Holiday in Series 2

I bought myself
a phenomenal amount
of food and spent
a ridiculous amount
of hours preparing it
because, alone or not,
it's the holiday of the year
and I usually don't
give that kind of weight
to one in three sixty five,
but you only
live once.

Holiday in Series

You broke the lamp
and glued it back together so well
and stole from the corner store
and got caught
and read comic books
when I told you to clean your room

so

the beatings will continue
and the Christmas presents
you wanted are
indefinitely discontinued

because I never change
and you are

a mistake
after all.

It's okay, though.
Eventually I'll get old and
I am fantastically short sighted and
when you are taking
care of me and
I rely on you
for every little thing

it will be your Christmas every day
I sit in my own shit.

Geography Lessens

Like Brooklyn is the only town that summers.
Like Rockefeller is the only place that winters.
Like Long Island is the only place that autumns.
Like up state is the only place that springs.

The stars fall
wherever you are
if you take the time to step outside
once in a while
when the chips aren't down and
you take the time to look up
and all around
at the space
occupying you.

Sport

I have been hit in the crotch
multiple times at a go.

I saw them coming.  At least
the second and third swings
while my eyes were still open.

Now it makes me laugh
instantaneously.

Not that it does not hurt,
but that the thought can occur
to the antagonist
that somehow the conversation
ends with their decision
to sign
without reading
the curb stomp clause.

Not that I would do that.
After all, a misunderstanding is
a misunderstanding
no matter how many days you wait
to go back to the same bar

and go back again, and again,
but they never show up
to donate their teeth to your collection.

Kicked In the Nuts

Have you ever
hauled off and hit someone
directly in the crotch?

It's a great feeling
to see them slump
knowing your knuckles
are still intact
for not kissing plaqued teeth,

but more importantly
I have been restraining myself
from releasing the spring
and spanking my sixty year old boss
every time he needles me.

The joy of the exercise of
not today,
but soon,
is not nearly as fun

as connecting
repeatedly.

Winter Makes a Lasting Smile 2

I want it to snow so hard
that everyone is shut in doors
with their own thoughts, and
everyone is wary of their own fronts, and
no one wants to go out during the day, and
everyone wants to sleep until noon, and
red wine tastes good at every day's end, and
fire is not an excuse to get together, and
hard work always pays dividends, and
every trip is an adventure, and
seeing people you haven't seen means something, and
every kind gesture is a little more, and
everyone is a little more miserable by default, and
the wind plays no favorites, and
everyone is late for reasons they can't define, and
everyone is just a little more open
in the face of mother nature's
carelessness, and
the only one watching out for you
is the heart at your elbow and
the handful of names in your phone book.
I want it to snow so hard
that the world stops and
never starts again.

Since We Last

I've been trying to decide if you would think
less of me for drinking
my tea through the plastic stirrer
instead of from the lip of the white china cup.

Eye contact is hard,
I know, because
I've changed
more than I thought I would
before this was arranged and

though my irises are the same
the rest is
not so much.  Would you believe me
if I said I did not know how that happened?
That I don't remember
what I did
to bring my body from where it was,
where it fell and rose and knit again,
to this table, to this minute
to slouch and stir and mull,
but nonetheless mull, and stir, and slouch
back to back with you

pointing at clouds and seeing
rabbits and birds and witches under the being sun
and beaming some, just to be
collected enough to be seen.