Glare
1.
It is not a sunflower but the sun
a scarecrow welcoming you into this silly poem
The humming bird's blue rinse of business
in the aftermath of a summer storm
It is not the rain falling from God's jacuzzi
It is not the wind shaking the catalpa branches
It is not those burrowing animals in Animal Planet that have their own reality show
It is not the chipmunk standing on a lawn gnome
who glares so that you might give him a plum, a peach, a microphone
for karaoke, he wants to sing a sea shanty,
the one about the mermaid who fell in love with a prince
the mermaid who gave her prince chlamydia
and the blossoms blister in the wind
2.
You still recall the porno video where the blond hitchhiker finds a barn
& nestles high in the rafters with his pants down. His penis
holds a half pint of milk, a cow moos in the distance.
The space between you and the lamp, the softness of the hay.
The stable boy takes a silver knife
tears carefully
his red shorts
as the hitchhiker sleeps
Tomorrow they will penetrate a watermelon
because there is nothing unholy about
uniting with the red wash of pulp.
3.
Everything rots.
Tombstones emerge as mushrooms from my footsteps.
4.
Nothing is so delicate as a moth's wings.
A festive tilde
I swat at it as if it were a piñata
5.
My mother was a daffodil
who stir fried noodles & sewed curtains
a talented daffodil
my mother
was a creek full of tadpoles
who in old age
loved to sing The Rainbow Connection
my mother, alas, alas
did not love her life
a life full of disassembled oak
and scattered screws.
I bury her
in a piano
bench
because she is
so
small
My father was a whistling demon.
Followed God
But always snoozed
Listen
Let him rest among
bluegrass
I shake the curtains.
I pick up the remote.
6.
I mention them now.
I will not mention them again.
It is the sorrow they carried like an iron carrot.
7.
Did you know that there are soldier ants who can slice human flesh?
Did you know that?
On MTV the guys of Jackass held their ripped skin.
Tonight I made a red velvet cake and mixed food coloring with cocoa.
Did you know that Red Velvet cake was red because of beets?
Did you know that?
8.
I am not one enrapt by nature. I have Saturn in the 9th house.
I wear so much bright summer layers on a beach
I look like Mrs. Roper on Three's Company.
Why is 8 the House of Death ?
9.
Look at a fig, the precise elegance
in fruit. Do not despair. You are enough.
Find your silhouette & model a garbage bag
with bovine grace. You too could master
life's runway. Walk along a plank of Ikea
furniture with a Bible balanced
on your head. Strut as if you.re hearing
the soundtrack of your life. Texture is
feeling. Seducing an exotic dancer
makes you a master pick up artist. There
is abundance for everyone if you.re
part of Oprah Winfrey's studio audience.
Be real as the cricket in the far off distance.
Experience the restroom at West Elm. A chair
is a library of your design. If you are lonely
go to Target and read the Birthday Greeting
Card section. The card I love has a squirrel
emerging from a man's front trousers saying,
Isn't it obvious?... I'm completely nuts about you.