To My New Life
I’ve been in you
a while now so
maybe you’re not new
or new as each moment
ho hum ta-da
is always new
I’ve tumbled in storms
of impending you
flamed in flushes
afraid of you all
of a sudden nostalgic for you
the squirrel-tree window
where first I knew you
no cell the same
as any seven years ago
so maybe I never
completely
became you
though I did
feel all new
about two years ago
in the green dress with white dots
-- Molly Tenenbaum
edit
up.late.
early.
*
Disasterology
The Badger is the thirteenth astrological sign.
My sign. The one the other signs evicted: unanimously.
So what?! Think I want to read about my future
in the newspaper next to the comics?
My third grade teacher told me I had no future.
I run through snow and turn around
just to make sure I've got a past.
My life's a chandelier dropped from an airplane.
I graduated first in my class from alibi school.
There ought to be a healthy family cage at the zoo,
or an open field, where I can lose my mother
as many times as I need.
When I get bored, I call the cops, tell them
there's a pervert peeking in my window!
then I slip on a flimsy nightgown, go outside,
press my face against the glass and wait...
This makes me proud to be an American
where drunk drivers ought to wear necklaces
made from the spines of children they've run over.
I remember my face being invented
through a windshield.
All the wounds stitched with horsehair
So the scars galloped across my forehead.
I remember the hymns cherubs sang
in my bloodstream. The way even my shadow ached
when the chubby infants stopped.
I remember wishing I could be boiled like water
and made pure again. Desire
so real it could be outlined in chalk.
My eyes were the color of palm trees
in a hurricane. I'd wake up
and my id would start the day without me.
Somewhere a junkie fixes the hole in his arm
and a racing car zips around my halo.
A good God is hard to find.
Each morning I look in the mirror
and say promise me something
don't do the things I've done.
-- jeffrey mcdaniel
I’ve been in you
a while now so
maybe you’re not new
or new as each moment
ho hum ta-da
is always new
I’ve tumbled in storms
of impending you
flamed in flushes
afraid of you all
of a sudden nostalgic for you
the squirrel-tree window
where first I knew you
no cell the same
as any seven years ago
so maybe I never
completely
became you
though I did
feel all new
about two years ago
in the green dress with white dots
-- Molly Tenenbaum
edit
up.late.
early.
*
Disasterology
The Badger is the thirteenth astrological sign.
My sign. The one the other signs evicted: unanimously.
So what?! Think I want to read about my future
in the newspaper next to the comics?
My third grade teacher told me I had no future.
I run through snow and turn around
just to make sure I've got a past.
My life's a chandelier dropped from an airplane.
I graduated first in my class from alibi school.
There ought to be a healthy family cage at the zoo,
or an open field, where I can lose my mother
as many times as I need.
When I get bored, I call the cops, tell them
there's a pervert peeking in my window!
then I slip on a flimsy nightgown, go outside,
press my face against the glass and wait...
This makes me proud to be an American
where drunk drivers ought to wear necklaces
made from the spines of children they've run over.
I remember my face being invented
through a windshield.
All the wounds stitched with horsehair
So the scars galloped across my forehead.
I remember the hymns cherubs sang
in my bloodstream. The way even my shadow ached
when the chubby infants stopped.
I remember wishing I could be boiled like water
and made pure again. Desire
so real it could be outlined in chalk.
My eyes were the color of palm trees
in a hurricane. I'd wake up
and my id would start the day without me.
Somewhere a junkie fixes the hole in his arm
and a racing car zips around my halo.
A good God is hard to find.
Each morning I look in the mirror
and say promise me something
don't do the things I've done.
-- jeffrey mcdaniel
