Genesis Fall 2012

The poems "Ghost Walker or Ghost Walking" and "Whitewash" will be featured in the upcoming issue of genesis

3-year-old recites poem, "Litany" by Billy Collins

Have You Heard God Do Impressions?

Before coffee God tells me the truth,
laments the end of the world.

I listen closely, transcribe
trumpet blasts, divine jargon.

Newscasters will stooge, taint silence,
pretend to be the funniest men alive.  

Like open mic night, no one will be listening.

People will deserve one thing,
then settle for another.

Some will speculate God tolerated
more often than he loved.

Religious campaigns will replace war:

Is Jesus your quarterback?
Put Christ in your starting lineup.

Everyone will find new profits to believe in:

White-collar Christ, Paint-by-Number Jesus,
the Menthol Spirit of the holy smoke break.

Churches will accept endorsement deals.
My Jesus prefers Miracle Whip to Hellmann’s.

Each day the sky will be a different color of shit.

For Ten Minutes

The whore sat back in her seat,
helped herself to a Dunhill.

Prepared an invoice for tonight's session.

"Are you ready for tax season?" she asked.
"Can you tax regular sex?" I found myself saying aloud
humming softly to the tune of the whore crunching numbers.

"There's nothing regular about the motorcycle
collision of a sex fetish you have."

The gap in her teeth grinned.

She was right. Dead, no helmet.
Hellbent on being handcuffed or

impaled by the whore's oncoming traffic of a stare.
A long collapse. A crow bar pressed against the throat,

one of us moaning, flirting like we were married.

Pat Benatar Gets Drunk On The Sun

The sound of my mother mowing the backyard
made the summer feel more laborious than usual.

Perhaps we were sun-drunk, woozy,
fatigued from excessive exposure.

The jackass entrepreneurs of the oopsy daisy tan.

Maybe we were tired of calling liquor stores
for reference checks, listening to internet radio,
riding bikes, pretending the seat doesn’t paralyze the ass.

Maybe we were just tired of taking music lessons,
summer school classes or taking turns
playing the neighbor girl like a piano.

We Are Against It

"I want to submit someone else’s work. What’s your stance on plagiarism?"

GENESIS.

Two poems will appear in the next edition of IUPUI's Genesis magazine.

This will be my third appearance.