when I say Yemen I am
describing a video game
where there are asteroids
threatening my ship &
I destroy—when I say funeral
I mean that I have seen
people in the ground on TV
before, the way I have seen rubble
the way I have sadness—how
when I say Ankara, it must be some
pitcher who threw pitches once &
when I say once I mean way more
than once, more than a singular
time—when I say I
read something online actually I mean
I know someone much wiser
touching a Keats telling me the
length of a daring lock of love—a pluck
I mean Barbie—Ken I mean gym mus
cles I have softened—& mirror I think
of someone’s vacation I dreamed &
how I loved every minute of zip
lie—I meant, yeah
man, I live right around the corner
teachpoet 