colin bassett is my friend

i wrote this poem from a colin bassett poem in his self-published poetry chapbook when people talk to me i want to close my eyes

colin bassett is my favorite writer, i might rewrite the entire chapbook or just read it over and over and hold it near my head or put it under my pillow if i am using one

people

when people look at me i want to close my mouth and think about how i am going to see you later

i want to ask them to look away and then turn in your direction and look at you because i know you will be looking at me

but the person keeps looking at me and i want to look at you because i keep thinking about you looking at me

and then how you will look at me a certain way and it will be a way you have looked at me before

it will be a way that we looked at each other when we were in bed

or somewhere else where we could see each other and we didn't have to go anywhere or move anything or pretend that we were looking at someone else

salad, helper, okay

three new little poems:

we could eat a salad

we could eat a salad quietly or in silence

or i could tell you why we shouldn't

or why i'd rather feel okay than happy

and i could think about the importance of having a calm demeanor

in the face of something like monetary uncertainty

while i pile dishes in the sink

and how being able to achieve and maintain something

is one way to function acceptably as a human being

good little helper

you feel bad and then feel bad about yourself

for having felt bad, so when i use practical language

to make you understand something overlooked

or my hand to slow your pulse

you call me your good little helper

and for some reason it makes sense to kiss your cheek

and then move a table-top photograph a few inches to the left

it would be okay

on bikes with you in the sun if there was a breeze

and the sky seemed big then and later at night

if we could see orion's belt and you could undo mine

and we could find a silver marker, even if we just met

we'd feel calm around each other

and not have to talk for a long time walking down the street

until eventually you'd say something about being alive

and i would like the words you used and the order you put them in

kevan the woodchuck

my favorite comic is kevan by greg lytle. it is about a woodchuck named kevan who accidentally destroys his home thinking he has been possessed by the spirit of a great warrior and then follows a river out to the sea because he wants to know where it's going and why it is in such a hurry to get there.

this is my favorite part (click to enlarge):



you can read the comic online and also buy a print of the first fifteen strips for like three bucks or something by emailing lytlegregory @ gmail.com. it is printed in black & white, double sided, on 11x17 semi gloss cardstock. buy it to support greg and the general good of things that are sometimes happening in small spots around places.

this could happen

we could be in the same room for many days in a row

& our brains could get further away from each other

while our bodies share a living space that is roughly 150 square feet

& when our bodies would be near each other

our brains would go to the sides of our heads that would be furthest away

or if you would be on the couch reading a spiritual book

like the I Ching

& i would be sitting on the piano bench

pushing keys

what would happen is that sound waves would go into your ears and make vibrations

which would be interpreted by your brain

as either something pleasant or not

to which your brain would respond with a message to your voice box

that eventually would become a sound wave making vibrations in my ear

that would then have to be interpreted by my brain

which would vocalize its reaction using my voice box

& our brains wouldn't have to move

& we'd be in the same room