For instance, Suffix said Prefix
comes from the Prussian or Pan-Asian
Pretext, or "named from God." She is skilled
in the piccolo and other, smaller flutes.
I remember her quiet,
having taken a bee to the lung
in one of the Dakotas
when she was studying kinesiology
with Sharparms’s wife.
I remember her brothers
(their throats are enormous)
mumbling
come along darling.
You can always tell how hot your girlfriend is
by how hot her brother’s girlfriend is.
A pause. A shot
was taken.
You don’t seem to remember
first meeting her
but clearly
this has happened
(I see you know
her house so well)
and that lack of ground,
say, not to claim a place
that everything began, really,
is this a sin?
In Mexico no one’s planting trees,
and god is a place again.
We could open a restaurant
with a microwave at every table.
It will be called
“There Are Certain Situations
That Americans Associate With Hot Dogs”
and if that gimmick won’t work,
then at least we will design
our own prison uniforms.
They will be based on our shadows
and favorite boat drinks.
Chains made of islands.
Wallets filled with photos
because we don’t trust memory.
My quiet friend of many diseases,
that is a fantastic shirt.
Come with me for
the summer,
the whole trip
a bridge without a beginning
floating over the ocean
with our toes dragging in
the Pacific, where locusts are
just a pause in the harvest, come
for the summer
or never
come back. Now,
I will tell you
something that shouldn’t be
a secret: this
is a future. It’s more than a hint.
I will call you Follow.
The pretext is never the event.
Stand back. Let some air in,
it will just be a way of waking,
singing,
I have arrived.
This is my turn.
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Originally from Nebraska, Scott Abels currently lives and teaches on the coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. His poems can be found online and in print (or are forthcoming) in Lungfull!, Action Yes, Shampoo, Sawbuck, No Tell Motel, Spooky Boyfriend, Word For/Word, Sixth Finch, Past Simple, and BlazeVOX. He has a small blog at scottabels.blogspot.com/.
