on the difficulties of living every week like it's shark week when you're the bait (a pantoum).

Since the last poem made use of the metonym, I decided to opt for a bit more transparency in this entry, which I've actually been working on for a while. At Deonne's reading a few weeks ago, a guy went up before her (or maybe afterwards- there was free Scotch, so who can say for sure?) and read a few poems, one of which was a pantoum, a form in which the first and third lines of a verse is always the same as the second and fourth lines of the previous quatrain. Harder than it sounds, especially when you're not a poet, which I'm not... If it weren't so angry I'd dedicate it to certain FPers who know where i'm coming from and help me see where i'm goin'.

my bad habits and i,
we may need couple's counseling
i can't always be "on" or "off"
moods shifting like swedish seasons.

we may need couple's counseling.
at night when we turn our backs i say
i can't always be "on" or "off"-
i smell blood in the water,

at night when we turn our backs. i say-
i plead with you to leave me-
i smell blood in the water!
my tears bleed through your pillows.

i plead with you to leave me
"the sharks," i say, "they're circling"
my tears bleed closer to your pillow
but like bait, you've thrown me over

the sharks!! i say, they're circling!
as i'm clinging to your pillow
like bait, you've thrown me over
i swim towards them, i'm a martyr.

as i'm clinging to your pillow
they tear me limb from limb
i swam towards them, good little... martyr.
i hope they save a piece for you

god, how they tear me limb from limb!
it's nothing i haven't already done
i hope they save a piece for you
self-flagellation's not just for christians, 

it's nothing i haven't already done 
anything for you to love me.
self-flagellation's not just for christians
your reticence keeps me under

i'll do anything for you to love me
so my moods shift like swedish seasons
as they devour the final piece i think
yes, we may need couple's counseling.

an advisory note to a certain city by a bay.

 No. 29

distance aids, abets

these feelings under rugs swept;

sleeveless hearts abound

but if i had sleeves, i'd put my heart on 'em.

"that's what she said"

No. 28

"hold it against me"

entendres doubled over

taking it...the blame

...what? don't hold this haiku against me. unless that's what yr into.

on wearing more hats than immelda marcos's shoe collection

No. 27

i'm worse for the wear

no time to sleep nor to sneeze...

what day is it, please?

...but really, what day?

pardon my turkey.

No. 26

me and macaulay:

irony, i'm 'Home Alone':

ennui not prevented

...erm, Happy Thanksgiving?

the consequences of a sea-sick sailor.

No. 25

you will rue the day

"ships are fallible," i say

this one's sailed away

wherewithal: the lack thereof

No. 24

peeves shouldn't be pets 
like sleeping dogs, let them lie
put your mind to rest

a(n) historical haiku

No. 23

my petulent young son

fought the british and one, but

we've all lost, bar none

lady lazarus 2.0

No. 22

when men offer to

'make a woman out of you'

breathe, count three, "ach, du..."

Sylvia surely said it better...

on the physics of pigs in flight.

No. 21

the day that i find

a world i can count on

time sure will stand still

trauriger Panda.

No. 20

divulging this loss,
this "unbearable lightness"
needs more syllables.

word of the day: saudade - a vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist ... a turning towards the past or towards the future

currently reading Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. it's so brilliant, i think i'll write a review on it later... "later" meaning after i write these 4 final papers for my classes plus finish reading/editing the second pass of King Kong Theory- which is fantastic by the way, can't wait to see the final result.

happy weekend, everyone. i hope you're doing more fun and savoury things than i, as my weekend will consist mainly of attempting to breathe through my nose whilst not coughing up my lungs and catching up on hundreds of pages of reading.

revelations of a cultural poseur.

No. 19

 tabloids strewn at home

overzealous, still falls short

"oh, that Katie Holmes!"

a haiku for my canadian grandmother, wherever she may be.

No. 18

i'm not insincere

Roaring Twenties, changing face

i'm my youngest friend

Thanks to PN (see, still sort of anonymous?) for providing material which can be disseminated into about a week's worth of haikus/blog entries. The next one is about Tom Cruise's wife-- you know the one. I hope you're well rested...

Yours, sincerely.

a haiku of the unspoken.

No. 17
the real sickness here

has grown for 25 years:

fibrous reticence

an appeal for full disclosure.

No. 16

maladroit master,

inept interlocutor

teeth shouldn't be pulled!