jonberger

He hadn’t been threatened
but he carried the knife
and so when he was threatened
he didn’t feel so bad.

He was threatened
because the freak
thought he could get away with it.

The freak came up to him to apologize
sort of.

They’d gotten into it
the other day
when the freak tried to bum rush the stage
at the outdoor concern
in the same park
they were both hanging out in right now.

When the freak got near the stage,
he just pulled the freak by his cane
away from the stage
while the freak cried,
“No! Not my cane!”
over and over again
until they were far enough away
from the stage
so as not to disturb anyone.

So the freak came up to him today
to make sure there were no hard feelings.

“Nah,” he said, hand out,
“I just wanted to make sure the show went off smooth.”
“Cool cool,” the freak said, “It’s just that…
It was dangerous, what you did.”
“Oh,” He said, “Like trying to break and enter
into somebody’s space?”
“Well,” the freak went on, “You didn’t have to take my cane.
I can’t walk without it.”
He couldn’t help but notice that his cane wasn’t in sight.
“You shouldn’t have fucked with me, man,” the freak said, louder,
checking around the park for his friends, looking on.
“Uh huh,”
“Cuz I will fuck YOU UP.” The freak was beginning to shout;
his friends were beginning to laugh.

“You getting what you need?” he asked,
“Your friends looking up to you yet?”
“Yeah, BE LIKE THAT!” The freak flicked and pranced away
and no one had to unsheath a knife at all.

No one had to see a thing
but he knew it was there all along
and that was all that mattered.

I didn’t like his look.
I thought his ponytail was effeminate
so he kicked my ass
so I asked for a different hair stylist.
I hope you appreciate the results.

This lack of head of hair
is what the new guy came up with,
y’see.
I guess you get what you pay for.

My fictitious uncle of mythical memory
(let’s call him Sven, shall we?
Why not?) once said to me,
"If you take the first parking spot you see,
you may miss out better parking spots
down the line.

Closer spots. More convenient spots.
Cheaper spots. Easier spots.
You never know what you may see
with a little patience and perspective."

I nodded sagely, as I often had to
when my uncle spake.

"Think on this as you drive through the City.
Think on this," he said, "as you drive through life."

"This sounds allegorical," I suggested,
"May I apply this information to situations
other than parking?"
"Dude," Sven said, "What do you think?"

I just composed and erased a poem
before I typed a letter of it.
I just decided the piece
was pointless
before I began.

It was an intellectual argument
that was clever
but probably not worth the time
it would take to explain.

Have I grown up
by avoiding the issue
or have I grown lazy
or simply become a better editor?
Perhaps I have reached the singularity
and finally achieved sentience?

Wouldn’t that be something
or… would it?

I have been brushing my teeth
for longer and longer periods of time lately.
This has to do with
I suspect
the holographic toothbrush I have
so I no longer have to do the tedious work
of moving my arm up and down
to clean my teeth.
The rotary motion of the brushes do the work for me
so all I have to do is more of a back and forth thing
so I cover the entirety of my mouth.

I spend more time doing the inside of the mouth,
the back teeth,
repeating the process,
being a completionist about the whole ordeal
– but it’s not an ordeal –
it’s an important part of oral hygiene.

It appears that the technology being available
to make the job easier
has only made me work harder and longer
to do it more correctly.
Funny thing, huh?

No, I didn’t think so either.

Look forward to tomorrow
where you can step bright and smart
into the future!

Though really
the future exists
in what you’ve done today
and all the things that happened yesterday
that provided you the opportunities to do them today.

If you were not in the society
of last month
you would have had not chance
to enter into today
to create the wonderful tomorrow
there is to look forward to.

Dead gods, did the future start
before I was born?

The theater where I used to watch ancient cartoons
after school in my neighborhood
has been gone for generations.

In its place stands a cultural center
where musicians and theatrical events
play on occasion
that heighten the culture
of all who may enter.

It seems that little has changed
except I can’t see Daffy Duck
blasting bucktoothed Hirohito to smithereens anymore.
Those shorts were racist as fuck
but crazy fun.

The guy I just gave a dollar to
is chatting with me.
He’s speaking English,
but between busted teeth
and what I suspect is a drunker slur
so no words are making sense to me.

Still, through intonation,
I think I can understand intent well enough
to smile at the right times,
nod, and say, “that’s rough.”
I want to engage with another human being
but it’s hard
without the common words.

He laughs and goes on his way.
I think we were talking about where
he’ll be able to spend his new buck
but I’ll never know for sure
unless maybe I start using my hearing aid.

I don’t say this enough- I don’t say it at all, do I?
I may with an arched tongue
or a sarcastic brow
or with an italicized remark
or something to cushion the blow
but I care
so much
and I want to let you know
how much you mean to me
in a moment unadorned with all the tricks
and treachery that makes it so easy
to hide.

You make everything easier
and I thank you for helping me through
my innumerable days.
Your support and companionship
and love keep me going.
I love you, mother.

Also, I took a fiver from your wallet
last week.

No take backs.

I knew I should have called.

It has been too long since we’d spoken
and friendship is a two-way street
one I hadn’t gone down
in too long a time.
I’d been hitching on that road
taking the trip when others would be paying for gas
– except that ruins the metaphor,
so I didn’t do that at all.

The point is I didn’t call.
I let the quiet overtake us
so that if I did call
it would seem strange
out of character
like I wanted something
would have to have some excuse lined up to rationalize the whole thing.
I couldn’t come up with anything that would justify the whole rigamarole.

So no contact.
No word.

I had no idea what was going on in your life
no sense which television shows you were watching
no clue if you knew what shrewd errors John Oates was making in his career.

I was out of touch
and out of time.

Thank you, then,
for picking up the phone
and setting some of it to rights.