< Read >

smulloni_an_octopus_holding_a_knife_--v_6.1_9e26fe7e-de7c-402a-8f94-082eb21173b8_1

Helpful, Useful and Informative Couplets

Mike Silverton


I ask you, is stuffing a deceased taxidermist fitting?
How and where should he be mounted?

I am the spawn of a cumulus cloud!
I humidify arrivistes!

You come to me with eruptions. I repair you. Neither
swiftly not slowly does it snow in Gabon.

As a break from spreading rumors,
I enter summer rentals and leave teapots.

It is strange, seeing nothing everywhere
nor caring that certain beverages taste like masonry.

“You have a look I once found alarming.”
Nature abhors cosmetic enigmas.

My disapproval of the Treaty of Ghent raises questions.
I see you but don’t see you, if you take my meaning.

I just met the other loneliest man in the world
but he is crazy and doesn’t count.

Intent on diction I fail to note how mere steps away
Behemoth practices somersaults.

Are we merely perishables asking to be disposed of
thoughtfully? I’m told the psyche smells.

I’m content enough here in bed
yet long to know what kites are thinking.

Empty a down-filled pillow over a pond.
Confuse the fish.

Choose one: lilies wilting in a crypt, a wife in a bathroom
singing loudly, an octopus with a knife.

I rearrange traffic from my office in the bank, with a paddle.
They’re always there, these vehicles.

Summer ends. I return to the house. Apples
remain, devoted to their trees.

One day long ago I preened and pouted
and sat in a bucket. One day later I wondered why.

“Keep me supplied!” I shout from the keyboard.
“Inaccuracies are welcome.”

The no-accident bonus clause makes for tepid adventurers.
Thus one avoids dark rooms and crevasses.

In 1714 Daniel Fahrenheit invented a thermometer
you could spit out in the doctor’s office.

A man plants a crown of thorns on his glans
and says, mostly to himself, “Jesus! That hurts!”

Buried in delta sludge, J. Edgar Hoover’s avatar
tries to think of something amusing.

Remind yourself during the pageant that these
these are mere bullets and that you’re a Rosicrucian.

States of grace etch goose eggs against a sky-blue sky.
A visiting committee opts for dignity.

Finally, there is the abduction scene.
Today the sky is cloudy gray.



Mike Central Park 05.jpg



Mike Silverton