It

It



C. L. Bledsoe



1

Morning comes and we rise so vile
our spleens would burst
if we didn't empty them on traffic.
I go for breakfast and instead of working watch
old sci-fi movies on TV: The First Spaceship
On Venus, where there’s nothing but shadows,
and Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet,
where the dinosaurs live,
and a robot named John calls his master’s name
as he dies.
She goes to work and I don’t ask why.


2

Some part of me is draining out of my ears
while I sleep, either I or she
is a witch; stealing her/my soul to crumble up
in my/her tea.
There’s a cold wind
that blows across the hairs of my neck
whenever she turns on primetime TV.
She’s taken to crying
whenever I crack a copy of Coleridge.


3

Afternoons after I’m done for the day I sneak
into a pinhole and think
of all the women I‘ve seen, the cars, the houses
I’ll never afford. People will watch me like
a thief if I go to the store for cake.
If some part of me is worth seeing,
you’ll have to dig under the sugar and cheese.


4

It takes a special concentration
to be allowed to enjoy a meal alone.
Strength is in the forehead.
A man can slit his belly open
with a rusty smile, if it means being right.
Anything, anything I’ll ever owe just to know
quiet.
Anything I’ll ever be
to burn every trace of pride off me.



C.L. Bledsoe

Posted over on The King's English