three parts of the past

in fours

i played your guitar today

                               to spite you

bitter cold and blowing snow

     winter   gets things done

the coldest i got 

         refilling the wiper fluid different

   from the sixty two of yesterday

when i didn't even wear a jacket and everything smelled like spring

          all were distracted   thinking of what they want to tell me  

                          myself   included  

today it was cold snowy focus

and my shirt smells like evergreen

my winter coat has a hood and i put it to good use

 even when    i'm wearing a hat

the four songs

1. bryan's song

2. everyone knows

3. the great lake erie

4. if i was wrong

           knight berman jr. says ‘reaction is the completion of creation’

that feels good to say

 what words do you like in your mouth?

i have a friend who loves the word ‘utter’

  she likes the way it feels

                                                   what it means

i lean toward ‘certain’ or ‘telecaster’

and have spent some time defending ‘supple’ against its harsher critics

  my grandmother's 106th birthday

                         my maternal grandmother    callie mae   a slight woman 

  with more strength than a thousand men

          raised four kids and a drunk husband

they smoked      like good people did

                                                         and that's what killed all four      

                                                                                                       of the kids

the eye

the problem with my eye is a bit of a long story

            are you familiar with spencer tunick?

the day   sunday     it was hot outside

                 the sun was bright and big in the sky

we wore the required loose clothing

             milled about in the holding area with fifteen hundred others

waiting to be called  

                          waiting  to be nude

                      waiting

                                 to be art

i looked around for someone that i knew   wondering  if i was hoping to find anyone or not     it is a strange feeling    incomplete  unknowing

the word came     when it was said    i was looking up

      at the building     at the sun peeking     over top of the brilliant facade

i noticed what is usually called   a sunspot   in my right eye  
                                                       you know the type

where you can't really see for a minute or two 
                          and then your eyes readjust  break free or break through

                                 my right eye

                                     the better of the two 

  never did

i still have the same spot i did that day      i see it most when i try to sleep

three different grown men told me that if i followed an aspirin therapy regimen

              it would go away

  i did     it didn't

the last one  thought it might be a floater   i told him it doesn't move     
     not completely opaque but still   i can't see through

‘you're a young man’ he said ‘you'll heal just fine

             no need to worry   everything is all right'

during all this    i kept bumping in to your father     back in the back

the part of the office where serious things sigh    
                                          he was telling me jokes  with that gleam in his eye

         we kept saying goodbye and 
                                     i'll see you next tuesday   
                                                                 each and every time

but then

          we'd run into each other six minutes later and do it all again

                                      we shook hands   we were men  


 about a dozen times that day  

                         each awkward seeing the other   out of context

            even though the other good doctor   an eloquent speaker 
                                        and the last of the three grown men  
                   said i'd be fine    
                                      i am not

i have trouble in low light  with numbers on a page  

                       i have to look around a sentence to make sure i see

   the whole thing

       i read one yesterday

it was professional and dry

                and somewhere in the middle   bold letters ‘BRAIN MRI’

i just can’t figure what i’m hoping they’ll find

         you are the first person to ask for the story

the guys at work will talk about it if i bring it up   and my ex her was going through a lot of her own stuff     at the time    or     all the time

                    so nothing got done

who waited with me for the women to come out
                 feeling awkward 
      standing completely clothed waiting for my ex her     

  she looks like this

to walk naked from the building

it's the kind of situation

that doesn't really happen

     more than a few times

in your life  

 right

the extra room

that's what she looked like on my birthday   last year   late at night 
   
                in the initial query about my extra room

     you see

 once you open the mind it doesn't close all the way back

 so even if she's returned to doing whatever it is she does

         to please some of the others

she's got the idea that there's another way

  that's the first step

                                             like at first read

the bit about drinking up words    made me think about songs

                             for some reason knowing    takes away from it all

you have a good sense for description     use it  as a weapon

         give enough detail           leave  the rest   like a trail

            looking for a treatment that no one can offer

                           stop me cold      color me pale

            this is faster than i remember it being

       behind on the technology

truly sincerely

                 the you in me                    
                                                        ps  i'm already running out of closings

How Do You Wear a Seersucker Suit?

