Riddle

It dreams of Christmas wreaths

hung on tombstones

It sings of blue jeans folded

over  a power line

It believes in Safe Arrival

brand lettuce

It is lonely for shoulders

It has faith its life is unfolding

according to plan

It knows why the blind

are careful how they laugh

It hides in a proper name

but not in yours

It looks like Mexico

It thinks it would like to learn

a new language

It hopes the internal combustion

engine will fail

It struggles against the temptation

to ennui

It sleeps where it falls

and wakes to new worlds having

the dust

beaten out of them

(A saddle blanket)

tryst

meet me at three-thirty-six

at the misperceptions of venus seminar

i'll be the one reading a book entitled

life on a cool plastic ice floe

we were told to wear photographs

but wear cabbage instead

i love cabbage on a man

bartender

closest he got to writing poetry

was slipping gingko leaves

into drinks that called for

paper umbrellas

random

i knew a guy had a poodle called

random

one day i asked him

whatever happened to that poodle

called random and

he told me he had no idea

popcorn

is what two people eat

together when

there is a thing between them

that won't be said.

They

lick the salt

from bowl

and fingers of yellow stoneware

and

while the bowl

is being washed, pretend

the thing

has been said.