Norlin Library

Library sex sounds
hungry like pages turning just
to be done
with the damn thing

I traded six used condoms
into my boss here
for respect and a hair
tussle and no raise
but we talked Rothko once
and pretended
not to disagree
understanding
how short the
conversation would
be. Sometimes talking
is a clock-in clock-
out occasion.

Trying not to see John Mellencamp as my Artistic Shephard

But remembering mom’s
careful explanation
of how a thing can hurt
so good and me
not fucking getting it
until she died and 11
years after that
when I wrote
this.

Another Spectre Balloon

Ugly daffodils her skull curls
around in deeply
silent places
where the only sound is the soft
click
of the street lights
changing. Her thoughts sit
on the world and hang
there as the tea
evaporates
before a late sip.

There’s an old terrible magic
she’s trying
to see.
She

is her thoughts
these webby silent nights. Another spectre
ballooning through whole
valleys that feel
like pool felt
on her bare feet.

Eddy Jordan works in a pub and lives at home with his dad and brother and dog Woody. When Woody misbehaves he calls him Woodrow after the president when that office used to mean something. He fell off the teacups at Six Flags when he was 8 years old and to this day prefers drinking coffee to tea.