momentum

* * *

momentum is something

* * *

i have sometimes

* * *

overrated

* * *

i just saw a payday
commercial
for the first time
in my life

* * *

all peanuts and caramel

* * *

underrated

* * *

candybar

* * *

that was in a bar
down the street
full of asterisks
i might report

* * *

the payoff
is time off
no fooling

* * *

it was a new place
called watkins
on 10th st
in south philly

* * *

i’ll give you that

* * *

i had dinner by myself
a burger
it was fantastic

* * *

not true—actually
it wasn’t that
good

* * *

i said nothing to no one
save the bartender
a nice quiet girl
we exchanged words
of business
and polite thanks

* * *

i watched a tv show called
30 Rock on mute
read the closed caption
laughed quietly to myself
a couple of times

* * *

tina fey
&
alec baldwin!

* * *

stars

* * *

happy hour 5-7
half off all pints
including brooklyn
black chocolate
stout

* * *

not bad!

* * *

also at one point
dude next to me
got up, said “now
you’ve got more
elbow room”

* * *

elbow room!

* * *

2.50 not bad
for all that
year 2012
philly usa

* * *

on a planet


* * *

on a planet?


* * *

on a planet


* * *

rule is say anything
it’s a poem
if your neighbor
feels it

* * *

do i have neighbors
sometimes
i wonder

* * *

what w/ all this
elbow
room

* * *

back now typing
in my apartment
btwn the asterisks
of sleep and work

* * *

who do i neighbor

* * *

i’ve seen neighbors
in other countries
not like here

* * *

we’re standoffish
and think highly
and often of real
estate, which is
killing us all

* * *

i’m in no hurry
to die

* * *

you?

* * *

hard to believe
we’re still here

* * *

given, say, what all
went down btwn us
last century
and the continued
proliferation of
nuclear weapons


* * *

not to mention global
warming and the rapid
depletion of natural
resources such as
water

* * *

really if you’re still
reading this
i’ve got to wonder

* * *

but can you defend
anything you do
really
in terms of time
which you know probably
very little
probably actually nothing
about?

* * *

we have all the time
in the world

* * *

and you are lazy
which
i love
in secret

while you work
at nothing
really

* * *

under my calm
a minutemen
song from the 1980s
pops to mind:

“paranoid chant”

* * *

the song begins

i try to work and i keep thinking of world war 3
i try to talk to girls and i keep thinking of world war 3

* * *

cold war
punk rock

* * *

the singer d. boon
died in a car accident
while the band was
on tour

* * *

mike watt, the bass player
shows up on my facebook
page sometimes under
“people you may know”

* * *

should i send him a “friend request”?

* * *

“you like to ruminate”
a teacher told me once
suggesting that i take
too long to respond
too long to articulate
my thinking

* * *

i ruminate

i chew the cud
like a cow
and watch you
stare into the mouth
for a neighbor

while i imagine myself
transforming into
my father

* * *

comes a time
to shit out
the burger

* * *

who are my friends if
not neighbors

* * *

i miss ted berrigan
whom i’ve never met
nor will on this planet

* * *

and i don’t believe in
planets
after life here

* * *

too bad for you
i imagine my mother
saying to me

* * *

let’s try to move on
from religion
shall we

* * *

this is for you

* * *

it doesn’t matter
what fucking century
it is

* * *

friend

* * *

honesty is hard work
it lets you down

* * *

i’m still not sure
what i’m trying
to prove

* * *

sometimes writing
isn’t the way

* * *

sometimes sex all day
isn’t the way

* * *

sometimes getting drunk
all week isn’t the way

* * *

sometimes drinking coffee
all day isn’t the way

* * *

the poet anne boyer
posts on facebook
“we need communes”

* * *

8 people like this

* * *

i guess i like it too

* * *

she’s in kansas

* * *

i think i’d rather be
alone in a room
w/ anne boyer’s poems
than in a commune
w/ a bunch of poets
or radical leftists

* * *

right now suddenly
i feel love
for everything
and could cry
if i knew i didn’t
have to keep
writing

* * *

i know you can’t
feel that right now
anyway

* * *

it’s the land

* * *

it’s the land
we are out of touch
with

* * *

with

* * *

if there's no land
there's no history
and time is money
not motion thru
space

* * *

john cage’s “lecture on nothing”
just
popped to mind

* * *

its rhythm
its pacing

* * *

you should read it
if you haven’t
aloud some time
to some one
you care very deeply
about

* * *

or aloud to an empty
room

* * *

you’ll be glad
you did

* * *

that’s about all
the advice
i have to offer
today

* * *

you are a ball of
romance, go on

* * *

take the skinheads bowling
take them bowling

* * *

from here on out
larry anderson
is calling balls
and strikes

* * *

you must be fucking blind
he says
during the commercial

* * *

it is time
for a pitching
change

* * *

the umpire watches
me calm down

* * *

it’s okay, larry, have
another drink
don’t forget
your sense of
humor

* * *

it’s only a game

* * *

you’re winning
on the radio
between pitches

* * *

don’t worry

i’m not saying
that life is baseball
or whatever

even though it is

* * *

strike one

* * *

strike two

* * *

strike three

* * *

i’m going for a walk