VILLANELLE

I should have known first aid. Like I could have saved her.
So I shadowed the professional librarians. I didn't say boo
For two, even three months. Worst case? People will learn

How to pronounce a new word and that's always good, right?
This is reflected in the marketplace, where sales have tailed.
There's a palpable sense of 2008 not being vintage for utterance.

The police said that the bartender's son was quote irreverent
Toward her pint unquote. He smoked cloves and blew
The gold horn under his kimono. I should have known

First aid. Like I could have saved her. We played this game
Where I let her steal my crayons, let her draw on my cave wall.
Roof for house. Boards for stage. Ivories for piano keys.

Peacemaker for missile. Pigskin for football. The tap faucet
Should not touch the tulip glass. Worst case? People will learn
How to pronounce a new word and that's always good, right?

Tools: scissors, pins, kosher salt, needle and thread, Exacto
Knife, Band-aids, vegetable oil spray, sewing machine
(Optional). Tip: the thinner the skin, the easier the folding.

The rangers found her automobile in the fuscous meadow,
Hidden by the tip of the volcano. I should have known first aid.
Like I could have saved her. I'm useful when the protag

Doesn't know or care about the names of the characters
She's canoodling with. So they erect this wonderful, velvety
Head on top. It's like Le Corbusier designing a muscular

Foundation. Worst case? People will learn how to pronounce
A new word and that's always good, right? Some of her figures
Were slain by spears and blowguns but that doesn't make clear

The predators such as the bull or the bear or the following
Emoticon: ;). People shouldn't have to worry when the school
Bus comes out to their house whether it's there to transmit

Their kids or to take their organs. I should have known first aid.
Like I could have saved her. Worst case? People will learn
How to pronounce a new word and that's always good, right?
Like I could have saved her. Worst case? People will learn

__

THE GOOD THIEVES

After the wholly unnecessary
Decapitation

(All apologies)
We checked the dendrochronologist

For rings, a watch, a wallet—
Zilch, except

For his name and address
Sewn into his underwear

So we threw his lion's share
Down a dry well

And mailed his head
Back home.

__

I'm charmed by the ways Mark Strand's prose poem, "Chekhov: A Sestina" is and isn't a sestina. So, I began to write my own prose poems using forms—sestinas, pantoums, haiku, ghazal, and villanelle. Where necessary, I bent the rules to accommodate the poem's arc, although I tried to remain true to the form's guts. "Villanelle" comes from this experiment. It's the only one of the set that I've returned to verse—a tectonic decision. Also, I'm sure, that John Ashbery's "37 Haiku" has something to do with these poems. Is his piece 37 individual prose haiku? Or, are the 37 haiku a single poem? Or, are there no haiku, "37 Haiku" just a title?

After the birth of my daughters I began, much to my chagrin, to write poems about them. I never thought I was that kind of guy. After their first birthday I began to write poems about death. Funny, silly, Gorey poems about death. When I showed the baby poems and death poems to friends—they couldn't always see the difference. Which was which? Which...makes sense. So now they're both in one manuscript, Kaputniks.  Just in case: "The Good Thieves" is a silly death poem!