Walt Burns


to kill
.
Where is school? On top of the hill
where the private parochial paradise
sits still. Encased in a burnt red brick
sticking in a niche of curdled milk
and lukewarm tête-à-têtes a brain
shrinks through fiberglass cables
and juggles three thoughts minus
the sugary donuts that growl inside
the torrent of wind knocking loose
tooth after tooth -blamed on the leak
in the roof seen as a technological
faux pas, they study fox paws sleep an hour
and get red marks. This- what I wish I was.
-to be young again, peers down the hall.

To Kill a Mockingbird three grades early
N- N- N- 280 pages skipping the N-
Whispers are the only cold reminder in the
outhouse barracks where the yellow snowflakes
are never taken off the windows because the
heat costs an extra paycheck but the teacher
is enough to warm the cheeks except next week
280 pages are due. This- what I wish I was -
In the early prime of a budding career when
nameless upon nameless girls can carve boys
as well as their initials on their desktops and
binders
reminders that someone is looking for you.
No nap no recess basketball and acting.
Juggle and dribble on top of the hill

Down the hill trickling
where the fiberglass ends
The new kid is struggling
to fit like a peg.

I'm writing their papers and doing their math,
thirty miles north in university Hell.

Sometimes
I wish
I'd listened to Daddy
who sits in a grave,
Still...
wishing he was



COPULAS


pol

pol
itics me off to say
that circumstantial evi (l)
densely popul
ated joes
to get the dish on jim
crow barred the win
dows were dirty cop
ulas


I lie on the so fu

i lie on the so fu
king whore
neepul(l) ease
ick me clean
i am th
robbing you
could get the door
prize 4 or 5
or gasm
ly
ing
Spring!


dear abbey,

come to wor
Ship lei's
do
nuits
no r
brow/n
sinn (t)
m (er) de vil
creme
a pall
o jet i c
...ad....hoc oh,
...........late
to war..d...shit!



e-mail: wayoutw@swbell.net