It feels good
To bite your teeth down hard
On something that makes no sense
Is staring you down
In defiant cruelty
Or harsh ambivalence

Recommence

Reconvene, slot into the other life
I don't hang out in locker rooms,
I barely shave,
don't know the rituals, I barely want the space.

Old men, splayed in the YMCA, friends gone,
towelling absently, it scans peacockery,
so maybe my mind isn't fully formed. The part that could be,
sloughed off in the 90s, feet still frozen, muddy knees.

I'm not so sure of men, sure of myself,
you know, codes and all that.
What am I supposed to say I don't
care to waste speak, dead air can just be that-
we're passing through so many places this month,
what am I supposed to be bringing, sullenly staring
out of taxi windows,
baroque beauty, just jam for the brioche.

Continental clutter, I appreciate it maybe
as a stoner gag, if someone reframed it,
for the locker room.

There's clever.
          Then there's clever.

BEST PRACTICES

we could give so much up. chewing gum and privacy.

we could catch this wheel mid-roll and trap it in a borrowed

terrarium before we have to re-invent it. we could curate the junk,

methodically: all the first attempts, the righteous feverish ones 

in diorama display while the second shots – more humble – drape friendly 

in brighter corridors. in the lobby they’ll ask you to sit criss-cross 

on the floor, kiss your ankles to your tails, bow to the milk white antlers 

arranged in six point star and scrape the playdo off your paws

cast that residue offering high across 

the good architect’s

sunshine.

Almost

I almost couldn't make my arms swing or lift my knees. The left kneecap creaked each time I brought it up and put it back down.
But in my ears, the sound of a five year old asked why Earth is called Earth.
And in the field, a cat jumped across a trickling, just unfrozen stream, coming up a slight incline.
Distractions like these
detracted
the minutes
until it was enough.
Enough plugging, enough hopping over ice and mud.
When I turned around, the cat was hidden–just his head showed. And I was on the way back home.