From the backseat
My mother tells me
when she picks me up from the train station
that I’m supposed to fall in love at 27
she tells me this because a psychic tells her this
when she’s trying to find someone who can hear
her brother from the other side
My father kicks me out of the passenger seat
because the backseat of the car makes him sick
He says we have to call the town to tell them
it floods in front of our house and the basin
is overflowing
My mother replies that he ought to tell them
the street lamps don’t work and haven’t for years
and he doesn’t believe her
I also know the street lamps don’t work
but sometimes they do when I stand under them
I don’t think I’m magic or special or anything
but it makes me think our bodies are really electric
and magnetic-we’re flat out crazy not to acknowledge
all the invisible forces that govern our bodies
I think it’s weird people don’t think or talk about it more
and most people think it’s weird that I do
My mother tells me Sal died-her best friend Nancy’s dad
I immediately remember when Tessie, his wife, died
at her wake Nancy’s son Anthony asked me out for sushi
I glanced behind him at the casket silently laughing to myself
I could only think “everyone grieves differently I guess”
My mother and father fight over which lane
she should have gotten in and how she always
misses the streets we’re supposed to turn down
she always replies everything happens for a reason
these thoughts always halt as we pull into the driveway
Now
Don’t think too hard
I tell myself
as I leave my baggage
for somebody else to claim
I’ll buy what I need new
show myself on the outside too-
I’ve changed-now
painted by more color
between all the black and grey
Created for space
Panthalassa and Pangea were waging a war on themselves
and split their hopes and dreams into different parts of the hemispheres
at a time when hemispheres didn’t have a name at all
because they didn’t exist and they didn’t have people or language
to explain them or make a distinction between the two at all
Out of lungs
Sometimes you have to say things out loud
so it’s known-yes, for certain
this feeling has found a place
to occupy in a vibrating soundscape
Hear this
Do you ever think about sound
how it surrounds your body-
doesn’t just leak into your skull
but licks your limbs and skin
what if natural sound
like rain and thunder
sounded like piano scales
on other planets
not artificial but
just the way things are
the wind like soft trumpets
whirring at the lips
This is so frank. Loved!
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