Summertime was made for seersucker suits.

 They're cool (ironic) and comfortable, looking crisp (even with that lisp) in the most humorous of climates. There is a reason why they were once considered the uniform for the Southern Gentlemen, like Willy Gunderson or Stamford Xavier MacGillicuddy III.   

                                                      

 But, how do you wear one?   How do you bear one?  

What goes with seersucker? 

                           Well, I'll tell you motherfucker! 

Read on for some helpful pointers.

Accessorizing the seersucker suit:

                               Shirts and a hat, now how about that?

A good guideline with seersucker is to select a shirt that includes one of the stripe colors.  Go black, green, and red if you're an African man, if you catch as you can and you have to admit that the sweat on your neck does bother you, a bit, it's so true.  So, if it's a blue and cream stripe, then a shirt in cream or blue will be the best thing    for you.   But there's one thing you should know (you should always know), that inevitable isn't edible anymore than credit is incredible and you must certainly understand that only Southern Gentleman— like the most gracious of all, Mr. Knight Berman Junior— can successfully wear a hat like that.  

So put yours on the rack and go to the back of the back where the books hang out and read a few until you find the one that makes you   shout, that makes you smile, and you feel understood for the first time in miles.  

In the last century the printed word was king, you see; it tore you down and set you free but now we're unsure about everything. 

Maybe this is how it feels to be on that limb, looking back, looking in and saying those words that everyone knows but nobody heard.  

Nobody hears   because it feeds the fear. 

But, what style of dress shirt?


                 Watch it now, you might get hurt.

As far as the style of shirts that are useful, youthful, and truthful.  A spread collar, point collar, or tab collar dress shirt will work, and work well if you're paving a road to hell or if you've just moved to Austin and can't get enough Stubbs or heat or heart or white boy blues or high heeled shoes and the new good news   but     ‘how much’ is never enough and ‘soon’ isn't now anyhow.  Just toss that tape in the air and wait for the surgeons to look up from their work, now you've got your shirt, and the shirt selected should be all cotton, if it’s a dress shirt, but cotton or linen will suffice, if you're nice and you always think twice, if you're real or you're right and you take leave of your senses only at night and also if it's a sport shirt.

Selecting neckwear for seersucker:

                       C'mon and pick one you salty motherfucker.

For the most part it is best to select a tie with a pattern one that matches your    hat (err, wait just a minute we got rid of that    didn't we?). Yes, ideally, you won't wear such things unless you have the head to pull it off, the style to slow the soft, and find the oceans roar like you did before from Mobile or Fairhope, Chickisaw or Spanish Fort.  Select a tie with a pattern, one of import, composed of the shirt and clothing color then wear it to court, to church, to the bar, and then home to the kids. Don’t show your weaknesses, keep those well hid.  However, it's OK if the neckwear incorporates additional hues, the ones you can use in its pattern, in blues, even in the band of the hat (wait wait, no-no, um forget about that).

So, if you are often in a position of prominence, if you've got something to say to more than one of us, if you haven't put down your all your expenses for the month and the fiscal year ending is coming right up, well, now you're talking. 

What is the appropriate footwear for seersucker?


                        This one's going out to all the full time truckers.

The most traditional footwear choice for seersucker is a pair of white bucks but most folks look at those and say 'What the fuck?' I can't really blame them, those shoes kind of suck but the warm red tradition calls it   'cut'.

And you do so to be polite, but underneath your civil rights are raging and staging some sort of coup, trying to recall how time might renew and diffuse the sexist and racial tonality, I wonder why arrogance feeds personality. And, how belief in the conscience is all very new to the immigrant sons of Pepe LePew. 

But actually brown or black shoes are also acceptable options, don't need to be made out of cotton, just keep it comfortable and that will do— it's all in line with a seersucker suit.  

The appropriate style is some kind of lace-up:

Think-captoe, split-toe, plain-toe, or wingtip.

