ANTICIPATION

June for me 

rather sounds 

like the tin-shiny 

jingling

around—of just these 

very few sorts 

of words—

bike chrome!

and dark juice

in perspiring glass 

bottles jostling around!

and—ultimately

the frosty 

tinkling

bells—

of any dime-a-

dozen

anonymous pushcart icecream man.

IDEALLY

You'd think that this 

chilly glass

case—fluorescently

backlit 

and keeping so 

quiet and safe—such alluring 

dollops 

of pure lemon

frosting crowning 

perfectly 

round 

and impish-

ly small 

emblems 

of tender cake—

really would have

to have a lot 

more little 

finger—not to mention

nose-

prints obscuring it!

VAULTING AMBITION

Across the street
the baggy 

cocksure—
figure of a redcapped 

landscaper 
swiftly manning his gas-

powered weed whip
like nobody

else's
business out there—

stirs within me
pangs

of yearning—
to similarly manipulate

a given situation.

QUICK EARTH TIPS FOR INTERGALACTIC DAYTRIPPERS—

Red as your rocket
and neon-

yellow—
paint coating shabby 

heaps of brick—
almost 

always
means—authentic

American taco shack.

FELIX CULPA

Typically kid—the worst 
kinds 
of problems

are the ones
you didn't 
cause—but the best

ones
are always—
the sort you can solve;

for instance—when 
the morning path

on which you 
ordinarily 
hungrily walk

gets suddenly 
and dramatically—overrun
every summer

earlier and
earlier—by such impassibly 
huge and abundant thick 

stalks—of wild 
rhubarb.

REAL PROGRESS

At first—that 
rude and 
sort-of right 
angle of shade 

where all 
our thought-
less rubble—

crumbling road-
side's shredded 
gravel, shocks 

of greenyellow 
Heineken bottles, little shards

of grass in swollen plastic 
bags of Swedish 
Fish and Bugles—

butts awkward-
ly
up 
against the balmy woozy shade 

of a midwest south
suburban woodfall—doesn't really 

seem to be
particularly 
special—let alone amazing;

until 
a certain
single day

when suddenly—and only 
in that 
shady tumbledown

and particular 
kind 
of place—

there's daisies.

INCIDENTALLY—

Such vigorous bays 

of pesky roadside

weeds—insisting 

wild purple

waves of circumstantial 

flowers 

are—difficult!

to ever get 

rid of—

once they're

pointed-

out to you.