Dog nights

Stella
Duke
Junior
Snoopy
Nike

You single? 
You should date Duke's dad. 
He's not bad looking.

M's first time out past dark.
The air is warm
And he might be overdressed in his red snowsuit,
But how's a mother to know?
And better safe than sorry
Or you'll hear, girl, that baby needs a blanket from any passing stranger.

GOODBYE B (kaddish)

Nonnie died before Phil and

Phil died before Prince

and you died, yesterday

long before love

love cries in the

California clay house

full of songs and dogs

cries and laughs and

wants to burn the bed –

good smoke

of a good love

of a good man

sent up between

the branches

Gobbinjr

i just wanna be a firefly

i just want the human race to die

singing along so screamingly my voice cracks and buckles,

racing upwards in a white car with an old best friend

in the passenger seat. listening, looking

out the window with her hands in her lap, eyes

widened by the twist tie switchback curves in

this old potholed road.

how’s school, one year left?

she asks and i nod but can’t stop singing

even though i know she’s nervous. more like

because. because she’s nervous and it feels

better to not care than assuage her worries;

since even if i do–i’ll still know

that she lives with her fiance in a

huge brownstone in the south end

with her huger ring and talks most days about

the wedding and now i live in this mostly brown

and gray town with mountains and sometimes

steal toilet paper from restrooms at the university.

Dinged

Garrotte someone with my hamstring,
fish with it, even. I hope for its utility beyond the
disconnected kitchen shuffle into disinterested fridge audit.
Hamstring, drier than the cake of mustard on the jar thread,
if it snaps, what do I stem the tide with next?

incident report #2

a night when there's a knock on the door
and the delivery guy already came through
so i already know why they're there
and this time i hate being right
the police at my door
they need my id 
filing a report
not presses charges
because this guy is nice
but i'm nice too
a quick lecture
then they're gone
close the door
and i cry