TABFBTICSLT

you will never catch me repeating shit

over & over in a poem. Would you like to

know why? There’s a band from Baltimore that

I can’t stop listening to – there’s a band from

Baltimore yes yes yes!

*

we have so little to say because all we have left

is archery – when you’re tempted to make it personal

just make it universal – like two painted angels looking

bored. Now that’s speaks to me hotly, like an arrow

through the back of someone’s head, like my friend

nailing headshots on the couch next to me, ping spinning helmet

like this game was made for making heads geyser

*

so much of it is the sound

*

Just when you think you have it figured out, you remember

it’s all about contours  – this might not be completely true

– principles create principles

until we can’t identify the origin of the rule – the imagery

repeats in heaps of beauty. The word okay was

said over seven thousand  times during the four days

of this conference &, more often than not,  it was the

most useful word in the room

*

there a band from Gainesville that I can’t stop listening

to – there’s a band from Gainesville – why why why?

any professional who uses “think outside the box” in a

serious context needs to start masturbating

every single day. They need to invite the virus &

boil their blood until it isn’t poisonous

*

people repeat themselves all the time. I was in a

Civil War workshop & someone asked, “Why didn’t they

use bows and arrows in the Civil War?” and the professor

answered, “This country was founded on exploding,

you nitwit.” Everything you write, no matter how much

love lives in the letters, is a criticism of something. That

is the magic of language. Definitions are never

singular occurrences – if you’re the last one on the planet

you automatically have no name

*

deep down, we’re all survivalists, we all want to watch

the end of the world happen to someone else. We

had sex in the woods & we shot rifles & we talked about

precision & we watched one of the best rock shows this

city has ever seen & we survived it  

*

there’s a band from Detroit that I can’t stop

listening to – there’s a band from Detroit wah wah wah –

I miss that music feeling that music use to make me feel, but now

I get it from things I used to make fun of.  I’m in love again.

Am I allowed to say that? Sure!

*

nock the arrow, pull back slow,

aim for the chest or face or neck, I’ve been

told to hold my breath

*

 I’ve allowed myself this