Raw Goods

solos

so we are those who shave legs and heads,
push lovers against refrigerator corners,
take advantage of sweeping views to travel
with broom in hand, ask permission to join

exceptions at a distance: wish to be an extra
in your movie, stage show, or phone call;
she imagined a new body on the new year's
eve with bike ride and boy parts strapped

into a wiggle on attic rafters with knife
blade in fingertips, nails clench lips -
when dresses slip on couch covers to return
molotov tours with reports of disappearance:

"where did everyone go?" sidewalks swept
clean of guiliani sweat, and shops filled
with our mothers and fathers, who talk
union bluster in decades-long arguments,

conclude lifetimes with flatlines, twice
thrice the doctor's age, a quarter the
nurses' pay for our rage cause "they can take it:"
we make up our days cause we can fake it

with the easy rhymes to counter teacher's laws
and it is just the same with our other parts -
sodden plankboard tables split into appendages:
"what remains but to take hold of each other's

bodies" which have been frequently captured;
which does not distinguish us but makes us
all the more valuable in the lemon orchards
and spaghetti wrestles of recording studio

intellectuals, prepare to be tossed:
we save it for later-
this is no time to
prepare for death.

posted by judy j @ 10:06 AM