In design, so fine, comfortable in leather, sassy and classy, impenetrable to weather   of most kinds on the coastline seeking Evangeline. 

Slip-on shoes simply aren't dressy enough.

And, finally, the belt should match the color of the shoes. It's leather-know-better than to sing only blues.

So, if you decide to go for a grosgrain belt, well, live it up then brother, drink to your health.  

And choose one that makes you happy and wealthy and fat but just make sure you don't pick the wrong hat. Because, that    that  that      would be disastrous. 

the quickening of Q T Lee

 la la la     lee le lee     i’ll be disappointed

         see      inevitable

meinyou   youinme

everyone  every thing

    yeah    this too 

impervious 

   still seeking truth   searching roots    follow through

                  fiddle tunes  the pipes the pipes of old cancun

           furrowed gains neck to pain 

 head to head   median migraine

white girl problems    floating free     the quickening of  Q T Lee

hard words to hear two days post   
                    different alone  than the ones i had known 

        close the door so close to home  
                   the hidden hills are gone girl gone 

                                                              gone

do you still turn those leaves    easy as it is to breathe  gertie cage   
     the threatening deafening  unsettling    
                       time it takes to leave  myth or mark on anything

she wore flip flops to the club  

keep doing what you’re doing see   cause this here  this   this is maddening   we suffering     chanty cheat   surrey sweet  surreptitious on a serif sea   

       shoes with laces is the way to be 

the way to blue    the way to me

the years wear well on those that make it do   that make the truth   hide the proof   start it out as something new   only to end   
              as shiny shoes   badnewsandblues    

                                   happy birthdays    too  

it’s your move    

the door was already open because the words   were already spoken

like a token  to the

economy

those white girl problems the hanging heat

                 killing time   killing me

       resurrection is as much about when as it is about how

it’s already been decided you can’t un-decide it now

as the once dry eyes find two eighty five  
          an apology from the past says

‘it’s alright’     

by Michael Borremans

one step short of the truth with so much left to lose

four o’clock

      and what to do with   nervous hands

            wandering glances

find   the street

        the hard concrete

whatever sun might have the time   to shine

 whatever grey clouds hang around  your mind

                        you say ‘kerouac’   and ‘coffee black’

            but neither really interests me

beyond what might be termed ‘necessity’

so     best wishes to the bride 
congratulations to the  groom

on their new zealand honeymoon

watch for liars   deep in weeds

     who might just fuse your wants   to your needs

when that kind of trouble starts in to breathe

        peace can really be anything

a short list of your demands   
              1 study hands 
                  2 feel  land 

take the time to follow through

        words align   but still elude

one step short of the awful truth

        still with so much left to do

the open-hearts train came   and the  broken-hearts train   went

     both tended   to breed  the discontent

in different ways    
                         for different things   

eyes   shine  fire to light

       on the farm

easter night

try to ‘closer’ but turn away

       give up the gain

like every day

 con   gress to   reality

there is much that can be made of   me

              

build blocks     swing doors

    twice toured

                         once torn
underscore

the backside often feels like   braille

          the front just longs for holy grail

 if you’re gonna leave

           leave   a trail

so i can find your way to hell

there’s so much you haven’t said yet

          like these domestic cigarettes

you might love me   but i’ll make you sick

i think i already did

                                 this is me right before i quit the staylows

the same sad indelible lines that used to be mine

another fourth of july

 we didn’t know why

to take the time

to    make the drive

 out to the new place

it's the same

the lack/look on your face and 


the same sad indelible  lines

    that used to be mine

make pretty peace

we drove from the east

in three  separate cars

the found side    the road

where no one else would go

walk through talk through trees

the house

nothing to get out

just little looks

and   talks about books

we leaned on hate        until it got too late

we had to go                 those things we had to know 

and there was

no time to decide

is it your world or mine

your world

or mine

                                                      used to be

you     left it all to me

      sing

harm o  ny


before the light fell

we said 
        we wished them well

 this really is such a lovely place

 photo by the marble tea

http://marbletea.tumblr.com/