How Lucky We Didn't Kill You

Twenty million Hoosier birds

will fall to our bloody hands

in the course of the year,

but we'll praise ourselves

for the "two" we spare

Pointless political pageantry

where our blood-thirsty "saviors"

will still fully savor the flesh

of finely roasted death

But we'll call them lucky,

the two whose necks

we didn't place

beneath our ax

Lucky

it wasn't your blood

we drained

Lucky

it wasn't your anal cavaties

we stuffed with bread

Lucky

for our endless kindness

Lucky 

we bothered to give you a name

Lucky

we pardoned you

from your countless

turkey crimes

Moments of McCann: A Found Poem

 

Family is like water,

the original stream

 

The bottom bunk again,

his slumber verses

 

A grace and a toughness,

the safe border between

 

The fires of the Bronx,

sunlight through the girders

 

Recklessness and temptation

written on the ceiling

 

A colossal illusion,

sawdust on the floor

 

Some sort of revolutionary act,

a motherfucking ambulance chaser

 

 

 

-Found Poem

All lines are direct quotes from pages 57-59 of Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin

22 Jan 2021

 

An Unread Note to Self

 

Look at us dancing

with gleeful abandon

as the tape

of your childhood

plays

 

Your dance unreserved,

no matter who 

was watching

 

We were partners,

companions

 

Now you step 

in front of a mirror

and you no longer see me

 

You only see flaws,

imperfections,

never beauty

 

The mirror never 

bringing a smile

 

The world told you

you didn’t deserve me,

you couldn’t have me

 

That self-confidence

was only for others

 

That whatever you were,

it wasn’t enough

 

The echoes still 

play in your mind

every time you

tamper your joy

 

You shouldn’t dance,

you’re embarrassing

 

You can’t sing,

just mouth the words

 

Save the world 

from your shame,

your inadequacy

 

But I remember

when we danced

25 Jan 2021

Watch the video

Ten Things I Remember About January 28, 1986

1. I didn't yet know hope could just explode, without a warning sing

2. But I knew Julie Paolano was the cutest girl in school

 

3. I wasn’t in school that day

 

4. I was home with my grandmother watching a television with the screen built into its wooden stand

 

5. The flash lit the screen

 

6. I was naïve enough that even when the rocket burst into flames in front of my eyes, I believed it was only a test run, because it couldn’t have happened if people were on board

 

7. My grandmother had to tell me I was wrong

 

8. My illusion was not the only thing that shattered that day

 

9. My grandmother lasted eleven more years than the Challenger, but her demise held warning signs I had since learned to recognize

 

10. The warning signs failed to make the loss any easier

28 Jan 2021

Watch the performance

 

All Theft Matters

 

I want to point out to the Stop the Steal folks that someone stole my backpack when I was in college and I think it is really insensitive to try to highlight one theft while not acknowledging all theft. Why single your theft out, like my theft didn’t matter? So maybe your sign should read Stop Stealing or something so I don’t feel left out.

 

#AllTheftMatters

Tricked, Without a Treat

 

Your political sign,

the horrifying 

Halloween ornament

still decorating

your lawn, 

 

even as the calendar

continues its

repetitive cycle 

into the holiday

of colonization,

 

lingers obliviously,

like a child in

November hoping

his Trick-or-Treat bag 

 

would now

suddenly and 

miraculously refill

 

 

26 November 2020

Watch it performed with Daria Quinn