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Black Squirrel Poem

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disorderly black squirrels / inhabit upper Michigan

Thumbs Up Jesus

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Good buddy Jesus./ Life coach Jesus. Enthusiastic// and optimistic Jesus, no cross/ or crown of thorns in sight.

404

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By the thousands youngsters swarmed into the streets shuffling aimlessly, many mumbling to themselves, heads bowed as their eyes stared fixedly at the plastic devices in their hands.

Garden of Allah

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(after Joan Didion) (after Charles Dickens)The car is guttering and at first I do not hear him clearly. The antenna is broken and the wipers are loud. he comes in better when I'm off the freeway. “We must forget about material things.” …

Nineteenth Century Noise

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The virtuoso tortures a violin/ in homage to Paganini.

love poem for the homeless man who was killed on wednesday night

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it was your hands—caked with years-old clay & quaking from too much solitude

Rent

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My real parents lived about 200 miles in the other direction from where we came. But long ago I determined they were too real.

September Morning

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They were carried out / over shoulders of running soldiers / naked bodies pass

The Sum Above

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The mandatory is not / your friend

Into the Wild Blue Yonder

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Then it got quiet again, the kind of quiet that fills a car even with the radio on and the highway ticking away and the corn flying past regimented and silk tasseled.

When again?

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will we begin again?We are a wheelFirst touchfirst kissfirst heatThey fade, disappear, come back again.Spokes in our wheel.When again shall we begin again?I hold you and feel myself spincaught in the whirlwind of thrill -the world, saturated with your scent.We hold each…

Hyde Confronts Jekyll’s Position on a Current Affair

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I would fly drones with hydrochloric acid sprays/ over their squadrons and watch the disfigurement/ begin. I love disfigurement...

Like Water

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I become a lake, a river, a stream, an ocean that will one day be able to move anything, anyone.

A Rich Future

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Also in development,/ the anatomically perfect robot/ pool boy and naughty maid,

Where I Live Now

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The young man is back again, solo,

Letters to Conrad

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Dear Conrad, If you cannot control your dog’s barking I’ll rig up a loud speaker facing the general direction of your house, and every time your mutt starts howling at the moon, I’ll start playing “It’s a Small World (After All)” at top volume on the p

His Name Is

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Larry lies on top of her, he kisses her, his lips, she thinks, are dry, but she prefers dry to wet because overly wet in the mouth is never a good thing.

Louis Belfast

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"You know, there really is a death of the heart."

All the Broken People

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We all// fall short and fail.

Don't Wash, Don't Tell

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Butch the Labradoodle sets some necessary boundaries.

Little Meadow Simms

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"I looked at this skinny, little female child, Meadow Simms. It wasn't only that she was small. Meadow Simms didn't look like other children. Her parents were hippies."

...And Nail

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For twenty-eight years, Cochran Baines removed a tooth from the mouth of every dead child that spent time on his table.

The Accidental Arsonist

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Henry yells at her when she lights cigarettes and candles. But this is her small secret ritual, her way of making good with the god she is no longer sure she believes in...

Squog

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I choose my words carefully, “Dogs love to chase squirrels, squirrels hate being chased by dogs. It’s a pattern that results in both dogs and squirrels being frustrated.”

Saturday Housekeeping

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but I pretend again I've kept the prairie/ out, have battled back the smoke and dirt

Welcome to the Dark Walls

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“No one ever notices everything: but sometimes it happens, when no one is noticing everything, everyone misses the same thing in the same moment . . ."

Little Women

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The place is buzzing with little women, all clad in black smocks.

Clarinet

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It’s beautiful to look at and to hold/ though true musicians would be appalled/ by the black plastic

Notel Nobel

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That was before Cohen died. Castro died. Castro Died should be a title by Samuel Beckett. Once I nearly went out to buy a bass clarinet just for the purpose of playing along with Leonard Cohen.

Running Wild in the Neighborhood Today

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The psychiatrist was a man who clearly meant to calm his patients, the students. You could tell by his sweater and his neatly combed, plumy hair and the wire-rim glasses he wore. But he was not good at his job. You could tell this by how bad he was at cal