Rose Hunter
Ex Nihilo
There’s so much and I want all of it -
out walking at night
bounding over concrete
the cracks the leaves the touching sky
the thing is in my gut and
growing up and up
a shriek-bomb trapped
in my throat - there’s
so much
like the sound of the word
covetous and overflowing and
lush - there’s
so much, give me
more more more-
there’s so little
and I don’t want any of it.
Out walking at night,
I want nothing nothing nothing.
Bather
Whodawhat, it’s a hot one tonight,
one-armed woman with no shoes
says, as clerk growls don’t even think
about it, to Leonard
eyeing Bammin’ Jammin’
Cherry Slurpee machine. He want
me to work in this heat…. I tell
him I get de-hydrated…I tell
him I got myself a ho-tel.
I could be in the ho-tel…. Purple
and yellow marbled woman and
man attached to her neck
put candy bars next to till, as
Leonard dives under nozzle
mouth open, grey hair spilling
through rails to
steel tray below
clerk leaps counter then stops
as Leonard shakes head
pink gush percolating, jaw rattling
a seal cub with glistening folds
as the marbled woman rises as
the man leaves her neck
and the one-armed woman
is on her toes and all of us
gazing over the donuts, in green and
yellow, fluorescent-lit - Whodawhat -
it’s a hot one tonight.