*
I'm yours now.
A drum, a rock, a sock—
something easily thrown.

*
Deceived into comfortable
ways of being,
mango shaving crème.

*
Have you ever chewed
on a piece of cane sugar?

*
The voice-over narration perfect.
Two seconds of discernable
silence before the destruction.

*
Women in their 30s.
Concentrated, masked,
knowing what they want.

*
Your voice gets lost
in the glass shower door.
I prefer seeing you naked, anyway.

*
Announcement—dinner in one hour!
Lunch, one long champagne in bed.
Nothing is big enough.

*
Eating my way through.
Notes on the Notes,
black lace underwear.

*
The aphorist as aristocrat.
Tumbleweed boss.

*
Women in their 30s.
Sheriffs in lawless towns.

*
Diary as the first and only story.

*
I've written ten checks today.
I'm in charge obviously.

*
When you forget to water
your bamboo, will your good
luck run out?

*
The serious student usually believes in hope.

*
The successful scholar waters bamboo.

*
Men who spit on the street
are like the unpaved street.

*
A single palm, a giant wish.

*
Summer, an assignment in noise.

*
The quietest hot tub.
The loudest hot tub.
Who actually admits to hot tub?

*
An Armenian tea,
the after-dinner mint.

*
The scholar works in the library.
The writer works by the pool.
The scholar-writer sits in the trees,
surveying the ocean.

*
The phone rings and rings.
I don't answer.
She doesn't ever speak.

*
Drinking pots and pots of coffee.
The day never seems to start.

*
I checked the newspaper
for your name.
 
Sorry, I got distracted
by another bad review.

*
The sabbatical never ends.

*
A cathedral,
a church in a white-collared shirt.

__

On the hunt for wisdom, I tried casting spells with my own hand. This is what happened: I looked into the sun, and my hand warmed.