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209 (Emmanuels)

billy johnson shuffled up and down 209sweeping out front of the gas stationbringing shopping carts from the parking lot to the grocery storeinformal agreements bartering service for foodsmall towns are funnyup close and keep an arm's distancethe rumors werehis mom had a house he could've lived in but he preferred to live in a hut in the woods insteadhis parents divorced when he was young and he took them hostage for a day or he lived in the ceiling of the school auditorium for almost a yeari saw him hitchhiking once years later the school newspaper saidstanding on 209 near kingstonheaded back to stone ridgei pulled over to pick him upmy heart was racingi was yearning for a connectiona breaking of the inevitable barrier that seemed to divide him from the rest of ushe slept in a hole under five blanketsunder a lean-to built by the husband of a woman working at the grocery storetoday i saw a man pooping in the open air of tompkinswhere can you look?when will the reckoning be?the land un-grabbed?i know the wall is tenuousor that we're closer than we know
x
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Lucas Ave Ext (Wedding day)

the firemen come drop off the tables and chairs
the soccer team sets up the tent
there is a moment behind the house
with the autistic cousin
where everyone is bonding
in a positive way
but also feels like it must be
at his expense
like with the shy red haired kid
the popular boys started to call
buff after he left the outside of his
identity paper bag blank because
nobody sees me
and the cousin's name is duff
and the old high school crush
from the soccer team
tries to hold my hand
what future scenario could be beyond
imagining?
(that marriage didn't last)
what union is infallible?
how many tables will you need for
the next wedding?
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Peak Road (One)

he wanted his mom
to take down her Obama poster
after he was elected
or else it was too much
like worshipping a dictator

he wanted to live
on the 28 hour day schedule
but was getting lonely

after we'd broken up
he gave me back my bobby pins
that he'd found strewn around his room

he was particular
both our hair was thick and curly
we were youthful
but him more so

I took something from him
in his basement I think

why can't we all just stay in love?
add new ones to the old ones in a big pile?

the darkness all around
and the headlights of my car steering home
my brake lights know all the curves


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Tongore road

Strung out on fruit loops
Doomsday news
Car culture
Blue washed faces
Curtains drawn
A childhood holding pattern
Beam me up
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calle peris mencheta

por qué no te sonríes?
Loli corners me in the kitchen
es tu papá aquí
I'm stiff like the sofa
I take down a poster at the bodega
and blush when the shopkeeper calls me out
I meet with a classmate to draft a manifesto
at the coffee shop
I discreetly tape up a whimsical flyer
with my phone number
and wait for the calls to roll in
I'm doing things wrong
I see myself from the outside
at a bar too noisy to talk
I'm abroad
I buy a kids bike at the Thursday fería
I watch the city roll by
pushing through the oppressive heat
I think I'm smiling
but I know I'm not
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kripplebush

yes it was spring
    remember when david saved us?
we circle back to this day

    when we cut our jeans to make shorts on the first warm day
in rare lulls when we are together
    then we had like no pants left 
we plunged into the mud
    for the rest of the winter
we tie ourselves together 
    kathleen you went in first
with a day
    no it was me
i have no independent memory of
    well nina got stuck and was balling of course
just the ruts of retelling
     i was not!
a clamoring of voices
    monie was stoic like always
editing each other
    practically pushed david away
adding up to a tapestry    
   heather you thought you were going to rescue us
that in the end 
   yes yes but i got stuck after two seconds
is as rich as the day
   he plucked us up one by one
and i can see the sun through the bare branches
   and left us safe
just like it must have been
   on the dry gravel driveway
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