30/30 four nine

someone tells you
you need to be told
you look nice
the weather is quaint
this is when
it all changes
lets make up more
words to express
happiness
while the cats
stay inside
meaningless conversations
with customers

30/30 four eight

All you can do
is brew evil
i wouldn't have cared
otherwise
otherwise i cared
lets not make mistakes
or give shits
about other people
about their problems
their distaste
for their jobs
what else is my life
but folding t-shirts

Lets make the crooked lines
connect angry holes
orchards of smelly
thoughts perking
to the weather
the way bees
whisper makes me
self concious
i know i've done
something to uproot
your, solitary, shivering
under mushroooming winter
you are causing
global warming

I care about your safety
i can't promise you
once the weather
gets better
it will change
rain is everywhere
its in your sweat

30/30 Four five

Its noon
I walk to the L
Bills diner
that Motel
all so familiar
but not my
memory yet
the flags
on bodega
storefront
release themselves
let down a string
to me
we are blown
to a nowhere
beach town
in Oregon
I can hear Tilly
barking
at the kites

30/30 four four

[This is a poem I wrote on February 11th, 2014]

(Is that cheating?) 

I don’t want India to change

I want to tell you this

While you stand in front

Of a mirror

Pulling and poking at your

Puffed flaked landscape

Tell you (like a boyfriend)

That if it were up to me

“I wouldn’t change a thing”

and you’d believe me

because it wasn’t your mother

saying it

30/30 four three

the Lighthouse

The way there
close eyes
board an Athena Air
flight to Athens
say my prayers to Zeus

Get on the metro
to the port
observing the locals
no need for a ticket

Ah, there she is
board Blue Star Ferry
get coffee
thats mostly milk &
sugar, sit on deck

When my island
opens its arms
hugs the boat in
I hand my luggage
to Jimmy whose waiting
or Kostas or Katerina

Take off my shoes
walk by shy waters
edge mostly sand
then rocky path
houses and stairs
more beach
the shrubs catch
ankles and the stone church

I feel like I am going
backwards in time
chasing sunset

At the lighthouse
I feel the powerful
spray of ocean
slapping against rock
and melt with the sun
into the horizon

under standing

30/30 four two

 Poetry Project (Atel tribute)
"there are too many people for anyone to be needed"

Stacy Szymaszek reading
ants on the churches
wooden floorboards
gravitate towards  
the cracks

to wish you were
to know you are

the shadow
the footprint
and also the dirt
under the shoe

30/30 four one

One poem a day
two slacks
day job
the scissors we swallow
rubber band hands
can't let go of anything
jarred fears
to end it all
the campaign:

An Island
An MFA program
A ride in an unknown place

I quit my job
I quit my job
I spat in their face
I never again asked permission
I never again needed to explain
Have a not nice day
Have a not nice day
Goodbye Good buyer
Thankyou more
It's free today
Everything is free