Five Poems

No Cap

Sometimes as a poet
it’s hard to understand
not everything you
you think is a poem.





Love at the End of the ’70s

I want to
flip you like
a baseball card

off the wall
land on top
and take you

home your fuzzy
Pete Rose corners
my Vida Blue

Bucky Dent me
I’ll Reggie Jackson
you





An American History of the 20th Century

The 10s were less innocent because of the Great War or the War to End All War
The 20s were less innocent because of Prohibition and Gangland Violence
The 30s were less innocent because of the Great Depression
The 40s were less innocent because of World War II and Film Noir
The 50s were less innocent because of McCarthyism, Korea, and more Film Noir
The 60s were less innocent because of JFK (and MLK and RFK) and Vietnam
The 70s were less innocent because of Deep Throat
The 80s were less innocent because of buyer’s clubs and nationwide milk carton searches for missing kids
The 90s were less innocent because of Desert Storm and Take Back the Night and Columbine
Pundits and historians agree, it was a much more innocent time





Things To Do with Other People

Topple democracy, fuck,
Remember a more innocent time.





The Poet as a Fragment

The yellow lab with a black ball-
point pen in her mouth
at 4 a.m.—
no, not like that, but gnawed to several