Sing lullabies and love tunes
to landfills.
Sleep on packing peanuts in the spare room
brushing your teeth with green beer.
On occasion, you may drift in and out of sleep
while the ladies in highchairs above your head contemplate
their early welfare days, alone then, with child and
a frozen bag of mixed vegetables (their children sleeping now).
In range, the local radio spoons in late reports;
late persons disappearing in late hours
Whether or not you want to hear it, you hear it.
In the morning, wash your face and rearrange clothes
get out a gift, the boutonnière made of glass
and add it on your suit…freshen up a bit
because there's nothing wrong with sleeping in a tie.
There is something wrong with sleeping alone.
Be courteous because sometimes behind lampshades
you surrender emotion—completely at the whim of what mood
the city is in for the evening.
And why not?
On autumnal afternoons the blind
and illiterate will ask you to translate
the street signs
and after that, your skill is sacred
you're saved for the current times
to walk out like a battleship.
| Euphemism Campus Box 4240 Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790-4240 |