1. flash
there's gold at the end
of the rainbow
idle leprechauns
tend it
yawning
because it's there
glamorously yaller
as the hijinks
of jaundice
the starfish with
all five arms
clamping
the gamboge in the wood
the fragrant wood
no particular thing
does it say
but a ting is imparted
unto it
with a thin fillip
2. columns
I presume says the
manifold oblivion
says the discourse
unbelievable says
the other way around
you're not my physician
why no replies the void
not hardly I'm the other guy
the wind in entrails
long after death the
cucumber salad left in the fridge
the apple of my eye pigmouthed
3. clipboard
have it right there
what's it say
look at that
you see my finger
what's that say
plain as day
you go no further
that's the roster
those are the acts
any questions maybe
right let's move on
I lift my page over so
4. the aquifer's revolt
here comes my guide
lad he says
lad says he
here's brackish water for you
pugh it smells awful aye
but cup your hand just so
be swift to drink
and here's the thirst
that's quenched outright
5. quiet
here's my flat she says
be here by nine don't come
half-past leave my dinner
beside my double doors
don't hit my garage
or bother my cats
I'll be sitting at my parlor window
don't sit breathing on my porch
the stoop's off limits
stare at my veranda all you like
any hour night or day
don't look at my chimney
even if it's smoking
come down here on my sunporch
with my bare feet on Astroturf
those holes really are for putting
watch me
6. the ad campaign
Parkinson's in the leave room
for the
mystic kids car in the
way over there
I say you hear me over there
the phone rings I says you
will come over here
and say what that
a pizza in the table
room for one more
7. bouncer
I'm sitting in the bar
it's late I'm having the drink
and pretzels whoa hey now
the pfeffernusse
with a flaming bowl
I couldn't go better
than any that
ask for better
than a raging bowl of punch
and biscuits and a cold night
with no any much trouble
see the mistletoe berries
over any hearth
and the blood-red holly berries
over my heart
8. kicker
what's that in any back pocket
red paisley
oh ache it
make me hanky-panky
it's a reserve concision
it's the nicety of wit
bone dry
I have a few dry days
to bone up with
here's the peccadillo
can we feature that
jelly jars with a dried residue
round the rounded rim
you lick at that
curiouser than a
cat unsatisfied till
Broadway comes down
to Battery Park
and sings to the sea
with a jack up its ass
o sea in the ocean
o veritable sealegs
here is the blessedness
that never is all wet
and for good reason
salt is the succor of the soil
copyright 2004
Christopher
Mulrooney |