
no heat
no hot water
for almost two weeks
the pads
of the cat's paws
tap away from you
towards the door
the doorbell again
you look at your phone
you shiver
to your blankets
Empty spaces occupied
bloated between pockets
staring at the chair
this was what their lives
had been hurtling towards
since an assertive gesture
six weeks ago, thanks
from the beginning
it was never easy
by the third hour they were
consumed by a hum
like a car window cracked
on the freeway
and insular in its breathing
vibrating on low
molded into one
a stewardess
says "trash"
twenty times or more
i turned to the man sitting next to me
and a voice says
"excuse me"
that voice came from me
On the 4 train
a man rattled through my subway car
with a cane and a cup which
rattled more than jangled
he wanted money but didn't ask for it
he tried to pick my pocket twice
it's the first time anyone has tried to rob me
since i was 14
he was in pretty bad shape, mumbling
i just moved away from him
a couple puerto rican teenagers
laughed about my passivity
looking me in the eyes
perhaps they were 14 themselves
A moment
when the train slows down
heading into your station
and you preemptively stand up
and walk to the door
and then the conductor,
ladies and gentlemen, we are being
held momentarily by the train's
dispatcher. please be patient.
and the air conditioner hums
and you can hear michael jackson
in someone's headphones
and you are neither exiting the train
nor resting in your seat
just holding a metallic handrail
feet at angles
that inflame and engulf
wait
take a moment to think about that
it will only take a moment
there
Ultracom
thank you for calling ultracom, how may i help you?
divina, please
divina brown or divina rutherford?
uh... i dunno, i'll try either.
[holding music]
this is divina.
hello, we spoke earlier. i need help setting up my ultracom.
ok, we can hook up the machine for you, let me fax the form to you.
ok, thanks.
what is the make of the new machine?
ultracom t1e
i thought that was the one you were renting?
both are ultracom t1e
ok, but ultracom t1e doesn't exist. it must be t7e
it isn't. i'm looking at it right now.
i'll have to call you back in an hour. my technicians are out to lunch and i don't know what kind of machine we are talking about.
ok, and is this divina brown?
no. who is that?
i was told there were two divinas in the office.
no, just me.
Keep me around
more and more lately
i've noticed kids
running a few yards
ahead of their parents
then turning around
grinning, and waiting for them
they are like yo-yo's
swinging on an invisible
umbilical chord
more and more lately
i've seen old people
using canes instead of walkers
and the younger people
using canes instead of crutches
the cane
which we hardly saw at all
between 1998 and 2010
is making a comeback
you can tell what kind of underwear
a woman is wearing
based on her choice of footwear
it wasn't always this way
friends, in 2005 i noticed all the skulls
appearing on sweatshirts
and shoelaces
you see that less now
remember when everyone liked
pirates and robots?
well i do
At the registers
wonder about the women at food bazaar, that vainest of grocery stores
wonder about the ones with kids, grandkids
the ones with spidery hair, the worst english, overweight
staring into outer space, bored
between the register and the plastic bag carousel
surely aware that their younger skinnier counterparts have longer lines
the price of admittance
to smile at her and watch her handle all your groceries, to check her out
is only time
there is some reciprocal relation between the time one waits to pay for groceries
and the time in which the check out girl has been alive
and the old women see you come and go
come and go
arms folded, gossiping, getting paid
headin' home
Near Vinceworth’s wedding day
fill your house
but on what grounds?
fill your house with bees
that come to land upon your ankles
watch them there
above your feet
which rest upon the plastic dragon
who breathes water
in the plastic kiddie pool
yea, right there interested
in your skin?
yea
the world is nothing
if it isn't things that can hurt you
and those bees
they keep their stingers between their legs
you sit there high
yup
the whole gang is perfect
below the sun