Richard Parks

"Poem for a tiny felt cap"

If a swift nibbling
my element would deride
and larks take flight
in cartoon colors
light night light tights.

We say goodbye
but we do not mean it
we freight our shit
our thoughts upon a trestle
way the fuck up in the sky, atop a cloud
and we just let gravity push us down
gravity's pinned minions
ain't that sweet
—no
—what
—shut up
—I was only asking if—
and ellide a larconaire, a female jacket
we both ride.


"No trees"

No trees

only makeup

and trashbags

disconglomerated

inches and inches

an awful fragment

fulfilled

a tower rising from the sand

sinewy and bent

upon which

monks might genuflect

or cozy cities

be laid down—

a pastry on a pastry pad

A pastry on a pastry pad

a pastry on a post-it pad

a penis on a pantry post
a pen cap on you, mom and dad.


"Edwardian untethering, now"

To mull about, and mulberry—

like the tree we had when we were young.

To Martin Mull and mulled wine
,
to Andy Trammell (did I dream him up, baseball fans?).

Easing off my slip (I am a woman) I slow up and prepare to get drunk

again

like the tree we had when we were young.


If I were a tree
with branches unconvincing and long

I would chop myself down

with some swag-like butterknife from Disneyland

and mulch myself

a million times over.
Mulch, mulch,

and mulch
.

Does this poem make me sad?

Would it, if it were printed on my mulchy stomach

and me, if I were splayed out on your soiled dormroom desk?


"A new international poem"

If I wrote this poem on a lil slip of paper
and managed t gitit
t slip it
t sneak it in
t your pocket, ma'am
would you trundle it down to Mexico?
would it still sound the same in ole Mexico?

My lil poem
warm
bendy
because of all that travel
so much sandwich meat
between ass/jeans and transit seat.

Would Chiapas make my poem strange to me
or would it remain
—would I be the same?

I could still sneak in there
my persona
my fat face
a lil ass curtain-obsessed youngster
writing poems on the back of liquor store receipts
about ass curtains?

Hey: what's the Spanish for "ass curtain"?
—Perhaps, is there some dude down there thinking
the same thoughts as I?