Remote control smile (batteries not included)

Life Story XXI

A waiting period, a transition, steeping.

Life Story XIX

Pen pal letter lines saving time.

Life Story V

Affinity for up past bed times.

Class Notes: A Communication Model

his model railway had
stopped running--plastic people
frozen, dust collecting on their
caps--the times tables
redrawn

For German friends (für Deutsche Freunde.)

hands aaaaaaaaaaa Hände
stretched aaaaaaa dehnten

over aaaaaaaaaaaa rauhe
rough aaaaaaaaaaa hölzerne

wooden aaaaaaa übermäßigtabelle
table aaaaaaaaa zwischen

between aaaaaa Abendessen
dinner aaaaaaa u.

& aaaaaaaaaa Nachtisch
dessert. aaaaaaa aus.

tea time

back broken by the lifting of lumber, jack could
do nothing but rest & wait for the return of po-
sterity through a slumbering regiment; sticky p-
otato chip hands, hot dogs eaten raw from the f-
reezer, falling asleep in his brown arm chair,
jack, white wrapped in long john coveralls, dri-
ed in the heat of the electronic hearth glowing
three’s company & draining battery lives till no
remote could change the arid airwaves—like sand
through an hourglass so passed the days of jack’
s life—just watching the same channel over & ov-
er & over again till it all was rerun & he could
predict the future & control time in thirty min-
ute intervals & in a symphony of board, hammer,
nail, jack was foreman once more molding from m-
emory a true HOME for the next generation, the
next lonely lovers to live in peace & comfort c-
oming together in a room of brady bunch sinceri-
ty, making the world a tv land once more.

telephone 4

telephone 1

addicted to the telephone
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa tetherphone
i am always a phone call away
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa never away
just in case my car breaks
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa down

the sweat crackle of her voice
(it actually sounds different)
& i am ever seeking the
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa sound of sweetness
aaaaaaaaaa giddy cute talking to animals & babies voice

that is the closest thing to
a smile i can get--
the intonation the
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa reflection--
bounced off of clouds & filtered
through the cosmic microwave background

an invisible (time elapsed) embrace.

hey, remember when we would post?

hey, remember when...

i had fingernails?
a boyfriend?
three whole months of summer left?

i used to go to the pool?
to the beach?
skipped work?

i noticed the first fireflies?
the beginning of wineberry season?
but not that time was passing?

i knew how to ride a bike?
paint with watercolors?
end a poem?