*From Mark Anthony Jarman’s “Love is All Around Us”
tetanus (for Laurie Siblock)
1. i know it’s serious:
when i got off the phone
with you
i cut
my
hand with
scissors
—something i never
do—
and the blood came plodding, ocean-green
(things go unsaid,
ornament
to epigraph).
2. at my favorite restaurant, Pants,
i decide on the
special:
varietals of garnish from mid-western strip malls.
the meal arrives sans cutlery:
“Nebraska style”.
3. your flamingo
stalks me
sometimes
lurking in the wings,
wild-eyed.
4. the logic of Twinkies, bear-claws, wagon wheels:
tangible evidence of the
exitentialist dilemma,
still-born, indigestible reminders
of one’s unfortunate longings.
5. i know it’s serious:
Friday night, Monday morning.
i know:
my C.V.
makes no mention
of me.
i know, i know.
6. not Cuba this year, either.
but
Kelowna.
it’s serious.
7. who can say how
many personal revelations
have led, erroneously,
to this place?
pylons to a troubled bridge,
freeway to footpath:
misremembered forgetfulness.
8. dream vacation:
a pilgrimage
to the last blank bill-board,
advertisement
for an
untroubled
soul.
9.
but the scissors.
the blood.
robotblackhearted 