Cassette County

This is meant to be in praise of the interval called hangover,

a sadness not co-terminous with hopelessness,

and the North American doubling cascade

that (keep going) “this diamond lake is a photo lab”

and if predicates really do propel the plot

then you might see Jerusalem in a soap bubble

or the appliance failures on Olive Street

across these great instances,

because “the complex Italians versus the basic Italians”

because what does a mirror look like (when it’s not working)

but birds singing a full tone higher in the sunshine.

I’m going to call them Honest Eyes until I know if they are,

in the interval called slam-clicker, Realm of Pacific,

because the second language wouldn’t let me learn it

because I have heard of you for a long time occasionally

because diet cards may be the recovery evergreen

and there is a new benzodiazepene called Distance,

anti-showmanship, anti-showmanship, anti-showmanship.

I suppose a broken window is not symbolic

unless symbolic means broken, which I think it sorta does,

and when the phone jangles

what’s more radical, the snow or the tires,

and what does the Bible say about metal fatigue

and why do mothers carry big scratched-up sunglasses

in their purses.

Hello to the era of going to the store to buy more ice

because we are running out.

Hello to feelings that arrive unintroduced.

Hello to the nonfunctional sprig of parsley

and the game of finding meaning in coincidence.

Because there is a second mind in the margins of the used book

because Judas Priest (source: Firestone Library)

sang a song called Stained Class,

because this world is 66% Then and 33% Now,

and if you wake up thinking “feeling is a skill now”

or “even this glass of water seems complicated now”

and a phrase from a men’s magazine (like single-district cognac)

rings and rings in your neck,

then let the consequent misunderstandings

(let the changer love the changed)

wobble on heartbreakingly nu legs

into this street-legal nonfiction,

into this good world,

this warm place

that I love with all my heart,

anti-showmanship, anti-showmanship, anti-showmanship.