KNOCK KNOCK

A soft knock on the front door.
I opened the door.
It was a man I had never seen before.

What can I do you for, I said

He said, I need someone to talk to.  I need help.
Well no one is here right now, I said.
I really need someone to talk to, he said

I said, Well come on in. You don’t look like you’re feeling too well.

Would you like a glass of water?

Do you have a beer?

I got a beer from the refrigerator.
We sat down at my kitchen table

Well, come on, I said, I don’t have all day.
What do you want to talk about?

I did have all day but sometimes a man has to feel important.
What do you have to do that’s so important, he asked?
Never mind, I said.
Long story short, he said, I’m afraid of my girlfriend’s husband.
She told him we’re having an affair and he wants to kill me.

Why would she do something so crazy, I said.
Because she loves to be spanked on the ass, he said.

She loves me and wants to marry me.
Why don’t you marry her?

Because I’m married, he said.
Someone knocked an angry knock on the front door, again and again and again.

Mars, an angry man yelled from my front porch, I ’m going to kill you. I know You’re in there.

Whoever you are, I yelled, go away or I’ll call the police.
I looked out the window, saw a guy in flip-flops walk across my lawn into the house next door without knocking.

You’re having an affair with a woman who lives next door to you? I asked

Do you have any weed, he asked?
Are you in love with this woman?

No, he said, but she’s so damn hot.
Does your wife know about this affair?
Why should I tell her? That would be damn stupid and just cause trouble.

 Knowing her, she would just tell all the neighbors.

What’s your plan, pendejo?
I moved to Kansas City but she telephoned me every night, begging me to come back.  I told her I was dating a new girlfriend, an intelligent, compassionate women that doesn’t appeal to me like you do because you are the best lover I’ve ever had.

Have you had many lovers? she asked
Do you mean lovers I was in love with?

Yes, she said.
That memory has been wiped away, I said, laughing into my iPhone.
It was a joke.
She didn’t think it was funny.      

Do you like fish? she asked.
Yes, I said, I do.

Well take a perch, she said.
I never want to talk to you again.
She hung up.

I moved back home to Tulsa,
Moved back in with my wife, next door to my former lover.
Her husband and I have become damn good friends.
He chugged his beer, turned his baseball cap backwards,
Got up from the table, shook my hand, said,
Thanks old man.
I couldn’t have ended this affair without your advice.
You’re the best neighbor I’ve ever had.

TAMARISK TREE

The tamarisk tree wears a green diaphanous gown &
    needs a shave

A ladder of stars beneath an arroyo feeds her children

The tamarisk tree traces her genealogy to angels &
     the eternal pilgrimage of fish

The tamarisk tree near La Joya, near a cemetery where
     I hear a baby rabbit cry itself to death

The tamarisk tree is not Christian, has never read the
    Bible

She loves to chant Buddhist mantras

Jesus Christ was once her secret lover

She loves hawks, psychedelic mushrooms, Wittgenstein,
    Gertrude Stein, Buffy St.-Maria, Patti Smith, Pablo
        Picasso and the old Bob Dylan

Dear dear tamarisk tree

Tiny glaciers slide beneath her holy bark

Blue porcelain dolphins frolic in her white gloved hands

She is surrounded by the shadow of Einstein

The tamarisk tree plays tungsten horn in her spare time

She has eyes for Little Orphan Annie

She is terrified surrounded by America’s fear and greed

She remembers when and where music became transparency
    solidified

Blind fish swim in her iridescent roots

A lather of clouds in her hair of ocean foam

Tiny winged beings in her superluminal womb

She is a breathing grave

Dances for the sun

Loves the moon

Is bi-sexual and horny

Sunlight glides over her skin like the soft mouth of
    a dream lover

The drum in her leaves skips a beat

Poor tree

She has never seen the transcendental light of
    Taos

She has never seen a cubist painting or Marx Brother’s
    movie

Georgia O’Keefe forgot to paint the tamarisk tree

The tamarisk tree understands

Dear dear tamarisk tree