American Sentences 2005

What are American Sentences?

3.12.05 — Watching insects swirl in afternoon sun — no plum blossoms falling.

3.14.05 — Wanda Coleman told me she is praying Bush gets a bad pretzel.

3.17.05 — Mind if we use your fairway? they ask — go ahead, we’re not using it.

3.22.05 — Explorer Got Jesus bumper sticker cuts me off — I forgive her.

3.29.05 — Charlie told us: If you hear gurgling noises it’s my leg falling off.

3.30.05 — Blue sound-proofing foam scattered in the rubble pile — all that’s left of SPLAB!

4.06.05 — Sylvester @ Kiwanis talks about Skip-a-Meal fund – mouth full of egg.

4.12.05 — She woke him up w/ her Ramones ringtone: I Want to be Sedated.

4.18.05 — Children remain the best witnesses unless someone else steps forward.

4.21.05 — Walt Whitman — one w/ everything — I use his book to swat dead a fly.

4.22.05 — No not a white moth flying in the kitchen — fleck of garlic peel.

4.28.05 — At Green Valley Meats a smiling bunny sign says Trespassers Butchered.

4.29.05 — No, it’s not a constellation — the Madrone trees are blooming.

5.04.05 — Before the Kumba Mela movie – me & Rebecca eat hot dogs.

5.08.05 — Marion’s black eye, got it in the garden — she wasn’t hit by no hoe.

5.13.05 — Late night sangrias/enchiladas — morning dream, narcotic cracker sandwich.

5.15.05 — Candle making in a dream, wax overflows but the wick’s stiff & lights.

5.17.05 — Morning prayers — Tuesday fingers of sunlight reflect off shiny cuticles.

5.18.05 — Rainwater drips from pickup into puddle in which two sparrows bathe.

5.25.05 — The hesitation in her wrist — she wants me to kiss her hand again.

5.27.05 — At Granville Island she’s looking at jewelry, he sweets as they hold hands.

5.30.05 — Sweeping the bark in front of my door part of it flies up — a brown moth.

5.31.05 — Lana missed SPLAB! we could write about your hair but you get an extension.

6.07.05 — Not clock ticking clock ticking cat licking fur during meditation.

6.08.05 — In the fog of war all four kids shot: Operation Iraqi Liberation.

6.13.05 — Is it because I always buy cheap sunglasses or is my head crooked?

6.15.05 — At the ferry terminal her grocery list said: milk bread eggs stars.

6.18.05 — Bon’s the glittering end of each shimmering wave dissolving on the beach.

6.19.05 — Human being walking earth so calm, head traces a line across the clouds.

6.19.05 — The Clayoquot sunset orange hue rides each wave crest ’til it hits the island.

6.20.05 — Not an insect biting my leg during beach Kum Nye — wind on leg hair.

6.27.05 — In the Van hostel morning how do I love thee? let me count the flies.

7.04.05 — SUV bumper sticker w/ flag says: These colors don’t run the world.

7.04.05 — I ring the doorbell @ Janice & Rebecca’s house — no dog barks.

7.11.05 — Dream helicopter stunt plunge w/ rowboat — terminal patients last thrill.

7.13.05 — Sam Hamill’s a white boy but: He’s got an angry nigger in his heart.

7.15.05 — Crow bathes in the Slaughter golf course puddle — the only birdie today.

7.16.05 — Her white head staring blank w/ the guardian ear of the radio nurse.

7.22.05 — Workshopping w/ George Bowering: a chicken poem in every book.

7.23.05 — Linda warns me, says: Watch out for potentially leaking fluids.

7.24.05 — George Bowering Thursday talking about Slaughter: See how much fun he’s having!

7.25.05 — Artillery firing practice sends clouds of dream birds — skies darken.

7.30.05 — They found a tenth planet larger than Pluto somewhere beyond streetlights.

8.02.05 — I stayed up ’til 3:15 and all I got was this lousy poem.

8.04.05 — They spread his ashes w/ fur and bits of clothes the bear could not digest.

8.05.05 — Radio caller’s nickname’s Tubesteak, says you can take that many ways.

8.17.05 — Looking at a bar — Honey, the G Spot! — I didn’t know it was there!

8.18.05 — Holy Smoke! vapor trails lit by the ripe plum full moon rising.

8.20.05 — Bumper sticker says: We’re making enemies faster than we can kill them.

8.21.05 — Seattle license plate holder: Yard Work is for People who don’t Kayak.

8.21.05 — How loud it is during silence of haiku reading — stomach rumble.

8.21.05 — Michael Welch tells us he makes son Thomas laugh so hard sometimes he urps.

8.23.05 — Transvestite South American actor shoots from closet in my dream.

8.24.05 — Ear on the mattress I hear the cat’s purring ’til I stop to write this poem.

8.24.05 — Into the cloud behind the blur that our lives around here have become.

8.25.05 — Juanito’s ocarina bounces off Tahoma — distant boulders fall.

8.26.05 — He’s doin’ a good job - ah, you just say that ‘cuz he’s wearin’ kneepads.

8.28.05 — Skate the fine radio line between irreverence & unemployment.

9.07.05 — Squirrel squeezes through hole in fence bottom past pool of hard margerine.

9.09.05 — My morning tongue exploring soft careens of the world just inside you.

9.16.05 — Thomas says: Philip Randolph and I are practicing non-sequiturs.

9.19.05 — Scooting the wheeled barstool past the tiger-striped dream Venus Flytrap.

9.23.05 — Friday’s waning rays hit mountains — she sees the blue light of her cel phone.

9.26.05 — We replant a streambed, even move my childhouse — my morning dream.

9.30.05 — Drives to the hoop w/ his right hand, w/ his left he holds up his CEL phone.

10.26.05 – Ed, “Chick”, Lefty, Happy, Swede, Buck, Fred, “Shoeless Joe” rest now forever.