6.06 / June 2011
Two Stories
Your Big Dick Can’t Save You Now
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It’s entirely your fault. There’s no question in your cracked-out mind. The meth, the gay porn with underage European boys, the fact neither of you made it to the bedroom before ravishing one another. Your hopes of anal penetration, feeling [...]
Three Stories
House Fire
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Michael is four years old and his brother is seven years old and there is a fire. It’s summer. Michael is half the size of his brother. They are both only wearing underwear. Michael’s brother carries Michael out of the house and Michael puts his face [...]
Three Poems
PRIMARY VOTERS
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They were the boys who thought
Your older sister might make a good
Piece of ass. Two of them
Broke your cousin’s leg, on purpose,
To settle the matter of who told
On the shoplifters. These
Were the boys who had beer
And sex three years before you:
You were inept with [...]
Summer Sunday at the Fair: a Rebuttal to Water for Elephants
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Here’s the elephant, scooping her trunk across the earth. Here’s the girl, in a dress, scooping peanut shells from around the elephant’s feet. Here’s the banker, fucking the girl from behind. Here’s the banker’s wife, tapping her Coach heels in the dirt, moving her sunglasses onto her [...]
Baboon
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They said he was a baboon. They said he was ugly and hairy and that he smelled, but I was drawn to him immediately. I will admit that I’d always had a thing for him: I had noticed him before, in the past, when he used to [...]
Robot Christ
Robot Christ climbs down from the cross. The Romans are all gone. It is dark on the hill in the cave beneath New Jerusalem. The artificial stars twinkle. Tomorrow the largest, his own star, will bloom above the animatronic shepherds. The plastic cattle will bray and froth. Three [...]
Two Poems
Hunting
I slide restless into an up north bar, all fake wood grain
and flickering beer signs, audition for an overnight haul
that will pound the pain out of me. Look for loggers,
measure them by the damage they can deal.
I settle on a young blonde bull, Thor in strained flannel,
for the way [...]
Four Poems
When the Girls Arrived in Copenhagen
and left the station, near midnight,
snow fell in soft piles on their hats
and backpacks.
No cars or people passed
while they walked
down the hushed streets.
Through windows without blinds or curtains
they could see Danes bathed in blue
television light
or quietly reading in uncluttered rooms
small novels perhaps about two girls
long [...]
Power Outage: 3 p.m., College of Engineering
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The rooms now closets, black as the handles
of spades pushing their rude darkness into every
conversation. Engineers make widgets
that alert oncoming deer to cars or oncoming
cars to deer: either way, the one gracefully steers
out of the path of the other. Engineers know
why lights go on and off, [...]
Three Poems
On Sunday We Bathed In Rose Water
On Monday we counted each egg
before poking holes in the shells. You poured
the yolk in my mouth and I fed you grits
like you were a baby bird, my tongue
your spork.
On Tuesday we spooned
on the faux bear skin rug and set
the television on fire. Using [...]
The Last Time
I came home drunk and we lit ourselves on fire. We were such flammable creatures then.
The neighbors must have heard us, burning up all the oxygen in our little apartment, suffocating ourselves with big, loud words. The cops encouraged you to stay the night with a friend. It was all [...]
If We Miss the Beginning
If it doesn’t stop snowing will we miss the beginning? If we miss the beginning and if the beginning is what matters should we encourage the snow and say sorry it was the snow? If the groom gave better directions would we be there already and would the boy stop [...]
Certainty
Right from the start, Cris was pretty certain she could get me pregnant. It started on our honeymoon—a six day trip to Vegas where we stayed at the Venetian, ate at the Paris and drank all night at New York, New York. We took a gondola ride to the elevators [...]
untitled poem about growing up
i lived four doors down from a pre-teen equestrian called lauren,
who had dozens of little prize ribbons stuck
on a corkboard in her pastel and frilly bedroom
i’d envy the ribbons and think to myself
what pretty prizes
how does she get them
i want them
(at this point in my life the only thing i’d [...]
Poinsettias
There were four empty tins of peppermint Altoids in the cup holders in Mandy’s 4-runner. On her center island in the kitchen, an empty tin of cinnamon. On the back of the toilet in the en suite, another tin of peppermint. You could find one in just about every [...]
Four Poems
Saussure, sorry
I AM NOT A STRUCTURALIST
I DO NOT LIKE MY LANGUAGE
RIGOROUS OR SELF-REFERENTIAL.
TEXT TELLS ME WHAT TO TASTE
WHEN I EAT YOU FOR BREAKFAST.
THE VERB HAS NEVER CONFESSED
ITSELF TO ME. THE VERB IS ICON.
THE VERB WANTS ME LISTEN
AND STOP CHEWING ON YOUR HIP.
Conditional conditional
Do not go outside.
There is weather happening.
If you [...]
Two Poems
Vanishing Points
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Because the absence of prettiness can lead to invisibility,
she bit a clean circle in the flesh around her wrists,
ringed in red wells, used her teeth for the degloving
veins and sinews tucked neatly under bone
in love with her own blood.
Because the molar necklace sweltered at her throat,
she [...]
Skin
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My son leaves flakes of his skin around the house in piles, mica-like mounds deposited on the arm of the sofa, the corner of the kitchen table, the rim of the bathroom sink, the top drawer of the nightstand. Filial detritus.
We sleep in the same bed still. [...]
I Once Knew a Girl Who Kept Breaking Bones
1. Casts
I once knew a girl who kept breaking bones. I once knew a girl who dreamed of breaking every bone in her body. I knew a girl who learned the names of each bone in her foot so she could break them one by one. I knew a girl [...]