Minisode 6 – Lovelace and Gregg: Homely

Winter Love
I want to adorn the stillness,
but the fireplace does not lick
or roar. Gloves by the register fill
with dirt and dust every time
the window cracks.
My hands are filled with nothing.
They are cold. They are alone.

Grace
Thrown away and disregarded.
Left to be forgotten
in the sour air as a sister
to the forgotten breath.
A flag, limp on its pole,
spider dances and builds her home.
Obedient to nature, her hunt
congeals in a textile seed.
The whisperings of water in their
different kinds of colour in the seasons,
year after year.
Overgrown weeds and concrete
tiles rest against the house. Docile
and homely intimacy, rattling
and singing. If not to the moon,
grows only plum and pear and prune.

Longing and Lies
Half the men are sitting in a circle
underneath the floorboards.
One is almost completely covered
with this other guy’s unwashed pullover.
His hands fall just below his shin
where his buddy sits.
The man who stays in the corner won’t speak
because these are not his mates.
The youngest one plays in unknowing bliss
and sings to himself an original:
Dog in Park. Sings about his older sister.
One’s head is cocked an unnatural angle.
One tries to look out through the opening
he has started to claw.
One man has not seen his family in years.
One keeps yacking about his wonderful wife
so nobody will know she left him last month.
They lie about kids back at home.
One lies about the men he has killed.
One lies about Birmingham. Outside
it’s Nowhere and wet and dry heat.

(1)
once upon
a time,
the witch
became the heroine
she was always
meant to be
&
soared
above
the
motherfucking
world while
cackling.
– the villain in your history

(3)
you’re wrong –

you cried
& you cried
& you cried
& then you cried
some more,

but later
you’ll discover
they were
by your side
all along.

now i ask you:
do you have an umbrella?
– a million ways to say i love you

(2)
if i ever
have a
son,
he
will never
know the
words
“boys
will be
boys”
so
stick that
in
your
juice box
and
suck
it.
– men will not be boys