Back away from the mirror
Back into the mirror
Back against the mirror
Against the wall
Between the wall and the mirror
Between the mirror and the backing
on the back of the mirror
Inactive record
Mirror on mirror
glass grey licking
regressing into holes
in the faces in the background
ground interlude
stay down
get up
put together a response
hang it up
nearest hole
is furthest from the mind
Have you heard? Have you heard the one about the realtor who showed the couple a home and took a call on her cellphone and stepped outside leaving the two to look around until it was around time for the sun to go down the light to disappear the electricity was turned off a foreclosed space have you heard the realtor? are they close by or far away? have you heard? have you heard the one about the young woman who went into the kitchen another end of a day left out too long to cook another cut to dress up and take a chance let simmer to stand to cool into a dim upset in the failing light have you heard? Have you heard the one about the realtor who showed the couple she showed them?
"That's probably why it disappeared."
"The light or her?"
"That's probably why it dropped off the listing for a while until they did what they had to and put it back on."
"Until they did something or didn't do something."
"Did you have time to get around to the shopping today?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"I just do. Or need I say your time and how it gets eaten by the piranhas of responsibility are important to me?"
"The needless to say with their expressions that sink below the surface and rear their sagging heads again because they did what they had to do to cram them into whatever latest purpose they came up with."
"Did you get my zinc oxide?"
"You mean your Boudreaux's butt paste?"
"Yes, that, my degraded seamstress."
"No, I did not."
"No? Why not?"
"Did you write it down on the fridge?"
"Thought I did. Guess not."
"Degraded seamstress?"
"Fuck! What was that I bumped into?"
"Don't expect it to be the power button of some abandoned entertainment center with tenebrous music refilling the room."
"I don't. Circumstances always manage to be a little more than what I've lowered them to so it can blandly slink along the middle of the road and not tumble off into wrapping things up into a dark extinction."
Take it and stick it into the stomach stir it until the clouds settle into the branches of the trees leaves are pushed down towards the Earth below emptiness bulges out as streets tighten their grip stabbing with glass windows shattering into eyes filling with notes intercepted and passed from sneer to sneer hammered into capital letters and thrown over the fence to be whipped by the violence of traffic. If if you can if you still can take it and stick it into the stomach stir it until the clouds settle into the branches of the trees leaves are pushed down towards the Earth below.
"Did you take your pm dosage?"
"Not yet. I left my water in the car."
"I just don't want you to miss another pill. That'll make 4 out of 7 this week."
"4 out of 7. Enough to win a playoff and keep a depression on medium flame."
"Remember that time you were telling me that scary story when we were around that fire?"
"I didn't get to finish telling it because that was the last occasion you let me fix dinner."
"We never did redo the left side of the house."
"That's what we've been trying to move out of you know. I still see smoke curling about."
"You do not. Those are just little dust storms."
"What are those things scattered on the floor?"
"Charred contact paper probably."
"Not at our house - in this room. I keep kicking them around with my shoes. And what room is this?"
"Are you not wearing socks with your shoes? You know how they cut the backs of your heels."
"I ran out of socks. I haven't taken the bag down to the laundromat."
"I think this is or was either the game room or some unfinished art room."
"Someone's projecting their procrastination."
"Where is she? Does she sound nearby to you or has she wandered off into the backyard or maybe across the street to talk to the neighbors to warn them about us?"
"Will you stop? Just quiet down so we can listen for someone talking on their cellphone."
"For all this time? For hours?"
"She is a talker. Now listen for someone talking to someone else."
"It'll probably turn out to be someone talking to someone else next door or maybe it'll just be the sound of me talking to you because there is no one next door anymore or across the street or just me talking to myself because you've gotten sick of me and left me in this room alone all alone."
"I would never leave you. I couldn't find my way out."
"That's the best reason you've got?"
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry, too."
"And I'm still sorry."
"What is love?"
"I know I haven't said it since no that was when I thought of saying it and only thought it. That was when you walked into the sliding door and you thought it was open."
"Bent the frames of my glasses. What is love?"
"Love is two tongues reaching for each other in the dark."
"You never got to finish that scary story."
"Scary story? It was some true crime I read."
"Did you ever sell that?"
"Never could."
"That's too bad."
"Tossed it in the blue bin next to the bookcase."
- Max Stoltenberg
No comments:
Post a Comment