Borrower

Floating away like a jet stream in the hollow

a bat scream at the follower do not leave me here behind you

to traipse the forest blinds you

collects me in an old potato bag

with sprouts of green and mire,

mold and mildew solder sire

Jesus sun standing on a sea foam barn roof

in the flurry of Cool Spring Road,

swishes off like a horsetail from Thomas Run

and makes the cut in time to be castrated mentally as a bull frog

jacked off in a Beer Fest laboratory,

the whole story is not quite there yet

and the reader feels like they’re missing something

asking themselves what the hell is the author talking about

and I’ll tell you, she doesn’t know either yet.

She starts writing without thinking too much about it first

because if she goes in with any kind of intention

her expectations are never succeeded,

never hoed and weeded the vegetable garden

and the mint vines took over the tomatoes

crowded out the zucchini

and strangled the bell peppers at the waistline

struck a hard line nose to the grindstone Scrooge

cranking away at the 80’s corvette that sits in our neighbor’s carport,

pays the bank late and defaults on my student loans like a fat kid on cake—

I realize a reference to 50 seems trite but I couldn’t help myself,

I’m trying to write how I would speak to you in person,

converse a different version of the river crossing to Grandmother’s house we go,

backpedal down our driveway and totally eat shit

like the time we hosed down Courtney’s back patio in the winter

and waited for it to freeze over so we could go ice skating in our snow boots,

we used to ice her side hill too when it would snow

and we would ride down together on her Red Flyer

singing we are the Jamaican bobsled team,

it seems like the author is gaining some momentum now

and I feel like this is going somewhere but I am still not sure,

there’s a lot more here and I’m beginning to think she is leading us on

like a bad prom date, this looks like the beginning

of a B-list horror movie, the back Havre de Grace stairwell,

the empty lap pool with rust stains around the heater vents in the floor

duct tape around the door jamb in Mark’s freshman dorm

so we could smoke weed inside when it was raining.

Become an RA and you will see more shit, vomit and santorum than in your whole life,

this is right after you’ve come home from a long day of finals

and work at Plato’s diner, they have a huge turnover rate there

but you can make bank if you stick it out and bust your ass for ten to twelve a day,

personally I think Will’s got it made working at Bamboo Eater—

tree leafers coming from New York City to watch the Quahog seasons change

it’s the episode where Lois learns karate and beats the shit out of everyone

Peter goes around saying Yankees suck Knicks suck Jets suck

and all these hey-I’mma-kick-your-ass-types get dog riled up

and piled in a heap when she’s done with them

kicks the shoes off them and lights their Jim Carrey pants on fire,

chop it up and make some Myers guacamole moley moley out of it,

put patchouli on your armpits when you run out of deodorant

you dirty chinacat bitch, rusty cunt bucket witch

making black magic in the woods behind the Lunchbox

we had a bonfire back there once and the neighbors called the landlord instead of the cops

because they’re illegal immigrants so that panned out great for us

but we did manage to set the bottom of the basement stairs on fire one other time,

long story but it involved a simmering hookah coal

and we did everything you’re not supposed to do in the event of a fire

but it worked and saved us a lot of damages,

damn straight we didn’t get our security deposit back.

If a flat tire is the worst problem we have with the van

then I cannot complain, but that man at the service station in Virginia

looked at John the whole time he was talking even though I was the one who was paying

I’m just saying sexism is still around and it’s stupid

and organized religion is for stupid people

I hope that offends you

I set out to be nice and I try most of the time to literally bite my tongue but I’m done

with that bullshit I always find myself wishing I had sad something

different, fantasized about leaving my last job in a fury

yelling fuck you at my manager and screwing everybody over

but then I wouldn’t get my last pay check

it was in our contract that if you didn’t give two weeks

you wouldn’t get your money

which I’m pretty sure is illegal but the little bit I was owed

was so not worth getting a lawyer over,

Red Rover we call Caitlan on over

but give them all some time to miss it

I could kiss it and make it better

I love when kids are young enough that that still works on booboos

or guys are dumb enough that that still works when I emasculate him

further than kicking him in the balls—

I would never actually do that unless he hit me first

but I can do it with words

I know how to hurt a person sometimes without meaning to I think I am too honest

and a lot of times people don’t know what to do with it,

I’m not trying to be a bitch, but there’s always a but.