Friday, April 10, 2020

NaPo’ 20 - Day 3 - Rhymezone

IT’S HAPPENING ALL AROUND YOU AND I’M SORRY

Enter balmy sleep:
replete with 1’s and 0’s
Cling for dear strife

Can you feel its heartbeat?
Places hand on palimpsest receipt
This is everything

Wake: coffee sleeve on to-go cup
missing. Chalked up to
A shit start

Boss says:
capital loss can’t be had
But your job

Draws circles, heptagons
yells figures through megaphone
Boss is a cunt

Who belongs in a morgue
or is it you?
Self-doubt is a cunt

Lattice of spirit, waived
marital status to self:
Widowed

Searches pneuma pile
one must be yours
Selects magenta blazer

As in party favor, blenches at
cursory decision-making process
Time to go home 

Public domain looks like
shadowy tile, on repeat
Slips on magenta blazer 

Candy cane finger joy
Better than when you were five
Toys RRRRRRRRR Us

Lights out. Enter balmy sleep
Places hand on palimpsest grief
This is everything


NaPo’ 20 - Day 10 Hay(na)ku - reversed

EVERY DAY I WAKE UP AND WANT TO TELL MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS



wo ai ni
      wo xiang
         ni

NaPo’20 - Day 8 - Borrowed Line/Pantoum

BUTTERFLY KISSES

my kiss says razors and pain, my kiss says
do it with pride, and do it well. latchkey
hands drift over you, from one door to the next
you know I’m not a virgin

do it with pride, and do it well. latchkey
tone, look blank when I lip to you
you know I’m not a virgin 
you covet the undertaking

tone, look blank when I lip to you
get on all fours
you covet the undertaking
this is our little secret at sixteen

get on all fours
hands drift over you, from one door to the next
this is our little secret at sixteen
my kiss says razors and pain, my kiss says

Wednesday, April 8, 2020

NaPo’ 20 - Day 7 - News Article

RESPONSE TO HOW LUCKY ONES LIVE DURING A PANDEMIC


I have almost the same routine. I wake up at 6:45. 
My cat bells as I stretch. Reminds me who's
captain. Whose breakfast comes first.


He is unaware that I fast. Or that I love you, little train 
wreck passes through surgical mask, before 
rounding his perked white ears.


I get to work. Sip coffee. Check emails. Listen to the halls 
thrum hormonally. Maybe I teach first period. 
Maybe I don't.


I live in Taiwan, but I'm American. No lockdown. Store shelves 
plentiful. One of several outliers safe from the madness. 
I contemplate humanity.


The blue-collar fishbowl I grew up in. I have no desire for Netflix
or sourdough. I yearn for exactly this. Now tell me.
Who wouldn’t. 


Who wouldn’t consider tossing a name tag, issued by a coterie 
of suit ties, that never intended on reading it
to begin with?











Wednesday, April 1, 2020

NaPo‘20 - Early Bird - 3/31

The Future is Parrotfish 

it’s coming // the day whiteness // is finally saved // voracious sentinels // with their castellated beaks // & devil-may-care appetites // will grip the wasteland // the words flamingo pink // canary yellow // peacock green // scunge // will be chomped & shat // uniform silt // the Neon Times will call it // a classification nightmare // & a softer genesis // will prevail // besides // a mucus cocoon // may not be so unlike // the mute wet cave // from which we were hewn