Pong

Throwback from the cavemen
          looks just like the guy who's better
suited to sleeping on the floor anyway,
  he looks like you when I close my eyes. I'd
        like to give you some tea but
you wouldn't drink it
you're a coffee man,
a man who sleeps like my sister
        I know your arms
not as well, I can admit it but
what I can't admit is how quickly I forget your
compassion because it never lasts
bet you didn't know Troy Davis died yesterday
                   you don't
read the Times like we do, you don't
  wonder how voices carry. I've watched
you swallow your weight in fool's gold
estimated the recidivism rate from behind my teeth but
  all I can tell you is I don't
  hate you.
You mumble as you're falling asleep
with your phone on your chest.
I'm saying -
no, thinking -
   I just love you and I imagine that you know.

Saturday, 4 PM

Gravity is actually a
crucial part of fetal development
its weight prepares our ligaments for lying cheating and
the reality of being twelve years
old with nowhere to go but down
Look, honey they're mowing the lawn
for us I don't remember asking them to do that
but we did have a jack and coke yesterday evening so
probably he was just thinking of that, the jack
and coke and the time Tom ran away
Last weekend, it was my turn to have the kids,
Tom doesn't want to talk but Ben is sweet his hair
has gotten long and curly like my brother's. He pets the dog for
hours stroking her pale smooth belly and I wonder
if I should tell him.
He told me about the gravity thing so I wonder if
I should tell him. I sliced my finger this
morning while I was cutting up some sausage
but it wasn't too deep, there was blood on my sausages even
though it didn't hurt I couldn't eat them. I drank coffee and
thought of Tom
working on his English homework. He doesn't
like to concern himself with spelling and even though he's
older, sometimes he crawls into bed
with Ben at night you know how kids are.

Aberdeen, Mississippi

Stupid that everyone has cups that all
                      match, they get        mixed up and also

   there was a fly in mine do you
   want to see? Pick a number - no
pick a letter then pick a
number I won't notice                      if you don't shave today
Soon it will be September               like this
heat never settled on                        us at all
we lit Parliaments and sparklers but
                     nothing was more startling than the
                     sheer weight of beingawakeremembering

that time in the shower.                     Put everyone

                   else's yellow roses in the 

                                shower and don't
     

give them any hints. Stop a
     man today and ask him what time it will be    tomorrow
                            he'll like that, tell your English teacher that you
                            are shielding your true motives with           Ethan Frome and
sledding and maybe poisoning your wife or
your brother. Don't worry                  though

about the petunias I've brought       them inside.
It was 

much too                    hot on the deck