then you start paying an ex-girlfriend for blow-jobs
started as a half-joke
over texts:
“obviously
i’m using you –
we’ve established
that redundancy
over the last year –
it only seems fair.”
plus she’s struggling to make it
with a kid
and getting her cna.
only reason she agreed
is because
she still thinks someday
she’s going to suck my heart
out of there
instead of another
mouthful of jizz.
i know better
tell her so repeatedly
bluntly.
but when you
enter a woman’s heart
through the front door
you can drive her
off a cliff
if you choose to do so.
standing in line
to buy a newspaper
i contemplate
this new
personal nadir.
cash back?
asks the clerk
as i hand her
my debit card.
twenty dollars
please.
three days now
the young praying mantis
has been studying the
topography
of my apartment
millimeter by millimeter
looking for an escape hatch.
his long front legs
end in filaments
thinner than
the finest paint brush:
he works them
out and back
steady measured arcs
like a
master fly-fisher.
i lean over
watching him
probe up the window sill:
he turns his
alien head
towards me briefly
then back to the
task at hand.
he’s got
more finesse
and grace of character
than any thirty of you
i’d hit
tossing a soup can
out my
third story window
sitting around after realizing the 19 year old waitress stood you up
think about
a light bulb
china
the moose
and the mongoose.
think about
the little hairs
on the inside
of your intestines
a rainbow
over algiers
the indolence
of your hands.
think about
the owl
the icicle
the color
of your throat
and the inertia
of sand.
contemplate
the parakeet
the five senses
this tumor
they call
the gift of life.
look around
it’s hokum
gum on a stick
a real
horse-suicide.
please
do something
with your allotted
37¢ of soul
besides lean against a fence
next to a dolled up
canary yellow fixed-gear
smoking a corn-cob pipe
like this hipster poof-tart
cocksucker
corrupting
my view.
genius
Really liked “please” & “sitting around after realizing the 19 year old waitress stood you up.” Very enjoyable reads…
This needs more likes.