Regina Rex - 221 Madison St. New York, NY 10002

In companion with the exhibition: Jonathan Butt and Mernet Larsen

ANYTHING EXCEPT CHARMING
by Alan Gilbert

The only naps I take are in the morning
after a night spent choking on stars.
Sometimes people go missing;
other times it�s me.
Still, it�s a lonely life for being so crowded,
or else it takes a club member
to get you in.
Each backyard or nearby field
contained a small oil well guarded
by a dingo wearing lopsided bunny ears.
Inside, you can hear the sound of crickets chirping,
as talk show hosts interview hospice workers.

On the table is a box of disposable gloves
used to serve cafeteria food.
Deckhands dodge a wildly swaying mainsail
while paralyzed from the neck up
after long days at the office
stacking wooden pallets.
In archery class,
I badly overshot every target,
and generally stumbled onto the ecstatic,
just as it�s anything except charming to answer
the door naked and waving a piece of bacon.

(Originally published in Late in the Antenna Fields [Futurepoem, 2011].)

writing index