Paul Pfleuger, Jr.


It’s academic

a dare I suppose moment

                          with the baby asleep
                          a grammarless puff
                          appraised in the air
as I reach
for
the
forgotten
science
of an anchor
or what one whispers to another rusting there
damn I told you by the lake tonight
lit by a hypermarket sign
I’ve memorized and sold this story
the humming in the aisles
the paper or plastic sermons
at any rate 15% low low interest
non-fiction
the baby’s dreaming.

Test this hypothesis
those dreams are filled with workaday voices
whose satisfaction has a positive effect
on their intention to sing
I tell you you who once willow-fluffed along
whistling by resident sentence trees
and gardens in apple-pie order
out past the property lines
and into wordless wildernesses

where worlds began
before the bills
made us pay them.


Tête-à-tête-ka I

                             you to blame               it was you
                        as decades pass               for fifteen years
         without a conversation              I spoke in my ways 
 for more than five minutes-             stubborn sonuvabitch, 
    I learned love from books              I gave you life

Paul Pfleuger, Jr. is an American living in Taiwan. His work has appeared in a number of print and online publications such as Modern Haiku, ARSENAL, bottle rockets, and Ginyu. He is the Assistant Editor of Roadrunner. His blog is amidst vs.
 
 
previous page     contents     next page