Today My Typewriter and Camera Came Home

I think my immune system is confused and scared. It has no idea what to do, so it’s doing everything until it falls on the right thing. The right thing might be a sore throat, given its consistency, but headaches are another viable option.

Tonight I opened our deck door and a longhaired Siamese cat from nowhere nuzzled my legs. I think it’s lost, but hasn’t been lost long ’cause there’s some burs tangled in its fur but it’s still clean and soft. It zig-zagged in front of my feet going to my car, so I carried it and its eyes closed and purred with its whole body. It sat by the door when I went inside.

For the umpteenth time I’m reading Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, which means something to me in the way dead grass patches in our backyard where posts of a swing set used to be mean something. I thought of it when the cat appeared and thought angels exist and sent me a soul because in the story people’s souls live outside themselves as animals, but my parents said the cat zig-zagged in front of their feet too.

My friends Jazz and Ariane said mine would be a phoenix but with peacock feathers and not fire ones. I don’t know if I agree but it’s nice to know someone thinks you look like rebirth and jewel colors.

Your Elation is in Direct Opposition to Idolatry.

the nuclear family is about to explode

and splatter bloody chunks all over

the minivan, which I hope explodes as well

because that would be badass.

we as molecules will multiply out from

and onto each other without restraint,

cracking jokes about subatomic schisms

and waking up cradled by our friends’ forearms

and backs.  we will live slap-happily together

and save fossil fuels, because dead dinosaurs

are real pissed off about

gettin’ milked all the time.

.

our cats and dogs will sleep

in the trees and vines, hunting

with us in calico war paint mirroring

streaks of earthy joy running

down our chests and backs, parallel

columns of priceless sinew purring

hammock sighs in August darkness.

.

we will dump spare change

into the streets and hand out bagels

for free, we will fist bump grandmothers

and play air guitar in the frozen food

aisle, we will sprint down stairs into

each other colliding with a sound

like strings and bells and choirs

proclaiming the anniversary of

a new beginning.