Takeout
Takeout Copyright Š Jack Galmitz Impress 2015 New York, New York 978-1-329-18032-1
Takeout
Jack Galmitz
walking the dog the sun came along
the clouds hang low & touch the harvested field I hear a clavier
in a park bench in a city somewhere I carved Jack & Ann
what remains my mother's birth certificate her sister's lock of hair
sitting on the stoop listening to cicadas the neighbors' banter
after the slaughter of the 1800s bison burgers
we played catch after sunset the ball was a planet
I eat alone at my computer table my wife and stepson eat together
she may as well be on the moon rather than the next room
old vinyl albums left outside in the garbage look, Chubby Checkers
a dead cat unmoved for weeks becomes the grass
sometimes I'm so angry that my teeth show an old language that I know
I have become letters arranged on a page
when you slow down sound you hear your heartbeat
in my cereal subatomic particles & strawberries
as I enter her picking from a cherry tree
the table set the chandelier lit the clouds at sunset
at night I'm followed by a black dog old and strong where's the harm
I had a dream about you I called you light
territory fits me & my radioactive dog
the word stump hurt
the soldiers light up
dark as deer cross
aliens have moved in
weathered road sign peeling layers of old advertisements
in photographs we're children
drummer boy you’re nine
handed the ball when I saw it was a game I let it fall
The monochrome turns out to be the sky the specks- birds flying
the sea is semaphore & integrity
candle flame having studied dervish ways
The cat dreams of blood look at it run look at it run
I listen to the sea hoping to catch where something begins
starry night the lights daubed out with black house-paint
passed out drunk a father sleeps on the couch his daughter's doll crushed
The son of man returns ornamental pears
Christmas morning seeing my son’s face when he finds the AK-47
in Latvia the light of a UFO brightens a gas station
in the dinner each man carries a gun and praises Jesus
every morning I wash off the blood amniotic fluid and vernix
mother had a sword in her mouth to judge the world
my friend wore a tinfoil hat but I stood out
what structure could withstand a great shock make it up
I thought of a drum like a splinter under the nail of my thumb
froma cherrytree