maid yourself

A poem.


my problem has always been

in the
execution.

the execution.
touching it up again and
can’t leave it alone,
critical of the tone
again,
it’s that execution.

keeping it up with poor health
poor people
poor job,
poor me –
one thing slips and
that cascading effect is a
direct result
of
poor execution.

poor contributions.

no waving.
not that guy in shades staking claim at the
smokers’ pit again,
or the shady area in front of the recycling.
i’ve had forty years to perfect the act
of blowing it totally
in the execution.

the execution.
and i like to sin.

it makes me feel good

feel something when i know i’m not winning,
easier than pulling myself back up
to simply submit,
walk away with the neighbours coming

than to execute.


born from the bits on the factory floor

A poem.


raising a kid these days is tough, making
sure they grow up and learn to pack
their own lunch, not to
mention read
the hours for Father’s Day brunch,
or their brother’s twelfth birthday dinner

before getting their Focus stuck in a trough.
“i’m sorry, i’m sorry, i’m right around the block”
as their parents & them leave the restaurant –
now they don’t read
or eat,
but they are half-a-foot taller than

he’s sitting in the bathroom at work

and if he takes too long then the stall starts
to feel like an isolation pod, and he
starts to expatiate on all the
ways he thinks his life
went wrong.

this dwelling
is interrupted by a
sudden svelting, spitting
up still gunk from the
surface of his

gut, and

it sits
in
his
mouth like
poppycock
as he opens
his legs to
the void
for
a
soft
place
to spit
it
out –

he dribbles on his own thigh as the
auto-flush engages.
“down the line it’s in their genes.”


Malin is aware of the concerns.

A poem.




that little bit of marbling showing;

the short denim hem on the
mannequin, barely concealing the

curves, and
craters, and ageless bruising –
says to the weak man,
the spread is open on statutory holidays.


the modern masculine vernacular still contains
the phrase
“she’ll be hotter when she’s older,

you have to look at the
mother”
cautions the Caucasian-loving mixed-race Meat Cutter to the
White apostle, while they

dump the fifty-pound plastic bucket of cleaved cuts
into the

grinder, with their
necks
one thousand degrees to the
cellophane, non-ergonomically
prevailing over this shared domain.


blind corners

or, you definitely do not need to vomit in the punch bowl like that Kirsten Dunst movie thanks

A poem.


when he thinks of the top
ten-percent of his thoughts,
beyond getting high,

beyond getting off,

beyond suppressing the weirdo’s muck,
he probably considers what he’s given away
over and above a fuck.


and no, he’s not talking about his virginity 
but stuff.


just,
things.
the kind he can never get back sort of stuff.

even though he still buys it three times over sort of
stuff.
marvel at the kind-of-a-one collection nobody
wanted, cared for, or asked about stuff.
it’s embarrassing to even bring up.
the things and the stuff.


the same for acquaintances he’s accidentally
blown pot smoke in the
faces of

with their coming around blind corners.
if it really meant something then it wouldn’t have sundered.


a flotilla of teenaged seagulls

chasing a bald eagle away from a fry

A poem.


when life’s going a little too Disney,

there’s always something there to
fuck it up completely.
navigating that storm makes
me take stock
of what i could possibly be paying penance for


or karmic retribution

or shitty luck

but mostly i blame divine justice –
you know the kind: the overfed,
bearded White guy in a smock staring back in the mornings
through the dinge of acne glazing

and not some omniscient force.
nurture can be nature at its worst.