Another Helping Read online

another helping

  Buck Downs

  Copyright ( c ) Buck Downs 2010

  www.PublishingGenius.com

  www.BuckDowns.com

  PG Chapbook Genius 023

  Acknowledgements: In addition to appearing in a series of postcards and other author-published ephemera, some of these poems also appear in Cannibal, Columbia Poetry Review, and They Are Flying Planes.

  twist riffs and stiff hits

  easy way out

  busca tu propria caja

  root jerk cookie

  little sucker one hit

  proximo exito

  last house on the block

  the work on the way to work

  we must be in the wrong business

  after the hand writing

  came to rock

  massive passages

  dead girl on the landing

  read it like a phone number

  I was walking tall but I fell

  take each other to work it

  grind it til you find it

  get up & wait

  the real live ghost world

  hold what you got

  repairs on a running engine

  my secret job

  room for one more

  twist riffs and stiff hits

  blood creep alarming

  partially swallowed

  scratchitto of the meridians

  and kids are climbing

  out of the wood work

  clandestine

  rut-in-the-hut

  odd and offcast

  solids of the stars,

  wow. the fat man lost

  his jollies. sun-and-fun-

  burnt on the hardest arms

  a backed-up renunciation

  getting it unburdened up front

  in fantasy documents

  the tricky coverage

  love it like a good time

  let it back to work

  easy way out

  dark fair matter

  every manner

  of the morning-ride

  to twilight,

  asymmetrical path

  out and back --

  a slick patch of the rite

  animals have no time

  for ritual

  like this one

  pick a fight and the barb

  of love digs in

  conflict engagement

  pink in the night

  light in my lap

  busca tu propria caja

  rolling hard with that

  lack of the luxury

  multiplication train

  go pick your own brains

  get behind me

  and burn one

  my flesh it did tremble

  but my mind was all right

  with delight

  that mechanical vibe

  she handcranked it

  right up in time

  steady-tatter glaciality

  had a temblor shed glitter

  an agitation shared in half

  root jerk cookie

  roil the fold

  ma cinquefoil

  licor-a-root

  stump tongue

  apple bound

  all apologize

  for timing

  maybe butterfly

  chew coloné

  tactical shift

  diddle call-

  me-up

  must be what she meant

  when she said tasty girls

  little sucker one hit

  living in an area

  where the reality

  sets in

  I got in her

  cowboy pajamas

  back to memphis

  like the prophet

  of jamming gears

  & harmony

  venus's x-rayed

  the hippie hippie

  hitlist

  third time thru

  and running

  without her shoes on

  the ghost rocks

  the haunting chair

  this is how it felt

  when the misery loved me.

  proximo exito

  el pequeño lechón

  golpeó el vivir

  adonde la realidad

  se fija colocado

  conseguí en ella

  pijama vaquereño

  de nuevo a memphis

  como el profeta

  de los engranajes atorantes

  y armonía

  o diane ligero

  tiempo listos de exitos

  quemadura y sacudida

  tercera vez a través

  y funcionando

  sin ella los zapatos encendido

  la fantasma oscila

  la silla que frecuenta

  éste es cómo se sentía

  cuando la miseria me amó.

  last house on the block

  rat's leaf-skeletons

  in the scuttle

  just like life

  runs to the lee

  of the wind

  some strange person

  calling me their home

  ooh baby

  it's that

  million-

  dollar

  alphabet

  rooting you up

  like a folk life

  cursive's kitty

  passives'-pussy

  dipso-DIDSO

  ooh baby

  you took a heart-

  beating.

  you should lose

  count more often

  the work on the way to work

  cave-in chest

  lost to thought-

  killing time

  then what kind

  of continuing

  enterprise

  terra squatch you shave it,

  I'll suck it

  my heart longs

  to beat you up

  waiting for the depression

  to give up and go home

  it did before,

  it does it will

  we must be in the wrong business

  the nation is joking

  inevitable doom

  sudden euphoria

  side by side like the two souls

  that reside in every body

  beg you sweet missqueezing

  plastic bag & paper bottle

  and a piece of the old beam

  only localization

  of the special thing

  the stars are

  interchangeable

  after the hand writing

  setting off quartersticks

  to drown the sound

  coming out of her mouth

  in little forgotten

  lit a woody

  with help from the dead

  an elephant

  sitting on every chest

  would open

  the habit.

