Abduction

Abduction 11/6

I want to make a list of the things you’ve taken
post it on the fridge and leave a pen to check them off
as you find them and return them

But that list is too long to begin and what would go first
my brain, my heart, my arms…

The magnets are shaped like fruits and vegetables
little carrot bunches, radish, lettuce, tomatoes
the best one is the orange peeling itself to reveal the insides

It’s like showing a leg or lifting the hem of a skirt
and transmitting an important message

Palliate

Palliate 11/5

If we hold hands long enough
the lights will dim and our fingers
will start to feel like they belong together

Gunpowder

Gunpowder 11/4

The tea leaves are tiny fists
waiting for hot water to unclench

We sat on a bench in October
and talked about barbecues and fireworks

The fog rolled across the plaza
and the smell of fireplaces began

Americans like drinking and explosions
in parks in rivers at Disney World

Take this city and flatten it out
make it a rocky plain and farmland

Here is a house of stone
uncoiling in the mind into reality

Like one of those little black tabs
that you light and watch turn into ash snakes

Pungency

Pungency 11/3

His handlebars are wound with a pink feather boa
and he washes himself in the sinks at the café on Union

He smiles a lot and you see the bike more often
then you see him

The homeless smell like clothes stained with coffee
left to stale in the bottom of a closet

Like everyone smells when they first get out of bed
all hot breath and crusty eyes

Free Energy

Free Energy 11/2

Breathe in deeply and crack your spine
and get that rerun body high

I can talk about the colors pressing from me
a flame heating the sky

I am a tree with leaf fingers
they will drop and drop and be pressed into the earth

Will sprout into homes to live in

Mothersickness

Mothersickness 11/1

Let’s sit in the graveyard all night
and light candles for everyone lost

At sunrise we can collect the memories
and count out the candy bones

Take them home and rebuild the skeletons

Apparitor

Apparitor (Pope Lick Monster) 10/31

Right-hand man of the devil
evil goat demon thing with
slick-backed hair and hooves

Jump from high on the trellis
as the train comes and you
can leap through the window

Into another universe into
a space between heaven and
hell and maybe that’s the point

Maybe he is taking souls
is stealing people from Kentucky
for some evil purpose

Or maybe it’s all made up
a myth written down on paper
and in the minds of man