Alternative Titles By

I Lost my Gary Fisher (Gresham)

2011/10.24,
4:02PM PDT

I lost my Gary Fisher Bike at MHCC
I locked it up at 12:50 P.M.
and when I came back at
3:00 PM on Friday and I notice
that the bike and the lock was not there
It's a Blue and yellow Gary fisher bike

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While I did not write the above, I take it from Craigslist and submit it as poetry.

We see that the author, unnamed, has lost something dear. This reader knows that Gary Fisher refers to a bicycle, but do all readers know that? If a reader is unaware, it may be assumed that Gary Fisher is a man, which he is. This is a letter of loss, and for some readers, it is an eulogy alternatively "Gresham."

What does "Gresham" symbolize to the author? Does it allow for a place of rest for the deceased, or is it the scene of the trauma?

Notice the disjunction of the lines "and when I came back at /3:00 PM on Friday and I notice / that the bike and the lock was not there(.)" This could suggest the jaggedness which this trauma has caused in the author's day, or narrative. There is conspicuously no punctuation throughout this work, this could represent a malaise or feeling of confusion, being lost in the theft of this "Gary Fisher."

Finally, the work ends on such a banal note that the reader is left to question all of our fleeting responses to loss. What will we remember? Blue and yellow. Colors. It's strange how memory is so visual, and how it was cold to the touch, or smelled like bananas are not left behind. The author asks us to question what we will leave behind. Blue and yellow.

I'm getting older too.

If some boys don't say "I love you," it's not their faults or for lack of hugging between the ages of 3 and 14. It's kind of funny is one of the sadder ways to open a sentence. It's kind of funny, no it isn't. It's kind of funny that I don't say "I love you." It's kind of funny that it isn't. There wasn't even a lack of hugging. It's like new pairs of eyes, and oh, my god; your green is so much better and these yellows are barely there at all. How do you live like this? And nobody told me that at 25 I'd get stronger everyday just from doing the things I do everyday.

Wrong.

Job interviews, terrible things.
We're never asked to judge people that way.
Not only do I hope they won't make the wrong choice, we know they will.
There isn't a union for unemployed people.
Terribly rare things,
That happen all the time.
On TV and movies,
To our handsome friends with square jaws
And regular shaped brains.
Eating regular cars
And getting paper bags at the grocery store everytime.
What are errands?
I don't think I've ever, run one.
I like going to the bank, and the post office.
I think I might get rid of my car,
Not for political reasons.

It's not nice to say,
It will get better.

Upset but not afraid.

For how afraid of heights,
I am,
I do an awfully lot of height oriented things.
No, I don't care to list them.
And for how much I really don't care for the Beatles,
I do work in a bar named after their song.
And for how much I like working with the people I work with
I don't want to do that.
And for how scared I am of everything,
I'm not scared of other things.
Small spaces
The Dark
I even had a serious crash on my bicycle recently.
I was never scared.
I thought I might have broken my nose.
I was upset, but not afraid.

The pigs.

Sometimes, when I'm far from home, my heart skips a beat.
It's not a metaphor. Ka-chunk!
It's parenthetical. (Ka-chunk!)

How do you shout an aside without the other characters knowing?
Are they frozen in time, or just frozen?

It doesn't scare me.
Don't worry.

And I had my first vertigo, recently.
It's the logical step in the fear of heights.
Courage is a masculo-protochristian construct.

It's alright if we get low for awhile.

It was.

"We disregard the fact"
and
"You know, it's funny."
are my favorite
phrases
that hide
the hidden saddeness
in language.

And the weird thing is,
I feel pretty good today.

P - O

You gotta grease them boots up
And although you choose
To polish and shine,
Then mink up those boots.

Keeping Leather Vegan

Was out then from the start.
I assume that mink oil,
Made from minks?
It was a bonding experience,
Right Dad?

I'd never polished a shoe before
And this is my first pair of man boots.

Assembling a style,
And when does a costume become
You.

over _____

I brought waxed paper,

we're all a little too ____

so,
when the dip comes
you're going to feel it.

And the ride is going to be over
______ ___ you expected.

Power in Objects.

Power in Objects.
I think it's called fetishism,
That's how I explained it to someone the other day.

i.e.
A fetish, non-sexual;
Religious connotation,
Outsider imposed, western dictæt.

Meaning in the Doing,
I think it's called post-modernism.

i.e.
Ritual meaning;
How to take a photo,
Not of your friends, it draws attention to our happiness,
And lessens our notions of temporal modality.

We're not happy all the time,
But it's how we got there that matters.

Overlap.

I don't smoke cigarettes for a few reasons,
but if I'm being honest here,
It's because I hate the feel of paper,
An odd thing for someone who majored in English,
And seems to be some ardent defender of the
Outmoded Aesthetic.

But, it's specific;
The paper on cigarettes is too dry.
Like a napkin.
Ye Gods.
I hate napkins.
But when people ask me why I don't like cloth napkins,
I don't know why.
Because not only do I hate paper,
Paper Napkins,
I hate napkins.
It's ok to have these things overlap.