Time Spent in the House of Agitation
by Joshua Tise
after Conchitina Cruz
1. on the street
Outdoor dining—that cute café with the iron patio set
defeated! by wind, the backhand slap of sun, sudden rain, etc.
We go again our separate ways.
2. in the apartment
The reality TV
beams a montage of bourgeois
gestures in my body.
3. at the library
The newspaper room has been defunded.
Nothing to do but join in the orgy
of limbs—tossing out the musty reading chairs.
4. in the classroom
Frederica flicks her wrist into the air
toward the sick tube light—to question:
what is meant by ‘an agitated brain?’
5. on the porch
Summer! The dregs of it.
Laying down in sweat and a charitable mood:
allowing the mosquitos a bit of food from my plate.
6. at the supermarket
There’s a good deal on nuclear red hot dogs.
The shopping cart’s lone squeaking wheel burrows in my ear and
reminds me—that’s exactly what I want for dinner.
7. at the psychic’s
You were an operating Rabbi in a past life
weren’t you? You should go to New York
or stay here. That’ll be two twenty-dollar bills
8. in the bedroom
Tomorrow might be the day
the ceiling fan decides miraculously to work or
the lost work order is miraculously found.
9. in dreams
I keep flirting with the sky, allowing
it to lead me to Prague
or a waterfall somewhere to sit under
with you