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honey

11/19/2022

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You told me you were allergic
to honey
It didn’t give you a rash
Or anything
but you disliked it enough to tell me
More than once
 
I thought you had a bad experience
with a bee in your past
(Bees are bitches)
so I believed you
 
But then
at the train station
3 months later
I saw you eating honey
out of a jar
engraved with
your name on it
 
When I asked you what happened
you stared at me blankly
then down
and away
and just blinked
as I heard more jars
clanking
in your pocket
like a jailer’s keys
 
I turned in confusion
as you kept
Eating
 
I forget what happened
after that
 
I tried to walk away
But every step I took I was stuck
by the viscous quicksand
you let spill all over the floor
 
When I got on the train
only backward seats were left
to take me into the future
with eyes that couldn’t see
anything but where i had been
in the past

I tried to distract myself
by looking out the window
and counting how many telephone poles
we passed
It wasn’t many but it felt like more.
But the ants that followed the honey
slowly bit me
to remind me of how they got there
to begin with

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michigan

11/19/2022

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I had never been to Michigan before
It’s cold there
which is maybe why you chose
to work in the middle
Of nowhere?
 
Or you just liked the sound of a great lake
too far for someone to swim across
even if they knew the task
 
Michigan gets more snow than, say, 
Connecticut
Of course
and the avalanches that fall from your roof
can suffocate anyone
trying to help you clear it
 
But the quantity of snow
wasn’t important
 
You could kill someone
with a snowball
if you threw it hard enough
It didn’t matter what
state
you were in
 
But maybe it was easier to obscure
your crime in Michigan though
And blood-caked footsteps
would melt
before anyone could blame you
 
I’d need a heavier coat
if I were to come visit you
Of course
and gloves
lots of layers
 
We had that in common
The layers
 
And your story
got more complicated
with each new question I asked
 
Until we disagreed on the time zone
you lived in
and whether you intended to bury me
in that person-shaped hole
you had freshly dug
5 years earlier

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On the side of the road

11/1/2022

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Down-winding to a H...A...L...t
Jalopy piece of shit
with the real faux leather interior,
rusted shut trunk,
and a sticker I can’t quite peel off that
says:
“If you can read this, you’re too close.”

A strange woman with wire-rimmed glasses
and a chihuahua wearing a sweater in the backseat
pulls over

and asks if I need
Help?
But I tell her I don’t
and she edges back out into traffic.

In my warped rear-view mirror,

I watch the speck of noise vanish.
Others follow---
Some stop,
though most are only

spits of showroom chrome
flying past the point of my break-down.

Darkness descends
on the side of the road
and it is then that I realize
I have
no
engine.


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    Other Poems

    All
    Honey
    Michigan
    On The Side Of The Road

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