I Watch My Neighbor Watch Porn Movies through The Kitchen Window
while I wash the dishes, the back of his head propped
along the sofa’s curved and tufted rim, his hand
caressing a glass of black wine. I can make out the shapes
of the woman: blurred breasts, flash of thigh, as I scrape
grease into a coffee can, wipe the pan with a paper towel.
He’s married with a new baby, the light upstairs dimming
each time she rocks, probably cooing and fawning
as a mother does, while her husband stares at the screen
and takes a drink, looking up at the ceiling every once
in a while, his gaze almost wistful, as if listening
for angels, before lowering his head and going back
to his work. What are the limits of marriage? The plot
is hilarious: an elegant office, the woman in a judicial robe
holding a gavel, the man cowering in a dog collar waiting
for the fist of justice to fall, or maybe she’s quoting
the bible: collect ye not vessels of wine but crates of tears.
When the light upstairs goes off and his wife appears,
he slides over so she can sit down, puts his arm around her,
rests his head on her shoulder, and I go on watching, washing
bowls and spoons, placing each one gently, quietly in the rack.
Moonflaw
The rivers of my brain
flow east and west,
or if I stand on my head
they pour onto the floor.
Essex England has a town
called Braintree, The River
Brain runs through it,
deep meander that joins
The Blackwater near Witham.
With whom? I asked, back
when I had a boyfriend
who used to say he just
“went out”. What he meant,
of course, was that his brain’s
convolutions, made up of Sulci
(the creases) and Gyri (the ridges)
told him he needed a beer.
The more we laugh, the more
we etch lines into our faces.
Charles Resnikoff says:
The fingers of your thoughts
are molding your face
ceaselessly. Dolphins
have more creases than
humans, which must mean
they laugh, even in their sleep.
The creases in the brain
are called “axions”.
The crease in your butt
is called the Intergluteal cleft.
Between your nose and lip:
the philtrum. The underside
of your knee cap is called
the patella. Deep knee bends
can lead to wear and tear
and cause arthritis.
The muscles that cause
crow’s feet are the
M Orbicularis Oculi.
Happiness flaws
our lives. Only
dogs, cats, monkeys
and the aforementioned
dolphins have brain folds.
Rats, for instance,
still possess a primitive,
flat, unfolded brain.
Brain creases
increase the available
surface area, like the fins
of car radiators,
a highly evolved trait
which allows us to lie
and know we are being
lied to, and still be happy,
still laugh in our sleep,
a flaw that’s not quite
a flaw.
