INTERNET POETRY WORKSHOP POEM
MacNeel, MacNeel, don't steal my automobile
I'll take you to a cafe, buy you a big fine meal
Your place, my place, souls left and right
scattered about the floor, the folded pages
hold their faces to the floor, rich souls, poor souls,
beggar souls, theives
hanging with the Christ, unintentionally blessed
and remembered, good souls, bad souls
real souls, naugahyde souls, somebody correct me
on the spelling of naugahyde, big souls, small souls
souls that have to be grown into, souls
that smell like a stepped on stink bug, souls
taken down a notch, lifted off the cross
rolled gold souls, lesser souls, souls
I meant to call yesterday, souls calling in old favors, souls
on ice, souls on fire, souls with broken hands, other people's souls
borrowed, but put carefully back where they were when the charade is done
souls that came in the back way
souls that came in from the cold
souls in heat
souls lost and souls found
soles wandering the befouled edens
of California and Pennsylvania, souls
come home and souls abroad, souls
looking for the right words
oh, now I've said too much
souls finding light of heart
of prozac memories and one night stands
souls finding dirt on window panes
looking through at scrapheap sonsabitches
and harlots of fame and fortune
souls looking to buy, sell or trade
the imagined for the unreal
the ideal for the damaged
the broke for the flush
the moved for the unmoveable
the physic for the metaphysic
the revelation for the typo, souls
yearing to breathe
with the huddled masses, yearning
for the wisdom
of the wretched outcast, souls
you get greedy for, want to pop into your mouth
like a small mouse, feel them struggle against your teeth
hope they won't bite your tongue, souls
forever in torment, forever free, I mean very free
and easy, souls
cut to length, overgrown, ripe with fruits
of deception, nude as birth, heavy
with anticipation, souls
as worn as denim, souls as right as rain, souls
as strange as oranges, souls as plump as grapes;
on the internet, no one knows you're a dog.