"I believe in desperate
acts, the kind that make me look"
Both ways when crossing my
fingers behind my back in the street
where the traffic's terrific,
and I'm making a promise
that I know I won't keep to
talk with you soon about
Kant's metaphysics One reason after another in a multitude
of classic styles and miasmic
colors Stop and go emergencies
for any occasion and every
budget Vroom vroom vroom
See ya later, alligator All I want's to write more poems
to be a good husband and a
father and a teacher This lecture
brought to you by anxiety
over an interview Heading home
from my current
position/employ I think about the
people warm
and sleepy in their
houses The icicles dragging all our
gutters
to the meadows Snow or linoleum Is anybody happy Is anybody
torn in the talons of an
eagle, a red-tailed hawk through the eyes
of a storm And if anybody is, then can anybody fix it
Is anybody willing The situation's lonely and I'm already forty
Weirdly, the whole world's
right here with me Right here
beside me, but nobody's
home I walk to the store for a twelve
pack
of something, or light bulbs
or toilet paper, coffee for the morning
Orange marmalade, English
muffins Tonight we'll think
our faces off, and then I'll
do some sleeping Longer than I can
remember I've wanted to
amount to more than me, significantly
and anxiously, and not to be
a negative and not to wear a mask
This message directly to you
is a plea to hear back YOUR message--
any message you want To hear you in my headdress To see you
on my doorstep 3127 Manning Avenue, Cincinnati OH 45211
And when I pull your strings,
you can set me on fire
And when the Jawbreaker's
finished, you can
put on my shirt We'll blow each other's covers
then we'll walk the red
carpet into the rapture
we will dance on the
escarpment our arrival
a surge of inter-mangled
re-connection