The Contender

& so, eventually,

come back or make

a comeback. Such

area contained within

that (missing) space.

Comeback means

trying to get back

to where you were

& hope you make it.

Come back implies

you never left there.

Blink

A participle of

movement. The

running man. Snap-

shot open to

interpretation. Statement

given, vision

attached. Nothing

in it. Wait for. Wait for

the man to pass

by. Ask. Why? State-

ment means nothing.

Formulaic

Look, she said, I

know you’ve got

all these fancy ideas

about structure &

trochees & the

lengths of breaths

but they’re all

far too complex

for me to compre-

hend. My way

is simpler. Go

down to the

beach to do

your writing &

put in a line

break every time

a beautiful body

passes by.

from a past life

Rain, finally, after months of dry. Bucketing down. So dark I turn the lights on at 1.30 p.m. only to have them go out five minutes later as the power goes off. Thunder & lightning, directly overhead, only nanoseconds between flash & crash, not even enough time to say one thousand one. I sit in the open area beneath the house, some meters back but not far enough to escape the rain which sweeps in everywhere. I do not care. The gutters flood. Through a blurring curtain falling off the roof I watch the water start to lap over the edges of the pool. Ten minutes ago it was several centimeters lower down. The cat cowers under another chair. The turtles of the Woolwash Lagoon will be hurrying to lay their eggs. At the first sign of rain . . . Branches break off trees. There are no birds.

The storm moves away. The birds return. The power takes another twenty minutes.

Meanwhile, in the Ozarks

Metal brackets, 18 carat

white gold men’s wedding

ring, no glitch. Advanced

technology, the image

printed directly onto can-

vas, rounded & beveled,

art deco style. Any euphem-

ism for describing queer

people. A real all rounder.