020723c

Paris chills year by year
the appeal of a return trip shrinks
leave that to the maga-wearing
Oklahoma heat wave survivors
who really need the break
and whose big rigs
politicians, and low wage factories
helped cause this mess

020723

you meet someone in a bar
her voice is so familiar
you come to realize
she is Alexa, her voice
later, she is so knowledgable
responds to any question
shut your eyes; you know her so well
but she doesn't smell like a robot
and she's no recording
she's the only thing there is

020723b

a beautiful young French nurse
refusing to speak her adorable broken English
me, stumbling through French
hoping she gets the drift
and I like the cut of her jib
and other idioms she doesn't remember
from English class
me, dreaming of that girl

020623b

Turnover Day
the whole ship parties
when the main jets fire

020623

Cat people. Feline aliens. These are often imagined and written about, and movies are made about them. However few people step to consider how difficult it is to get the smell of cat pee out of fabrics. I can see two of them after a rough break up. "My ex broke into my apartment and peed on all my clothes. Now I can't get rid of the smell of him. I'll have to burn them all and buy new clothes."

"This is Eric's lion's den. He's marked every corner. Now that he's gone I don't go in there at all. Painful memories."

Scene from a cat-people TV drama (sitcom?) that really needs to be made:

Little Sally couldn't hold it on that long car trip, and now we have to reupholster the back seat. From now on, we fly.

020523c

the next card
is always Death
the mark gasps

020523b

passing
another hundred
press paid for itself