Out, Out, Out (after Signal)

 

“I burnt my finger on the oven element. I never do that.”
“Run cold water over that.”

“I think it’s a first degree burn.”

“Cold water.”

 

next day the slight discoloration has vanished

I didn’t care even though you cared
it was

turned around, turnabout, turned over

and out, over and out, over

and out

[RK, 11/22/20]

 

 

Does What You Want Make It Important?

 

we spent the day working out our writing

for a friendly impromptu reading

our engineer reveals the soul

of a poet, knocks us down with simple words

our nurse winds through the

echoes of academia and medicine

our teacher reaches for the

ineluctable universal wonder and

shows a predilection for internal rhyme

I unravel a list of what, when, who, and why

leaving off the impossible ‘how’

 

what species of tree is that?

when was this road graded into the mountain?

who moves between past and present effortlessly?

why did we and we and we and we connect?

how [imitate a raven with crossed, flapping hands]?

how [changing facial expressions]?

how [sailboat sail filled up with wind]?

[RK, 11/22/20]

 

 

Palimpsest

People Passengers wait choose

to live out a strange lives house 

for the missing are always with us chauffeur 

to arrive. arriving and never leaving

 

Out on the street, 

people choose to a different passenger 

boards a bus 

they step over and finds the driver 

asleep on the floor.

They end up going nowhere.

 

Meanwhile, you fail forget 

to get time off for exemplary behavior the train

when you reach

your destination

and end up they force you to back up

back to where you began.

arriving and never leaving

[RK, 11/22/20]