May 18, 2021

i guess i could…
use my morning pages time
to read and edit and rewrite and post
all the poems that have come thus far ?

maybe?

~~~

quietly track the purring
in rhythm with the caffeine beats
thumping [softly] out of these
shitty laptop speakers

the aesthetics you always thought you’d have
you surpassed with unexpected privilege
leaving you with the existential question

why?

~~~

and unrelatedly
why
does organizing
make me feel so much better?
.
. .
. . .
(i know why;
it’s because my brain is the opposite of organized.)

December 4, 2020

people say that scent
is the strongest sense-memory

but…

…damn

that first chord plays in my ears
from the first song on the Spring Awakening soundtrack
and i’m suddenly 17
trying to find a burger king nearby
(without a smartphone)
so my friends and i can gobble up
fast food veggie burgers
before/while driving
to what we nick-named
“nuclear reactor beach”

or

the first three blasts on the trumpet
on the Star Trek Voyager theme song
and i can feel the early autumn 4 o’clock sun on my face
from our west-facing windows
nestling in for some post-school entertainment
at ages 5, 6, 7, 8…

or

the entire album of Todd Rundgren’s
A Wizard, a True Star
makes me want to clean the whole house
on a Saturday morning

or

any Death Cab for Cutie
song
and i’m driving
late night
to and from Oberlin
keeping up a high school romance
vaguely long distance
independent
thinly masked sadness
and yet infinite possibilities