Art Poem

I was invested in a life of destruction

I was sending a message to the abyss

It was like all of the birds screaming at the cold

It was like everyone thinking about death at the same time

I am feeling amiss

Supposedly due to how the planets are arranged

It is like a map of daffodils

Some words are coming out of my mouth

Like a planet nobody asked for

Wanting to figure into your astrology

It is like eating the same meal for sixteen years

It is like disappointing people through art




Love Poem

I am secretly wonderful like a lost letter or a black pie

I am tired of being a lot

It is like cutting the arms off a tree

And you are left with knots

It is like knowing what everyone is thinking all the time

It is like being a woman

I would hate for you to write a long song about it

It would be like the end of a long vacation

It would be like a world without Courtney Love 

Ice-Cream Poem

We were as proud as mathematicians

We hated each other frivolously

I kept on wondering

Why everything had to be so stupid

I loved it when we used to say

I didn’t ask for this

It was a kind of victory

Exactly the size and shape of an ice-cream dish




City Poem

The city is like a photograph of a painting of a city

Some days it is not very hard

But sometimes it is like being part of a vast system

Where there is no one to talk to

The cat is licking its dick politely I guess

The rain barks like a scary dog

The moon has never seemed so full of itself

I understand this is a life of mediocrity

I have prepared in every possible way




Cloud Poem

I am sorry I am like this

Remember how I said that all the time

You should have said it too

And you did you did

We were both so sorry

We kept looking at each other

Wondering what the other one would do 

Love was a pink cloud we were standing in

It was a good excuse to walk off a cliff

Now I am as light as 10,000 magnolia blossoms

That is what you do in my memory

You and your fabulous fetishes

Which I miss sincerely




Dog Poem

I am like a dog with a pearl in its teeth

It is a kind of precious thought

That bends but doesn’t break

We are like two cities with different moons

There is no way to know the time

We are like two elephants at a dinner party

We must really learn to be more delightful

Sometimes I will just drive into a parking lot

I don’t know where to be in this world

We are supposed to live and die at the same time

It must be like falling out of a jeep 





Wolf Poem

You have to be more cautious with beautiful things

Or anything that is wonderful

I was not made to be understood

I am walking out on a limb

It is like teetering on a high branch

I am going to act really greedy

While rising dramatically out of a puddle

It will be like being struck with terrible melancholy

Right in the middle of washing the dog




Kansas Poem

Every building seemed possible

And I was enjoying the performance of it

We were not as evil then

But thick as thieves and sick as dogs

I hadn’t the slightest suspicion

The story of us is like the story of Kansas

It is like swallowing a fist

It is like when your sanity comes crawling back to you

In the middle of the night

And you hold it out again like a tooth




——

These poems are from Laura’s next forthcoming book, Salad Days, available for preorder now from Maudlin House.