Fun: For Leonid Telyatnikov

When you showed up, the five roof fires spread quickly and even though your brother was born on that same day years before, you smiled and sprayed.
Suitless and unprotected, you smiled and sprayed. Unlistened madness, ritual behaviors: blow out the candles.

And now I wonder if you would be impressed after releasing a flame, how another strange creature dances in a moonlit and empty countryside.


the lynx
the lynx

keeper of secrets, protector of unlistened secrets
i'm blessed for your presence
i'm blessed by your smile
i'm blessed by your spray

their typical behavior is that of peeing in a hole,
covering the urine, waiting ten years
and taa-daa
a garnet
a gem
a beauty worth an economy

But all of this: the story,the man, the beast, the place --
it pales in what is now the largest reserve of life and green
of new bursts, of natural bursts.

A fire, an arrival, an untruth: thirty-one albino swallows.

Seventy Top Tens of Us

underrated body parts, drinks you regret, diseases that sound like exotic names, placed you've cried, news stories with bad puns, fictional characters you wish were real, opening riffs in Who songs not yet used for opening credits, brands you trust, lighting situations, velvet painting topics, old man hairstyles, cash registers you remember, dustiest places, ways to say no, ways to say yes, buyers remorse, poems you could've written, movies to fall asleep during, worst kisses, quotes attributed to Marilyn Monroe that she never actually said, mullet sightings, things you don't remember, best sauces, people you've touched, places for a bruise, abbreviations, puppy watching spots, worst surprises, cheap shots, people you don't want to sit next to on the train, days you wish you could delete, Dom DeLuise jokes, car hoods that lookk like faces, liver transplants, ways to trip, twist endings you saw coming, projects you should've abandoned, most inopportune times to get the hiccups, street names, things you've endured for a partner, ways to cook fish, Jeapordy! categories, arguments you couldn't remember the reason for starting, excuses for a wedding, household chores, accidents you've passed on the highway, ways to start a fight, nonsensical Beatles' lyrics, brick buildings, non-verbal cues, one word bar names, ways to kill an hour, things not to forget on a road trip, letters you've received, best orgasms, reasons to snap your fingers, things to consider before having children, quotes you know by heart, words you used before you knew how they were defined, trees to climb, inside jokes, worst music murals, reasons not to own a Jeep, guilts, concerts you wish you'd been alive for, worst times to laugh, embarrassing moments you've had in public, cheap dates, pieces of advice you didn't follow, drink specials, advice you didn't follow, worst opening bands at a concert, first impressions that turned ut right, things you should've remembered, television shows you can't turn off, handshakes, memories that can't be separated from the music that was playing, classes you couldn't get in to, thrift store finds, makeshift instruments, five ingredient recipes, ways to look awake when you really aren't, rooms you've slept in, easy excuses, times you didn't know what to say.