Rye Musgrave : XIII Ways to Look at the Month of May

X I I I Way s t o Lo o k at t h e Mo n t h o f May based on Wallace Stevens’ “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” Rye Musgrave

two stu dents severed significance sharing a twix bar in a shoddy 21-year-old vehic le. It’s a cold day in May.

II Nothing is gained or lost when living your life by complete numbers. The season of May is disordered, and chooses its own values.

III I had been so careful I had frisked her up and down But her eyes were Molotov cocktails

IV Intellect that leveled buildings— Saw the Beatles live in Colorado Thought they were OK. V Putting toast in a toaster Too much of this is poem already What am I to do? The month of May is way ahead of me

VI You bite a pen, you breathe in, the air is humid with dead creation. You breathe out nothing new. In this way, pens taste of deceit.

VII Frames Frames in a basement picked up at a general store decades ago

Trapped inside one Are two beautiful young strangers The corner reads “May”

VIII The treatment for insomnia may cause death. Alcohol may increase these risks. One more sleepless night won’t hurt.

IX An old weed bullies a sapling In the shade of a great oak. It’s the end of the month and the sun is going down.

X Doc entered with Dad’s new pistol and left mid-joke to euthanize a very sick dog. Doc returned with a new joke, and wet eyes. XII Mike is dying and all I can do is sweeten my coffee

XIII At the end of a very long night out, I snuck into my teacher’s house Because I fancied her daughter. In the morning they found and woke me on the living room floor, for breakfast, which, as it turns out, was anti-depressants and scrambled eggs. May turns up in the oddest of places.

XI Every time I lock my keys in my car it was you I was thinking of What we had’s long rolled under the seat. There was a name that went with it, but Let’s consider that lost.

jennifer hunt Untitled Tapestry weaving