Farmhouse Model T

I'd talk about old movies
I liked when you nodded off.
When I said silent era
You'd start snoring and I'd notice
A ragged cobweb blowing like hair
On the offbeats of your breath.
It would cling to the pincushion
Headliner of the old Model T
Where we had arranged ourselves
In the backseat.

Knowing that it couldn't happen anywhere
But the farm on this day
With the sun freezing to the snow
And the freeze seeping into the shed,
I'd finally be silent myself,
With your head on my shoulder
And my head on your head.

On Valentine's Day

To Drudgery

Why must you wait with me,
Drudgery, while other noses are out
Smelling roses? Do I solicit you
With a promise of lightness and air?
Do you imagine yourself – unloved, an invalid –
To be fair?

Truth be told, I think you suffer
Behind your one-tooth grin, having bitten
Too often into that old wooden apple.
Would you be willing – if I treat you
With sweet vapors and brush your long, steely hair –
To go away, just for today?

Dream Poems

Two nights ago I dreamt about two dangerous guys with death in their eyes.
They would have killed me if I hadn’t manifested blind rage.
Last night my parents didn’t love me and I raged again.
I met a younger woman whose name I immediately forgot
And we got drunk on a mixture of water and rock salt. Water
Rained through the ceiling and spilled over the rims of our too-small vessels
And I kissed her mouth and found it thin and real.

A Détournement

I took a bus up to Boston this weekend, and in the seat behind me was a teenage girl having a loud and annoying conversation on her cell phone. I gave her a sour glance but she didn't seem to notice. I thought it would be funny if I had a microphone to hold up to her, so she would understand what it's like to be trapped in someone else's absurd notion of time well spent. Then I remembered that I did have my camera, so I took the following picture of her by holding it up over my head and shooting blindly behind me. The social ethics here are fuzzy -- I won't pretend to go into it, except to say that I felt guilty about being such a dick and I'm not sure I would have done the same thing if she had been a 200 lb. dude. Her expression (she's on the right): someone waking in a dark room to the buzz of a mosquito: