Will you do x
Will you do Y
Will you do z
She never said yes
but never said no
and did all three....
Considering the sea, it may be, life and time
must brew themselves in boiling brine
near some star 'splosion or volcanic vent
Melt the immobile start the drip
set off the ticking universe
for a hot, rotational trip.
But for timeless or eternal
an absolute zero temperature is best.
As any motion
would be a timeline,
cancel out eternal rest.
The day Jim said
"You could retire from here,
head of a department."
"Just give it time." he said
That same day I went into the big boss
and gave my two weeks notice.
I feared it would be true
that Jim was right
and I couldn't let that happen.
"What can we do to keep you," they asked me.
And so from then on
I had Wednesdays off
every Wednesday.
Monday, Tuesday, Day off.
Thursday, Friday, Two days off.
It wasn't enough.
I lasted another year
then moved on.
Haiku day
.
For fifteen years now
warming my life, chair, lap, bed:
small bread-colored cat
I want a small order
not a plateful big enough for ten
I don't want butter or salt
Forget the meat, not today
I don't want a lot of sugar
or while flour or grease
Don't bring me green vegetables
cooked into a grey green blob
no wilted lettuce no
clump of white rice
Don't bring any soda
no creamer either
Wait.
.
I'm going home for lunch.
the statue wore a flat gold ring of gaudy teeth
around its marble neck, a lavish emblem
of artistic excess or social extreme
.
each tooth covered in scrimshaw
ceremonial pictures
for a biting afternoon
.
A critic in the paper said
the show should be blacklisted
or delisted or at the least recycled.
.
No one
read the review.
Decades ago I sang in noisy bars
a couple times a month
four forty-minute sets
songs of my own construction.
Between sets, for
15 minutes, I'd hide
outside in the car
or in the restroom stall
to think or read a book
too shy too introverted
needing to gather
my strength
to navigate the next set
and during each song
break the social contract
take off the daily mask