as a kid i had a billy blastoff toy astronaut
that ran on batteries
and the cool thing about billy
besides that fact that he looked ten
and owned a spaceship and a car
and walked like a robot
was you could sit him down
in a moon rover
and the car would drive
as if he were piloting it across
a lunar landscape
–but not in low-g slo-mo–
what really drove the car
was a gear shaft that
protruded from his plastic butt
providing proof of concept
for the arthur c. clarke quote
any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from your ass
Tag: NaPoWriMo2023
number 9
apparently
a tortoise has nerve endings
in its shell
which itself is a modified breastbone
a skeleton on the outside
looking smooth and rough
it feels everything
in its actual bones
whereas i have only my skin
and where there is numbness
there exists dull pressure
like a weight through cotton
or a talk show host’s monologue
you can work on these exercises
to increase mobility
extend range of motion
reduce joint pain
hold
shear
twist
repeat
in the desert i traded my skin
for bones
and learned to eat bugs
when flipped on my back
i watched you cook me in the sun
the desert sky your big easy bake oven
number 8
a poet who dwelt in wash’ton
thought “writing some poems sounds fun”
a line scribbled here
a phrase plucked from the air
and before he knew it, was done
number 7
the tide laps
at the concrete steps
washing over
opportunistic barnacles
and pebbles fixed
in cement in defiance of time
do the pebbles envy the freedom
of the sand
does the sand remember
its youth as a mountain
number 6
today the rain
tonight the rain
somewhere behind clouds
a full moon shines
making men
wet wolves
weather as incantation
weather as transformation
weather as incarnation
you’re not made of sugar
you won’t melt
number 5
the wind blows over the lake
invisible muscles move the bones
rotate and lift the wings of the crane
launching and crying
seeking a mate or a child
the second and the fifth
evolve
the mountain bellows thunder
snow covered and silent at this distance
what you feed yourself
what you feed others
reveals your heart
without a scalpel
eat what you want, but
words enter through the eye
and exit through the mouth
number 4
the moon man
rows his silver boat
in circles he circles
in his circular skiff
the rounds of the sky
from horizon to horizon
his arc increasing nightly
as the waves above
so the waves below
clouds the wake of his lonely ark
number 3
when the doctor told me
they had to amputate my foot
i asked only
–aside from a strong dose of pain killers–
that i be given the foot
after the procedure
i want the three cuneiform bones
because i always wanted to learn
phoenician
number 2
i know what you are thinking
when you read this title
and you are not wrong
this is just a steaming pile
of regurgitated
–or is that postgurgitated==
matter that doesn’t
still
better to be the fertilizer
the compost
the colony of beneficial bacterial cafeterial
smorgasbord for what comes after
though that will most assuredly not
be assigned
a higher number
number 1
start with a leaf
you think
you suppose
this is a simple thing
transparent when you hold it
against the sun
or covered in dew in the morning
or long dead and faded and frost layered
simple symbol of spring
make me wait
to see if they survived another winter
wonder if they will choose to thrive
this year
as if they have a choice
Words and Feathers 