I Cover the Waterfront

I forget what I was going to say oh
bony kneecaps with gooseflesh
not to mention a blossoming quincebush
asleep on the deck of a steamship
pretty face
in a broken glass
in an underwater cocktail lounge
here's a man who lives a life of danger
a tourist from Kansas a fat cloud
            floating towards the wharf
Sayonara pal time passes non-
chalantly into San-raku's Sushi House
            Platonic watches
            Mickey Mouse watches
            day-glo watches drenched in lethal doses of radiation
A water pistol's waiting in the bushes
for something & it's blue & yellow but I
forget what but that won't stop
time passing with its
hats with stupendous last names
            Amoretti Timaeus
            Gamma globulin
floating nonchalantly as I forget what
jellyfish steamships
terrorists
There are so few real eyeballs left
Most of the rest have become Death's-Head Moths &
the rest are first-day issue stamps
& the bugs are furious furious gyroscopes
spinning solid gold hits from the Fabulous 50's I forget which
the bugs are furious furious zeitgeists
are zipguns
it's 86 fabulous degress in this obese fog
it's 97 degrees
it's 103 degrees in the wide-eyed white-hot moonlight
The amphetamines have big ideas
            Timaeus
            Atlantis
            Forbidden Planet
You're asleep on a steamship
Do they call those packetboats or
package stores
            covert radios
            Platonic radios
            placebos
Rosie glued to the Outer Limits reruns
It's sad how these things happen
Who feels like
rose bushes
rose bushes blooming peppermint swirls
& corneas red from crying I
forget why
You're asleep on a steamship the water's blue but it's
unsatisfied—Life's funny
what's anything like
a steamship
seasickness
green anti-freeze green ocean
with no name other than Joe
or oviparous mass or radio out-of-commission

Jack Hayes
© 2010