As/Is







4.23.2004


LaToya: Jockstrap

know how
when you hear the corner of a conversation
you only get a suggestion of words like
they'd been half formed
into the

language that came
before this one and know
how the sound can
become

anything

you turn your mind to

he's saying "alcohol"

i'm making small
talk as though
the rest of it

was big

and sometimes
it feels as though
I never learned
to write these

aren't words they're trails of ink I

can't read I'm playing pretend

there's a pain in my back where the bone used to be

there are parts of California
cloned
from New South Wales

I'm capitalizing my 'I's crossing my
't's I'm growing
responsible though

my left hand smells of salt
and cinnamon didn't I tell
you

that's the smell of a
woman