Hey You Guys!
It's Poetry Friday!
So check it out, yo. Today's poetry is by magic Maggie Sullivan, my poet sister. I couldn't choose just one so here's a few, for different moods: crushes, confusion, and more crushes!
Just for background, Maggie grew up in Koreatown just like me and Ben and then lived in South Dakota, Minneapolis, oh heck, all over.
Maggie finds heroism in secret places all the time.
**********************************
Thirsty Gulp
being 39 isn't a good enough reason to feel bad
take Donn for instance
he's 42 and still works at Borders
and gives a babe like me a boner
he knows you're supposed to put butter on the popcorn
he knows you're supposed to put salt on
he knows you're supposed to read slow
he knows you're not supposed to know
right now he's memorizing moves behind the register
from a book about wrestling in the 1800s
I'm dusting the mystery shelves behind him
wishing he'd use one on me
he speaks Old Minnesotan
criminy, he goes way back!
funnier than W.C. Fields and scarier
he knows how to say, "That was delicious. Thank you."
and he can be wrong
he ate a whole anchovy all at once
from my plate in the breakroom yesterday,
and then realized--
he is old-time punk rock music
he knows for a fact it's possible to break your back in two
and still walk
he's an expert on lite fare
although it doesn't help so much
Donn born with two Ns
even in big beige plastic grandma glasses
and corrective shoes
he's so in style
it breaks me
***************
Toast
Here's to being very alone all the time!
To Charlie Rose!
To the bus!
Here's to office birthday cards
signed by temps who're gone now!
To a brittle liquor store notebook
with only one thing written inside--
the start of a letter to her!
Here's to unresolved anger!
To unresolved love!
Forget about turning out good at the end!
Forget turning out, at all!
Here's to the untrue and impossible!
To chords strummed only once a world!
To the sun!
Here's to the crack of a New Year's
morning beer, right here
on this trailer porch!
Here's to being very alone all the time!
*********
Going to California
It's a windy night with fireflies
and I'm taking apart a guitar
and my sisters are upstairs fighting
about a brush. Sixteen lemons
have fallen since you were here.
I should send you one
so you can eat it in front of somebody
and impress him. (That is meant to be a joke.)
One thing you should know
is that you have extremely beautiful hair.
Those guys had been partying
too heavily for their own well-being
and were about to fall asleep.
They were more dreaming than seeing.
Add to this the fact that they
are not artistically creative.
I feel sorry for them, more than anything else.
Well you haven't written yet.
That's cool. I know how it is
when you don't feel like writing a letter.
You probably have more significant things
to think about, like school.
Could you send me your phone number again?
Unfortunately, Jennifer thought it was a receipt
and threw it away.
Well I'm back and look
you've driven me to drink.
I'm mailing this right after it's finished
so please make some allowances.
I had a dream about you last night.
Listen I wish you would come back sometime.
They put up a whole new building
for Maeder and those assholes.
You wouldn't even have to see them.
************
This Bus Is All Right!
This bus is all right!
Like me, it's late for History of Western Civilization Part Two class.
Actually, it doesn't bother.
It goes to the beach, really slowly.
Wherever you're coming from, for a dollar thirty-five,
it lets you deep inside.
In fact, the driver says, "Move all the way back!"
When you come out, you're in a completely different place,
without feeling invaded, dirty, inadequate,
rejected or regret.
You don't have to say anything on this bus.
You don't have to have a comeback, or explain.
You don't have to practice, or have traveled a lot.
You don't have to be able to see the pattern.
It's Poetry Friday!
So check it out, yo. Today's poetry is by magic Maggie Sullivan, my poet sister. I couldn't choose just one so here's a few, for different moods: crushes, confusion, and more crushes!
Just for background, Maggie grew up in Koreatown just like me and Ben and then lived in South Dakota, Minneapolis, oh heck, all over.
Maggie finds heroism in secret places all the time.
**********************************
Thirsty Gulp
being 39 isn't a good enough reason to feel bad
take Donn for instance
he's 42 and still works at Borders
and gives a babe like me a boner
he knows you're supposed to put butter on the popcorn
he knows you're supposed to put salt on
he knows you're supposed to read slow
he knows you're not supposed to know
right now he's memorizing moves behind the register
from a book about wrestling in the 1800s
I'm dusting the mystery shelves behind him
wishing he'd use one on me
he speaks Old Minnesotan
criminy, he goes way back!
funnier than W.C. Fields and scarier
he knows how to say, "That was delicious. Thank you."
and he can be wrong
he ate a whole anchovy all at once
from my plate in the breakroom yesterday,
and then realized--
he is old-time punk rock music
he knows for a fact it's possible to break your back in two
and still walk
he's an expert on lite fare
although it doesn't help so much
Donn born with two Ns
even in big beige plastic grandma glasses
and corrective shoes
he's so in style
it breaks me
***************
Toast
Here's to being very alone all the time!
To Charlie Rose!
To the bus!
Here's to office birthday cards
signed by temps who're gone now!
To a brittle liquor store notebook
with only one thing written inside--
the start of a letter to her!
Here's to unresolved anger!
To unresolved love!
Forget about turning out good at the end!
Forget turning out, at all!
Here's to the untrue and impossible!
To chords strummed only once a world!
To the sun!
Here's to the crack of a New Year's
morning beer, right here
on this trailer porch!
Here's to being very alone all the time!
*********
Going to California
It's a windy night with fireflies
and I'm taking apart a guitar
and my sisters are upstairs fighting
about a brush. Sixteen lemons
have fallen since you were here.
I should send you one
so you can eat it in front of somebody
and impress him. (That is meant to be a joke.)
One thing you should know
is that you have extremely beautiful hair.
Those guys had been partying
too heavily for their own well-being
and were about to fall asleep.
They were more dreaming than seeing.
Add to this the fact that they
are not artistically creative.
I feel sorry for them, more than anything else.
Well you haven't written yet.
That's cool. I know how it is
when you don't feel like writing a letter.
You probably have more significant things
to think about, like school.
Could you send me your phone number again?
Unfortunately, Jennifer thought it was a receipt
and threw it away.
Well I'm back and look
you've driven me to drink.
I'm mailing this right after it's finished
so please make some allowances.
I had a dream about you last night.
Listen I wish you would come back sometime.
They put up a whole new building
for Maeder and those assholes.
You wouldn't even have to see them.
************
This Bus Is All Right!
This bus is all right!
Like me, it's late for History of Western Civilization Part Two class.
Actually, it doesn't bother.
It goes to the beach, really slowly.
Wherever you're coming from, for a dollar thirty-five,
it lets you deep inside.
In fact, the driver says, "Move all the way back!"
When you come out, you're in a completely different place,
without feeling invaded, dirty, inadequate,
rejected or regret.
You don't have to say anything on this bus.
You don't have to have a comeback, or explain.
You don't have to practice, or have traveled a lot.
You don't have to be able to see the pattern.
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