2011/12/20

Here Is a Partial List of Artifacts: mirror, belt, half-finished 1040 form (married, filing jointly), mateless walkie-talkie, two blonde eyelashes, set of acrylic paints with all the red and yellow used up, buck knife, dog collar, camping tent (sleeps two), slivers of cut-up credit cards, ashtray in the shape of a naked woman, pen with teeth marks, bottom half of two-piece bathing suit, pill bottles containing unfinished courses of antibiotics, bank statements with the account number blacked out, maps of London, maps of Dubuque, sweatshirts with the mascots of colleges I didn't attend, flash cards for Spanish verbs (querer, perder, olvidar), Canadian pocket change, fork with two tines pushed together

I wrote today, I said last night at a Monday Night Thursday Night Pints, then paraphrased this: As for standard duh and daily suckagain: Obama signs into law detention infinity, it's not like power's torturing more, it's codifying what you knew they always did but pretended to imagine they didn't into what you expect them to do, which is what you expect to happen to you if you are disobedient (as it's expected you will be at America's serbianization), which is the motherfucking point of power. He is so reelected, said D. Yup, I said. K said, it's interesting watching the establishment go after Gingrich now. Do you think it's more animus or belief he can't win? L said, maybe the establishment worries Obama might lose and wants the most Obama-like to beat him? Yup, I said. Serbia? said D. I said, beyond routinizing as normal what we pretended not to know, we are also being told what, with the proper training and guidance, we will be not only permitted but encouraged to do. But not tomorrow, said K. Yes, said L, we have to be England first, right? Scotch is too fucking expensive for tasting like Nyqil, I said.










FORK WITH TWO TINES PUSHED TOGETHER

Nick Lantz

It's fast and cool as running water, the way we forget
the names of friends with whom we talked and talked
the long drives up and down the coast.

I say I love and I love and I love. However, the window
will not close. However, the hawk searches
for its nest after a storm. However, the discarded
nail longs to hide its nakedness inside the tire.

Somewhere in Cleveland or Tempe, a pillow
still smells like M_____'s hair.
In a bus station, a child is staring
at L____'s rabbit tattoo. I've bartered everything
to keep from doing my soul's paperwork.

Here is a partial list of artifacts:
mirror, belt, half-finished 1040 form (married, filing jointly), mateless walkie-talkie, two blonde eyelashes, set of acrylic paints with all the red and yellow used up, buck knife, dog collar, camping tent (sleeps two), slivers of cut-up credit cards, ashtray in the shape of a naked woman, pen with teeth marks, bottom half of two-piece bathing suit, pill bottles containing unfinished courses of antibiotics, bank statements with the account number blacked out, maps of London, maps of Dubuque, sweatshirts with the mascots of colleges I didn't attend, flash cards for Spanish verbs (querer, perder, olvidar), Canadian pocket change, fork with two tines pushed together.

Forgetfulness means to be full
of forgetting, like a glass

overflowing with cool water, though I'd always
thought of it as the empty pocket

where the hand finds
nothing: no keys, no ticket, no change.

One night, riding the train home from the city,
will I see a familiar face across from me? How many times
will I ask Is it you? before I realize
it's my own reflection in the window?


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