Poems
by the unfolding head
Dinner at Mehmets
was served
on the floor
outside his kitchen
on red carpets
and dusty cushions
with hungry spiders
waiting on every wall
it was where I learned
about the custom
of building above
for future generations
Mehmet explained
in pidgin English
& pointed
beyond his parked taxi
farmland
& unfinished
floors
beams exposed
cinder blocks
with nothing to do
stray pipes
waiting to be plucked
like inherited
body hair
his wife served us goat
& Mehmet used the utensils
to map out
his roofless monument
to the children
Rocket Propelled Rectum
Cauliflower couscous
could make
the A bomb blush
I stare into the bowl
& remember
every Vietnam war film
I have ever watched
fortunately
I dont need a medic
just another beer
& five more minutes
in the sun
Dip
for Don D
I wonder
if you still
put cigarettes out
on your arm for fun
on balmy spring nights
or whether
tattooing your initials
across your entire ribcage
scratched that itch
I remember crying
with laughter
screaming
FRENCH
into each others faces
fifteen years on
I wonder
if you still
have a dip
& grin
teeth wide
behind
protruding lip
bits of brown tobacco
waiting to be flicked
away
Dent
I ran right into Luke Smith
Smith
being one of the most common
English surnames
it was always likely
to happen
I bit the concrete
hard & fast
dinner ladies came
put one half
of my adult front teeth
in a cup of milk
I stared at it
there on the headmasters coffee table
it didnt hurt
but I could tell
from wincing faces
staring
my smile
had changed forever
Cairns
where the French girl
shook her breasts at me
& an Italian
tore me a new one
over a Swede
and I had to pretend
to smoke
just to get a breather
& the pelicans
kept their beaks out
while dollar sized ants
patrolled the gates
& the palm trees
remembered Cook
& mud crabs
told us perfect lies
with their pretty
little eyes
banana bread hills
filled bamboo pipes
sometimes
there was a gecko in the fridge
always houses on stilts
& large ass leaves
swaying
to the sounds
of the shoreline
Blue Man, Las Vegas Spring 2005
We had left
Des Moines
with hangovers
many many
hours prior
we smelled
& looked
like shit
couple of pups
dying in the desert
we took two steps
out of the bus station
& stopped
to look around
a tall man
in a powder blue
three piece suit
with a tall
powder blue hat
& cane to match
holding a blue
cocktail
took one look
at my friend
and said
with real disgust
GODDAMN girl
she turned to me
with tears in her eyes
and we walked back inside
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