r a b i d
A rabid animal fell in love with me. I fell in love with a rabid animal. I had two choices, get infected or get away. But how to forget? So I welcomed the teeth and returned the affection. Friends disapproved. Our families said we’d die. Absolutely correct. Who won’t? And It’ll happen very soon. At dusk we’ve discovered an open table on a treelined street. Sip deeply. Talk in circles as the air conditioner rattles the trashcans. As the sun pinballs down the buildings. I got bitten by you, thank you. Didn’t see a doctor. Sought no cure. Saw you in your room. We kissed and went crazy and swam through thunderstorms for chow mein. Sang along with God on a tiny stage before a crowd of stupefied people. Your heart beat was 480 beats per minute, I heard it thunder over everything. I wanted to be your way. Let us foam now at our happy mouths. Tomorrow we shall be destroyed together.
n e w l o v e a g a i n
Out there. Foggy wilds. Stars slung low. Absurd on ridges. Air’s lights trembling. Warm person, cold night. Musical escape routes. Swamp gas. Hypnotize anybody. Charms swung clockwise. Curses lifted. The floating faithful. Rotating sky, seized, oiled, look at it spinning again. Mumble beyond a doubt. Ascend from a cat nap. Worry dissolves. Wait here. Blue time pops. Figure out the day/night. At least that. Other lives we could lead? None. Probably, I’ll be back in a blink. Wait here, approximately. Gears tumbling, balloons sucked in. Stone steps. Hands reeking of honeysuckle. Discovered great things in the grave of the sea. Smoking ruins. Nuclear grace. Your old telephone number. Challenged the chaperone. When there was just one set of footprints that’s when I broke away. Promise everything. Spiders or vipers, no to both. Life is not stored in moth proof cedar boxes. Birds swoop down and drop loyalty cards redeemable to get in my pants for free on the tenth try. Melt down black sand and fashion a cattywampus crown. Caught somebody telling my story but I wasn’t in it. Her eyes look like Italian folktales. Her name autocorrects to ‘rubble’.
p u m p k i n
Fearless with my cartoon shark mug, I have accidentally shown you people, my people, none of us are getting our security deposit back. Or our integrity. I have been re-reading. I have been corresponding off the record on official letterhead. All this time I have been sitting here thinking in the supposedly broken ejector seat. They closed the annual gourd catapult/trebuchet event because someone was killed by the winning pumpkin.
r u b b l e
Her Mickey Mouse wristwatch
grabs its junk twenty-six
times a day and smiles at me.