Texarkana

Rented a nearly purple Toyota after landing in Dallas-Forth Worth

The air felt warm but not humid outside and we stopped for BBQ 

And a fried pie off the freeway where the sun was setting in such a 

Hazy way silhouetting passing semis up against it and we passed the

Sign for Paris which made me remember and recognize the looping

Overpasses from the movie so I looked out briefly for Travis with his

Lonesome eyes and red ball cap and on the freeway you can do one hundred

Easy, without feeling it, so straight and free of potholes it is so in no time we 

Reached the hotel which was surrounded by strip malls and chain restaurants

That were very much the same as the ones they have back where I'm from. 

Marrakesh

Wake to uncertainty, good
Recognize that as truth
Turn on some music
Going into the shower
An app a friend suggested on
Facebook that allows you
To access streaming radio
From around the world

Leave your body on the killing floor
Let yourself float and dream once more

A Reading

No one normally lives in your living room
No one normal lives here
You're sitting here today, a holiday, trying to read
The second job starts in a couple of hours
The alternator needs replacing and you're hoping
The car will generate the electricity needed to deliver you
To the eight and a half hours that will cover it.

Distracted, you stop to vacuum the rug noticing an inch of grime
On the wooden window sill, open a beer, feel your belly
Sitting there when you sit back down where it didn't used to be,
Your ass is flattening too, gluteus minimus, maybe you ought to walk
Up some hills, do some mule kicks or something
Get back to the book: someone talking about a woman
The character walks thirty miles every week for.

A friend to his mind...
Thinking of this, the tugging of yearn
And then you get stuck on a sound
Drip drip, drip drip, drip drip, drip drip - uniform
Cadence, a metronome of distraction, so
You leave the book on the arm of the chair
The asshole's shitty dog wrecked

The kitchen faucet is not the offender at all
It's the solar-powered plastic daisy potted on the window sill
Where she placed it, waving its butterfly hands cheerfully,
After assessing the potential for sunlight exposure carefully,
The day she said you'd lost your brilliance and put up a bird feeder
And moved a few things in and, for a time, wore the soft eyes
Of said friend.

Seventeen

The boy chose Valentine's Day for his massacre, at a school, which I guess is where you go to make a statement these days with an AR-15 carbine and a high capacity magazine or two. The news anchors stumbling over themselves to tell the facts they don't yet know first. Ambition trumps compassion, you can here it in their words. I don't really care what drove the kid.  I'm not really outraged or disgusted. I am not thinking or praying or posting about it. This is only more of the same, and I am no longer.

Feb 14

The ice remains in patches on the driveway, but the next three days near fifty ought to take care of it. This time of year is so often exhausting. This back and forth between Winter and what comes after. Don't even want to speak the name for fear of bringing its memory to life. It's still Winter, no matter what it looks like. And I still have a mountain of bills and a refi that won't go through and a court date. I'm writing this thing to try to take me beyond that, into what's next, but it's still Winter.

Skipper

Money woke me at 2:45 AM. Since then I've gone back to sleep several times, each time having small dreams, most of them obvious and anxious. There was one, however, in which I was hopping lightly stone to stone across a river. I was following someone else who was very worried about falling in and getting wet. I gave the problem very little thought and skimmed over the top of the water, just touching each stone with the toe of my shoe and pushing off. It was kind of pleasant.