downward cast and cupping her right palm with forefinger and thumb discreetly pinching a pimple at her left temple, it appeared she worked for the U.S. government. or, if not for that government, then some other. and if for no government, then a security firm. crested there near her temple likely a very tiny two way radio or more secure line. it appeared that way and as she started to slowly chew a scale of dried flesh hanging from her lower lip she suddenly appears to be communicating something so important and confidential that she must hide her voice from both ears and eyes alike. that she averts everyone’s gaze, not only his, deeply troubles the man, seated across the park, watching her in the cold afternoon fog for hours, mouth agape, newspaper abandoned.

It is my birthday so I bike to your garden plot alone
I take your celery
The very same from which you have been so kind to offer a piece from here or there
That again and again I politely decline
But no, I take all of it

Witnessed by a lone chipmunk, gawking
Huge plants full on your summers attention
Now snatched into a bulging bag near too large for travel
Weighed down, a bandit
I speed home with a hunger
Attempting to consume many
My hands full of stalks, grasping handlebars
Darting jauntily
An endeavor
The juice runs over my chin to my peddling feet
The fibers becoming balled and tangled in my mouth, chewing
Too large, unmanageable. I'm thwarted.
Still chewing, I muse on your
maybe elaborate
prank.

A special kind of hell
day-in, day-out
with no known close
or open.
Someone wiser assuredly
at fault
or one more perverse
at least
blamed.

She is wrinkling her nose at me
and he is scowling in his chair
desk-bound crockpot turned to high
known also as less than a simmer
failure on promise delivered
the frog's life not as of yet 
cut short

Down the corridor buoyant giggles and chirps of

weekend minded ephemerals, sun-dappled ameliorations bubble up

though beyond a junction

overheard voices, terse and targeted

quickly cut through, give pause

heavy tones with sharp punctuation

self congratulatory pursual of an unnamed victim

the volume rising as my feet slow, unsteady

until quite quickly it drops to an icy whisper

“he just… he simply isn’t that smart.”

A hotel pool indoors where children strangers immediately begin jumping, splashing, and playing marco-polo, dolphins and sharks.

Outside a woman drinks alone and checks to see no one is watching.

as if the orange juice came fresh from your freezer

frozen fresh like a man before autopsy

squeezed prior and so vibrant

the lower canines are quite pronounced
much less so pronounced are, as we can see, the upper canines
suggesting dominance in this particular individual
of a passive nature in general
most likely this creature was uncomfortable
but sporadically quite comfortable
and perhaps then- rageful?

further study is needed, however:
based solely on said person’s dental history
pursual is unrecommended and
no immediate action is advised.

my stop watch will start and stop telling time
the orange juice in the cream cocktail will curdle
they will notice eventually what it is you have been doing
children in school will learn good, then bad ways of being
people in ivory towers will regress, then proceed forward
on his back porch he will reach down and pick a fold of boxer from his balls

wake up at 2.
after spending the last few hours
falling back asleep
then awake
then

eat some syrupy leftover from the fridge
eventually
carry it back with you

move to leave finally
spill it on the blankets
feel validated.

He liked the light coming in through the windows.
And always wanted to capture it.

This was confusing.

For the longest time I believed his hatred of catholicism vanished whenever he looked upon the stations
of the cross,
but soon as they were out of his sight, was resurrected.