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samples from

The arrest of mr. kissy face

Pesticide

After a struggle

they took me from my farm

Farmers always fight

to stay on their land

 

Weather, banks

and the nuthouse

are three of our biggest threats

 

And bugs of course

I filled my suitcase

with my special blend of

DDT and Arsenic

It had always worked for me before

                                                                 

but they yelled at me

and took my case

and put it in the attic

 

They said they’d give it back when I left

but I knew they would never let me out

 

In the meantime

the power of my pesticide

did secret battle

with my enemies

Ansel

Ansel Adams awoke in a black and white room

He’d bled the world of color

as effectively as a 1947 Zenith console TV

 

He’d fallen asleep on the couch

and when he opened his eyes

the screen was static

pulsating flecks of Yosemite

 

Noise was white

His wife had fallen asleep

on the other side of the couch

wearing a white apron

tied tightly around her

Midwestern middle

 

His black and white cat

rubbed against his legs

 

When images become inadequate

I shall be content with silence

he said to the cat  

 

Outside

a city bus rumbled by

accelerating loudly to make the hill

Seaside

Wind rustles the sea oats

Waves lap the cottage’s stilts

You touch my foot with your tentative foot

Your extremities are always cold

 

On his shadowed throne our baby squalls a warning

I face him

my smile radium

You take books on the Holocaust from my shelf

and throw them into the surf

 

A blue crab scuttles across the sand

I want to smear the cosmetics

from your face

 

Praise for The Arrest of Mr. Kissy Face

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