Coffee Made a single cup; fuel needed after waking at 4 in the morning. Vinegar There’s a bottle of balsamic on the table, waiting to be drizzled over someone’s leftovers for lunch. 100 Hits Here’s a copy of Billboard’s Hottest Hot 100 Hits, a gift to the staff lounge from an intern of mine fromContinue reading “#348: On the Last Day of National Poetry Month, the American English Teacher Writes Several Minimalist Poems About Things He Finds in the Staff Lounge”
Monthly Archives: April 2019
#347: A Prose Poem Meditation on the Penultimate Day of National Poetry Month by the American English Teacher in His Potentially Penultimate Professional Year, Ending in a Rhyming Couplet
The natives are restless, the 9th graders are rowdy, won’t stop talking, interrupt almost every teacher phrase with chatter, and because my intern has the class, I am completely unruffled. It’s the penultimate day of National Poetry Month and this is my penultimate poem in prose in the April of my potentially penultimate school yearContinue reading “#347: A Prose Poem Meditation on the Penultimate Day of National Poetry Month by the American English Teacher in His Potentially Penultimate Professional Year, Ending in a Rhyming Couplet”
#346: I Drove Through the Desert and Back Over a Mountain to Get Home
I drove for three hours, through the desert and back over a mountain, to get home. Listening to XTC the whole way, I felt every twenty minutes or so tears of gratitude welling up, which I staved off, because I was driving at sixty-five miles per hour and singing along to every single song, neitherContinue reading “#346: I Drove Through the Desert and Back Over a Mountain to Get Home”
#345: According to This Map
I have lived for a long time now in the country of Autumn, ruminating in the mountains near the capital city of Change, trying to see my way back into Summer. I know I’m going to hike my way through Somewhere on my way over the Plains of Solitude, and I may have to takeContinue reading “#345: According to This Map”
#344: I Drove Over the Mountain to Get Here
I drove over the mountain to get here. I drove over Mount Hood. I drove over the mountain into the desert. Eventually, I ended up close to three other mountains, the ones we call The Sisters. I drove over the mountain to get here. This is the place where I will try to help peopleContinue reading “#344: I Drove Over the Mountain to Get Here”
#343: The Steampunks of Spring
The Steampunks of Spring Two octopuses sit on the window sill sporting their top hats and flight goggles, little works of art made mostly from recycled odds and ends, scrap leather, gears, watch parts, wheels, lucite grapes, steel wire, old jewelry, junk. Behind them, through the glass, Spring arrives. The oaks are alive with squawking crows andContinue reading “#343: The Steampunks of Spring”
#342: G is for Gully-Whumper
You’re going to hear a real gully-whumper right about now. If you weren’t such a gulpin you’d have a chance of seeing right through the gum. In my life, I have never heard such gummation. Go ahead and pour yourself some guinea red, loosen yourself before the gumball machine comes down the gravel drive. Don’t give meContinue reading “#342: G is for Gully-Whumper”
#341: This Animal, This Dog.
Say the word animal. Look at this dog. It doesn’t seem right somehow. The word animal simultaneously not sufficient and too much. This creature seems to rise above the distinction, as you talk to it and feel for it, pick up after it and play with it as if it were a human child. AndContinue reading “#341: This Animal, This Dog.”
#340: Skylarking
It’s 1986, the winter after our wedding and we’re living in a shack. Seriously, I’m not a tall guy and I can stand in the living room and place my hands flat on the ceiling. It’s the holiday season and I’ve just bought XTC’s “Skylarking,” which I listen to from start to finish over andContinue reading “#340: Skylarking”
#339: A Poem for Easter
Jesus and the Easter Bunny walk into a bar. Sugar ants invade the bathroom, are crawling all over the toothpaste tube and toothbrushes. They are not, necessarily, on friendly terms; it goes almost without saying. The bunny goes in for Steam Punk art, likes Jesus and the Mary Chain, which the Son of God finds amusing,Continue reading “#339: A Poem for Easter”
michael jarmer 