
the heebie jeebies (redux)
this is about a poet who writes bird poems —
without birds appearing in said poems
mouth breathers and thirteen year old prostitutes often appear crying
artillery shots echo in the blue distance
the poet is a sketch artist of sorts
defining a lust for love in a criminal world
the spindle kids appear
congratulations — you made it past the needles and pokes
you’re in the fabric of gutter poets
enmeshed for eternity
she’s got pumpkin voodoo on the kitchen cabinets
the word piles are dense and are never really in focus
actually this poem is about a baksheesh for a back rub… huh?
see i’ve got this knot on my latissimus dorsi — the heebie jeebies, know what i mean?
and she’s says:
So I’m going to get Tropicana juice with my father last night at 2 am at some all night grocery store on Biscayne and 79th street, and I’m thinking back about the Hustler magazine I riffled through earlier yesterday morning. I found it between the mattress and box spring, you know? And I see this photo spread and think why do people send in photographs of their turds? The magazine has a contest to find the largest turd in America and people from all over the country send in pictures of super long spiraling turds in their toilets. And I think about the technicians at Walgreen’s — what are they thinking when gathering the photos into the sleeves when a half dozen turd shots are at the end of the stack. Do they show other people at the store? What kind of person mails this to a magazine? What kind of magazine wants this?
i mumble-mouth my way out
i got nothing to say

“The last definition of absence is the nonexistence or lack of. See how the of hangs there like someone about to jump off a balcony?”
— Victoria Chang / Dear Memory