Convinced of the End Times, Neighbor Jim
MacGyvers up a companion from old soup cans,
paint brushes, stereo wire and car parts,
A sort of Bride of Frankenstein to ease Armageddon
with chicken pot pies and a surprisingly
avid libido.
One day she comes across the common alley
for a woman-to-woman, making certain things clear about
Neighbor Jim, my skank ass, and Fist City.
Watching her walk away, dragging her dinosaur tail on the lawn,
I envy her those spinal plates, round-so-round
vulcanized boobs, and blowy porn-model Medusa hair.
I'm saying she's dishy, in a home appliance kind of way.
There is a tender grace to the way she lights the candles with her tongue
as she and Neighbor Jim while away the evenings
Watching This Old House on the generator-powered tv,
waiting on the six trumpets of Revelation as if they were the Tijuana Brass
doing a hotel gig on the last day of a bang-up Cancun vaykay.
________
for Word Garden Word List #12 (Richard Brautigan)
You had my full attention at the title. LOL. "Dragging her dinosaur tail across the lawn", "I'm saying she's dishy, in a home appliance kind of way." I am having WAY too much fun reading this poem. Applause.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to look like Mr.Sardonicus here(which might be n improvement) with this wide grin fixed on my face from beginning to end reading this. You've taken the spirit of rebound from the established forms that Brautigan personifies, and run with it in your own original fashion here. Yet it still reminds me of him in so many lines: the "dinosaur tail on the lawn.." the spinal plates, Fist City and the Tijuana Brass(very period) and my favorite, "she was dishy, in a home appliance way.." this girl MacGyvered from soup cans a la Warhol. Really, you've packed so much pop culture and period feel into this its like a time machine, but like the era it transports us to, it is filled with the human over the machine, the sense of disconnection that just might possibly still be fixed, with enough This Old House and the right person...I love every word of it, and at the risk of repeating myself, this is yet another that needs to be in your next book.
ReplyDeleteOh I cannot stop laughing ... this is simply wonderful! "Dishy, in a home appliance kind of way" sent me over the moon. Skank ass, dinosaur tail, Fist City .... got to stop or I will repeat the poem in its wonky wonderful entirety.
ReplyDeleteI like this, Shay, like best the "dishy" backyard neighbor, it's good to know them but seems that a lot live in a shell. We don't have an alley but do have a six-foot wooden fence, I suspect she's dishy too. Never met her in person, they moved in almost a year, just talked the phone when part of the fence blew down last summer.
ReplyDeleteWe are starting to do the "Neighbor Jim MacGyvers up a companion from old ..." stuff thing here and downsize. It's not fun because of the things and documents that I haven't thrown away before.
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This is clever word play at it's finest Shay!! So much fun and so many great lines that only you could create! The dish one is my favorite!!
ReplyDeleteShay you've created a world that articulates with a ring of reality even though it's surrealistic science fiction. Who knows, maybe it is a vision of an upcoming world. I agree with Joy, this one is definitely a keeper.
ReplyDeletei'm just going to come out and say it... your kung fu is the best. love this jalopy princess you engineer up, all of my favorite people are jalopies. we should introduce your neighbor jim to my neighbor dave, maybe he could teach him out to chill out. this was lots of fun to read, really hit the spot.
ReplyDelete