lab-quality prints

you came out line by line by line by line from the thigh of your jeans, through the deep blue of your shadow-wet under-singlet, and then the light-grey dark-grey top layer, the green beads of your heart, your purple underarm, line by line by line of the arm that shades your face from the sun, your chin popping out in profile, and then suddenly, out jumped the rest of you. your black hair in the sun. the tender sliver of sky between the wristband of your watch and your wrist. and the cranes drilling into your forearms. that day, in bilbao.

 

i think you know

i needed to print out the poems i’m trying to get together for a class, so as to try to give them some shape, so i walked down the street to find the nearest internet place, which turned out to be a convenience store. the computer was slow and frustrating but eventually i got the nine pages printed out. i went up to pay and the guy said: six fifty thanks. how much? i asked, all genuine disbelief, no angered indignation. how much is it per page? fifty cents, he says. and i just started laughing. ok, only one dollar for internet. four dollars fifty for printing. so that’s be five dollars fifty then, right? i ask, still laughing. i think you know about the price already, he says, smiling like a toddler. no, i’ve never been here before, man. thanks, see you later.