Bob Lucky


Dear Ron Padgett

I want you to know
that my students love
“Nothing in That Drawer”
I make them recite it 
and tell them
they have to make it clear
where the volta is
without tracking lines
on their fingers as they read
This takes practice
and no one succeeds
without a little drama
One student paused
after the eighth line
and stared down into an empty drawer
It was a long pause
a pregnant pause so large
it felt like an elephant or a whale
about to give birth
When she finished reading
we were all convinced
she had seen something in that drawer



A Short Disquisition on Daydreaming

An idea is a hole
you climb out of

a hole is a depression
you climb into

to come up with something
while you stare at the sky 

listen
to the whistling cry
                              of a hawk 
                                             looking down to see
                                                            what pops out
                                                                           of the hole



Insomnia

What would I do if I ever went nose to nose with a proboscis monkey
               or had an elephant slap me in the face? 

And what is Sandi going to do now that her husband, a miserable human being, 
               has died? I think

I may have accidentally put a plastic yogurt container in the paper recycle bin	
               today — is it too late 
               to retrieve it? Should I call someone?

If I had dog I would walk it every day and not die of a heart attack, 
               but if the dog died I would die of a broken heart. What would I name it? 
 
Does my son love me? Does he even like me? If he died, if he fell 
               off a cliff on a hike in a jungle 
               or a python squeezed him to death, 
               I wouldn’t have a reason to live.

Would my wife give me a reason or would we hold hands and walk 
               down to the railroad tracks? I wonder 

What time is it? What if I’m still awake 
               when it’s time to wake up? What do I do 
                              if I don’t wake up?



In the Dust

(Blackout poems based on Queen Elizabeth I’s Speech to the Troops at Tilbury, 1588) 

1.




2.

Bob Lucky is the author of Ethiopian Time (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014), Conversation Starters in a Language No One Speaks (SurVision Books, 2018), My Thology: Not Always True But Always Truth (Cyberwit, 2019), and the e-chapbook What I Say to You (proletaria.org, 2020).

 
 

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