Eileen Myles

 

 

Unlikely

 

Rosie
doesn’t know
it’s Saturday
& Flora had
an egg on a pile
of rice that
looked like
a breast

Eileen I’m
going to get
out of here &
I wish you
would too. I
know that guy
had a killer vibe
the dept. of Agriculture
says don’t inspect.
children in Iowa
in 1939
were taught
to stutter
for a test.
It’s warm on my
shoulders
and on my
back he hasn’t
killed me yet
the baby in Queens
was taken away
his vegan parents
were starving
him
in the time
of a child
running for a ball
I hope she never
goes home
and he waits

 

Transportation

I bought a bigger
pinker dick
for you
but then I
didn’t
call. It seemed necessary
you’re tall
& I miss you all
the time.

I love missing
it’s mostly
that. You pulled
yourself up
like a big cat
but shorn

I hate to see
you that way
so I’ll wipe the sand
off the dick
and stick
it in
the ground

I imagine you flying
like ancient art
all gold
don’t be scared
when I call
I’ll have new
tricks

I want to lie
with you
in mounds of sand
and the power of the
sun

I’m missing my boat
by the way
& suddenly
the voice
stops

No Excuse

The crows
were never here

I don’t remember them
and you could
put your hand in the water
& hit a fish or two

now you gotta
go look.

She was the first one from
India to outer space.

I don’t remember
those trees
and I don’t remember
it being so hot

but winter used to be
really cold
You remember that.
I know to hold back
tends to keep the thing
going but I don’t

I like it kind of square
all there.

We played the reading
at Gallery 6
maybe it was his
description of it.
We read it
in class

some things get saved.
I like to return.

I like the farmer
who studied science
came home
and made it work
He was Japanese.
He stabbed himself right
in the chest. Like
Elliot, not Kurt.

The two kinds
of death are different.

Of all the songs
you ever wrote
you wrote some

guy in the airport
read about farming
he had big thick thighs
and he looked like a businessman
and that’s what farmers
look like today.

He was trying to get better. To improve
his lot

this immense restlessness on the
plane

             remembering Rae
thought the birds had changed

and something else

and Peter said the fish
were practically everywhere
and now they’re not.

I don’t know myself
and that’s a sin.