Odes

ODE TO “SORRY, MS. B—, IT’S AT HOME, ON MY JUMP DRIVE, NO REALLY, MS. B—, CAN I TURN IT IN TO YOU TOMORROW FOR HALF CREDIT…?...!...;…/…!...?”

[For Chris]

O, Homework Assignment, that saps my strength,
That worms holes into my already vacant memory,
That fo-shizzles my math, un-shizzles my historical bones, &
Completely be-shizzles the lunatic who ate my assignment
In the first place. Yea, the hair of the dog is always nigh,
But you, you, you augur the very least of my worries.
I would you were the very ice cream I lean upon,
Vigorous adversary to an already departed brain.
But soft—the hour of doom steals in upon
My hippodrome of quiet lust, the ooze of English
Oozing, oozing, oozing down the ‘scaping year,
The 2.0 of a fading grade, the apple of an errant eye,
The semblance of a blazing sky.


ODE TO FUZZY PEDS

[For Leslie]

O, fancy furry boots
On my feet, prolonging winter
Into the long long long night of summer’s call,
Chased by dreams of pajama parties
In sixth period, opalescent popcorn,
Sugar-bellowing volcanoes, and men eating
Cake from the lost horizons of Mr.
Schirmer’s blue-grilled mouth of trout.
My feet are ever so warm—in spring
Even sweaty!—
Yea, O fancy furries, I would dance
Waltzes down snowy paths,
Swoon in the arms of pirates, and—YES!—
Fire the imaginations of the tiny worms at my teeny tiny feet.