MONASTICISM 

Splotchy light warbles behind my eyelids.
I spit out each thought that tries to enter
like a wrinkled dollar rejected by a vending machine.

My eyes open to a tangle of power lines
drooping above Detroit backyards; a fruit fly
the color of the brown glass
of the beer bottle it’s perched on.

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM 

Don’t get too excited, in other words.
This isn’t about the episode
“Palestinian Chicken.” 

It’s about how Larry complained
(which is what every episode is about)
about how much time is wasted while urinating 

and taped The Gettysburg Address
to the wall above the toilet to
memorize and make the time productive. 

I find myself hovering my phone before my torso
while peeing
looking at 

(insert genocidal image here).
I’ve saved the ones I haven’t
memorized yet to my phone. 

But I’ve memorized a lot of them.