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4 Poems

1. I Should Pave MY Front Yard
2. There Is A Mars
3. When Everything Here Is No Longer Alive
4. After Your Old Home Is Empty

I Should Pave My Front Yard

I walk across the alley
and begin explaining
The Singularity
to my neighbor

he invites me to a dinner party
someone there
tries to sell me a computer

It’s an ugly engine

I take it home
and put it
by the curb

I cover it in trash

and wait

Later,
it’s weirder components
begin to
aggravate
the brainy brambles
of a utility pole

They both swell

I spend the day
carving oars
from its limbs

I spend the next
coating them in
aluminum

I let them rust
I hide them in a basement

I disconnect my phone

Im at work
watching goods
fill buildings

helping
transactions
empty them

—————

There Is A Mars

Now watch out nephews,
there are attics
full of Atari 2600s
that you will never visit

There are attics
just like there is a Mars
that you will never visit
and I’m not quite sure why

Just like there is a Mars
there are step dads and taxes
and I’m not quite sure why
and I’m pretty sure they’re in Virginia somewhere

there are step dads and taxes
filling every house in the future
and I’m pretty sure they’re in Virginia somewhere
Besides, soon enough, space will be an empty bed,

filling every house in the future.
And you are there, tucking in a nephew, and telling him
“Besides, soon enough, space will be an empty bed.”
as living rooms empty themselves of in -laws

And you are there, tucking in a nephew, and telling him
“Just watch out is all”
as living rooms empty themselves of in-laws
out into the street to find Mars.

————————————-

When Everything Here Is No Longer Alive

I see troups of lost
boyscouts
Snipe hunting
in vacant lots

And if you weren’t dead,
I can tell
Youd want to be there

Like, right now,
you are trying to

will some awkward
imitation of yourself
there
to say things like

“I’m receiving a transmission from another planet”

and

“It’s being dictated by an historical figure”

But,
you seem unsatisfied.
It’s not working for some reason.
Like a note stuck in the back
of a philosophy text book.

To them,
you appear as someone
experiencing an earthquake
alone.

You have 2-3 different voices.

You are five random words.

Their flashlights are growing dim
Their bed times are arriving

and they are tired of
trying to interpret you
as you attempt to tell them
their future.

—————

After Your Old Home Is Empty

He said the landlord paid him two months rent to move
in forty years ago and there were no tenants for a year

Since then, the historic Providence Arcade has no tenants
or friends in the governor’s race

Forty years is a long time — consider the changes in our world since 1969
but there is that one constant that has taught so many children across the world
Sesame Street

He said he speaks daily to his tenants, allowing him to understand where students are coming from
To the landlord’s candidate, two months = 60.8736998 days

And wonders if this is sustainable , even for a year

He said the bill would allow the decisions of a “partner”. Her gay friends were shocked when they entered Providence. For the arcade. Forty years ago.

“Landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, or real estate which is rented or leased to
an individual or business,
not how long partners worked for, together, in years and months, in a study designed to examine video
game play and enjoyment patterns in a natural setting: a public arcade!”

As Providence Water pointed out at the settlement hearings, the first two months of fiscal year 2010
were even worse.
“Landlords are fucking assholes.
So we nearly got evicted last month, and I left my apartment under the condition that we’d get our
security deposit back. Today marks 30 days from then and we’ve received no word”
This was written by one of Pasadena’s council members, Sid Tyler, who clearly is adamant that this
arcade should not be closed. “I’m open to listening,”

he said two months ago about running. “I’ve followed my heart,
and that’s gotten me to here.”

And forty years ago today, when Spiro Agnew was found to have a “tax” problem when he was a governor, he was forced to resign. And the State, his landlord, paid him to move.

———————

© Jak Cardini 2010

Jak Cardini is a creative writing student at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. He is a founding member of the artist collective/wannabe press The Gold County Paper Mill. He is the founder and editor of the lit./comix magazine, Catch Up : Louisville. He misses living in Texas. A lot. Check him out at www.thegoldcountypapermill.com