I was a drunken soothsayer in the wilderness.
I was a distressed swamp master in the desert.
I was a fetid miser out to sea.
I was a tired goat in the field.
I was a limp ocelot on a branch.
I was a Great Red Spot.
I was a clanging drawer of silverware in the sideboard.
I was a dish on the stair.
I was a banquet of many different cheeses and fruit.
I was dry and dusty.
I was a road or an alley.
I was a chute.
I was a blood transfusion and a thirsty throat.
I was just a thirsty throat.
I was a mouth, a limb, a chimpanzee.
I was a child with autism peeing in the toy aisle.
I ravished.
I was a blinking pea pod on a vine on a stake.
I was a medium rare fillet.
I was a dry article on politics in the thick lecture hall.
I was a bottle of hand lotion positioned suggestively on the back of a toilet.
I was a little blood in the urine.
I was a springtime outbreak of cholera.
I was a stinging fever in the wet bed.
I was a disaster in the crowded spaces.
I was the despair of stretch marks.
I was a deck of cards wrapped in cellophane or tissue.
I lined the walls of your sarcophagus.
I wore down the lining of my esophagus.
I ate my children, I ate my children.
I was a dubious cable on the spine of a crane.
I was a span of time in the vacuum.
I was a god, I was never a god.

I bask underground.
I bask underground.

Builder

I am a whip

I glisten with pomp and blood

When you see me, I ought to be a tumult.
Large and in charge.

Bullish.
Brute.
Dastardly and masculine.


I would defy you if you dared to rise up against my loins.
My muscled neck and jawbone. My back.


If I had four bolts of lightning I would strike down eight men with machine guns.
I am great.

Storming.
I bend into distinct shapes, indicating my prowess.
It ripples, venous.
I ripple.
I drown you out with my immaculate voice.
Pure white and silken. A boulder, I am a boulder.

I was on the CTA this morning. I've kept taking the train because there are no direct buses from Belmont to Evanston.

On the purple line, there was a gentleman with a very offensive smell. It made me salivate thickly.

When I thought of cows, it was bearable. I thought of large, adorable dairy cows.

Infections.

Ear infections are the most naive infection.
Bronchitis is the most petulant.
UTIs are the most lonely.
Viruses are the most stately.
Athlete's foot drinks Keystone Light.
Gangrene drinks Newcastle.
Leprosy drinks 15-year scotch neat.
Ebola is suffering from culture shock.
Cholera misses his family.
Malaria came from a broken home.
Lyme disease was stranded on an island for two years.
Polio thinks fondly of your grandmother.
Cancer's father had a muscle car in the garage.
Dengue fever joined the communist party in college but now regrets it because it was a rash decision.
Pneumonia wears gray shirts.

Journal

dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary.

I had a dream last night that involved apricots and a fog machine in the bathroom.

dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary dear diary

6/9 haikus

1.
the cable stretches
an iterative statement
between two places

2.
in gentle twanging
there is a distant language
above the landscape

3.
and noiseless cirrus
go by and make no noises
whispering nothing

4.
and noiseless cirrus
an iterative statement
above the landscape

5.
in gentle twanging
go by and make no noises
between two places

6.
the cable stretches
there is a distant language
whispering nothing

Steppe

I.

You could have looked
if you wanted
at the woman's face, which was
the eroded face of a woman
who had spent many years
looking out
onto the steppes from
halfway up a mountain
and thought maybe once
or twice that
this was a desert.

You would have seen
her mouth part
as though to speak.
Instead she would
call mutely into
the airflow.

You could have looked at her
face as her mind passed
over the steppes, her gaze
smoothing the rough
branches and twisted shrubs
and sand
like a hand
over a tangled swatch
of new sheared wool,
or an eye following wind.

And you missed her
and you miss her
and you don't know who
she was and you don't
know who you are.

II.

You missed the steppes
and you were a desert.

You are, you know,
following her like a hand.

Like the airflow,
tangled and halfway eroded.

You missed who you are
for years and years.

And years like sand
in wool. Or an eye.