Advertising

Authenticity of a message
That will sell
A manufactured image
Of truth that is not there
Of an identity of a mask.

But this isn't about marketing
This isn't about sales
                       (But it is)
This isn't about money
                       (But it is)
This isn't about what is needed
                        But it is
                        About
                        What is wanted

Bar Riff #2

I.
Drunk republican with a plastic bag
Fill of take out food he does not remember
Ordering

Throws his twenties on the bar
And yells about
Obama

Says it like a cuss word in church
Like evil that boils out of hollow cheeks
And the song plays
Mommy told me yes she told me 
I'd meet girls like you

II.
Kill Bill talks in sports
Football
49ers
That big fucker does this
And runs fast
That big
Hey!
What happened with that

Kill Bill talks in twice told tales
Retold
Again
Retold
For those people who do not know.

Kill Bill acts
did he really
Put a shot glass through his TV?
Slap his grandmother?
Drop kick the neighbor's terrier onto the roof
Of a passing car
And make a field goal sign?
Could anyone be that way and hold down a job
Or a life of any worth?


 

Lesson on tape

Why do I speak like that?
Fumbling over words and syllables
Like I have marbles in my mouth while
I speak into a can.

I move like an ape, like a cat with
A broken leg
Shambling around the room so self conscious
Of what that red light means.

Critique! Critique!
Shout out loud how much
You suck at your job
How terrible you are
Quit while you are ahead

Before more damage is done
To fragile students.

Mean

What does this word mean, exactly? Oxford says:
Convey
Intend
Unwilling to give or share
Unkind, spiteful
An average
A condition, quality or course of action
Equally removed from two apparent extremes.

I don't understand why it is mean
To call someone average.
Is there distinction in being average?
In this culture it is distinctly wrong.

I don't understand why we
Are unwilling to give or share.
I do understand intent.
People who are mean mean harm
This is an early lesson.

We sometimes never learn to spot the mean ones
Or we know them but fail to spot their meanings.
I mean to avoid extremes.

Laundromat Sunday

I.
Had to use the quad loader for the colors.
At 8:10 every third machine is taken
But only four people are here including
The older lady in the corner
On the leather chair.
I will have to fight for dryers.
The older lady is always here, never smiling.
She never speaks.
I can't tell sometimes if she is alive.
The quad loader on extract cycle
Sounds like a turbine
Of some enormous beast
Straining to take off with an incredible load.

II.
State of the art front load washers
The sign is circa 1990.
The poster (2005) promises you balance in life
The woman (couldn't be a man) juggles laughing babe,
car keys, clothes and a box of french fries.
Uncluttered minds in a cluttered world
The snack bar is no longer
It is filled with overflow wash, dry and fold.
This man, this owner, knows his business and
Works 12 hours a day.
I see him every two weeks and do not know his name.

III.
Tweaker with phone in one hand
Wash in the other:
                                  You're foolin' me!
                                  That isn't funny!
She is impossibly thin, impossibly less than forty
But trying to look 25.
My single load washing whites is slower
Than the mighty quad loader which
Has speed to match its size. The detergent stained water
Runs down the glass like spilled milk.
The time of drying approaches.
The quad washer spins its last,
Twitching, really.
Light off (wheel stop)
And out the clothes come.