  the game called

  not this time

  came to rock

  bone dry and stone high

  the cash accrual

  early morning ugly

  ugly buzz

  off by miles

  it could be the devil,

  cold-calling

  an incautious soul

  cut me off at half

  a question

  like any half-

  measure

  it depends on if

  you're the one

  who's pouring, or drinking

  this leverage is slippy

  can't you make it happen quick

  massive passages

/>   all dissolved her

  spots and furze

  we got here curious, & tired

  newblown radical

  river through everybody

  pissed off

  king's english

  isle of texas-

  in-a-teacup

  it was informative later

  hiding on your way

  out the door

  the uncertainty

  was a helpmate

  and it left

  her pleasure is all mine

  my god is a steady supply --

  dead girl on the landing

  the words went up the stair

  and they hung themselves

  just for spite. the second time

  they hang you it's only for kicks

  after all

  another of the many

  instances of everyday

  objects with multiple

  or more than intended

  actual use.

  as if it could have

  no ending and no beginning

  bodily custody

  extension cord

  storms are formed behind the storm

  we feel. with a patience

  for the strange sensation

  it takes more than

  the doctor's opinion

  read it like a phone number

  wipeout of all

  checked items

  battery driven

  performance

  experience value

  reflection and pushback

  predicted an endearment

  equally unlike mine

  an early extra add on

  locked in to the higher price

  an early start

  on the last minute

  and getting

  the very thing

  I was trying to avoid

  plus a cut thumb

  I was walking tall but I fell

  sure as redneck

  knows no color

  it hit me

  just because you're coming

  doesn't mean you're happy

  she said, you wake me

  whenever, you know --

  with my heart

  in my head

  site of my

  social lack

  as they say

  couldn't stop talking

  to myself in her mouth

  take each other to work it

  raw stuff

  concatenated

  blow me

  a kiss

  goodbye

  she gave me

  the key

  grind it til you find it

  altogether gone

  healing power

  for the night

  in a firewalling-

  brownstone

  of dallas to richmond

  polaroid jim

  the fashion

  don't hit him

  and a home made diamond

  band wrapped around her

  axle

  slipping upstream

  like that back door cutter

  that kept looking fatter

  til it dropped off the table

  get up & wait

  how speaking

  in tongues works

  a protein string

  dissolves

  on the tongue

  empty nutrition

  but it didn't turn out

  to be a paper world,

  it turned out, harder --

  scrape a lead,

  down below

  her scar line

  all this useless rigor

  straighten & stumble

  all the whole night long

  do what you want

  you are what you want

  the real live ghost world

  her lungs sound

  like machinery.

  a wet machinery

  filtering the stack.

  no-narcotic

  nicotine

  unexploded

  typeset

  nine-to-midnight,

  dynamite

  in the mind's eye

  the deep fuse

  and the short boom.

  I am mining country.

  fucking dirty sentences

  on someone else's paper

  hold what you got

  a basic necessity changer

  wants to burn down with

  something harmful awful

  non-piece

  of the pareil

  partive down

  reduced to plenty.

  multiple pinch

  of that stuff

  switch to sweat

  no-cash account

  ocean's contour chain

  one link long

  why take a trip

  across the ocean

  when you can already

  see the sea

  repairs on a running engine

  bump it up the backness jack down

  sum of the lowest

  common denominators

  cost

  in a simple

  destruction kit

  flaming star

  over my shoulder

  don't you fight

  the urge

  to shut down

  on it hard

  my secret job

  I'd rather start

  a fuck

  than a fight,

  but it is not

  always

  given to me

  to do so --

  eccentric magnolia

  sole proprietor

  wonder why

  everybody went nuts

  for that damn ophelia --

  too busy

  trying

  to live with the change

  boy who couldn't stand straight

  whoso has it

  and honey don't

  her hand fell

  into my hands.

  room for one more

  as soon as everybody

  is all hooked up

  there's always room for one more

  within

  and without

  the people

  want some more.

  maybe bring it on home

  later, tonight

  I have been learning

  to trust my capture

  system all over again

  bootstrap for

  friends

  & close relations

  to shine on.

  may no action

  always be this reversible,

  we flip the switch

  from off to on.

  Buck Downs lives and writes in Washington, DC; poems are forthcoming in Compost and The Equalizer. Books, postcards and more available at www.buckdowns.com.