Moon Patrol Five

I, Punctuation

Black dots on a paper/white dots in the night sky:
Punctuation is me everywhere
And I am everywhere that something stops
Or pauses. My eyes on a full moon
Will rest gratefully for a while, long enough
To gather the courage to examine something else

Like when we are sentenced to
Consider this thing, or this. Now let's consider this.

Classic Country

Listening to the Classic Country Cable Radio Station This Morning

This morning my roommate and I
were doing morning things involving
milk and dumbbells and laptops
and the general betterment of ourselves.

Since we are young and can't do anything quietly
we had the TV on (Classic Country cable radio.)
The playlist was skewing heavily toward
the 1979 to 1985 period and it was making memory
feel very slippery to me and when "Bop"
by Dan Seals came on I was 100% back
to ten years old in the cab of my Dad's
old sky blue powder Chevrolet pickup
(Dominga was her name)
and we were bouncing all over San Antonio, TX.

"I wanna bop with you baby
all night long
I wanna be-bop with you baby
till the break of dawn"

Listen on the Internet

You can hear my Pete's Big Salmon reading at Susan Brennan's Poetic Brooklyn I don't know what exactly was wrong with me that night, but I am all breathy, and I sound more like Christian Slater than usual. Maybe it's just the old "I sound weird to myself" effect. This is just one of many thousands of reasons to love Susan Brennan. Enjoy!

Moon Patrol Poem #4

What I've Been Up To

The stars are hanging out
outside my window,
and the moon is shining low
among the chimneys.

Out there in the skinny night
a lonely firework sneezed,
and Brooklyn heaved
a shudder through its trees.

Tell the crazies of evening
I’ll see them sooner.
Dreams are the kind order
from my lids.

My crowbar snoozes sinew-ly
already; enough for me
to rust with it for now.

Gist Street Reading

Shanna Compton, Jen Knox, and I gave a reading in Pittsburgh last Saturday. Pittsburgh is a wonderful town with all of its bridges and rivers. I am sure that there are as many nice people in Pitt as there are in any other town, but we met so many nice folks at Gist Street Studio. It seemed like Pittsburgh must've been the nicest town in the world. I also met some of the women who make Moxy, a very passionate poetry website . Many thanks to Dan Wickett for this astoundingly detailed reading report.

Pittsburgh's tall and modern downtown reminded me of Houston and made me a little homesick. I look forward to returning to Bill Cowher's Moustache Country!

J to the Po to the Wri to the Mo

Saturation

Your photo film is less than the thickness of skin;
when movie film catches fire

and everything burns real yellow,
everafter folks will wonder
if that's what it looked like back
in the Magnificent Seventies
when everyone's backs were real wide and brown --
is that what it looked like back then?

Was the sun different then?
Or is it just the creeping oldness
of the way we keep things:
everything kept will keep getting old.

July is National Poetry Month!

Another Change of Flavor

I think it's time I just
changed my flavor:

I will wear painter's caps now
with funny Spring Break slogans
like "Damn Seagulls!"

The way I feel about my flavor
is the way I feel about myself,
but it's never so easy as

coriander or Delaware,
the names of spices or places
do not make a flavor.

Ask those seagulls circling
about yourself:

they will never tell you;
they will never hear your curse.

P.S.

If you submitted a photo to me and you are not represented here, it is because the photo is lost in my inbox. Please send me a gentle reminder.

Congratulations

to Jeff Eaton and Reb Livingston: winners of the I'll Show You My Full Moon Contest. We will be posting your poems, photos, and drawings of the moon and the creatures who inhabit it for oh, say, the next three or four months.

I'll Show You My Full Moon: Contest Winner #2

Jeffrey Eaton is our #2 I'll Show You My Full Moon Contest Winner. Contest Winners are in no particular order.

I'll Show You My Full Moon: Contest Winner #1

The mighty Reb Livingston is our #1 Contest Winner. Contest Winners are in no particular order.

Christopher Stackhouse

wrote this poem from my title. In the spirit of full disclosure, I feel compelled to note that I didn't know my title was a title until Chris wrote the poem.

THE MAMMOTH SKELETON FIGHTS THE GREAT WHITE CARCASS!

dressed in purple- stet
-etcetera- bash in - stet
sons and daughters - com
- plete - etcetera - bash - in style
slick - remember me -dick
trace or slur - etcetera - stet -