Themes
Preacher & the Demons
The preacher dunked her head 3 times in the basin & called out for the demons to leave & then she spit water in his face. So he extemporaneously added a fourth & by the time she came up for air the demons were considerably more restrained.
Positive Affirmation
Remember to use positive affirmations.
I am not a dork is not one of them.
Positive Thinking
Leaving a trail of destruction behind her
even though her current affirmation is happy happy joy joy.
Pointless Lies
He said he was followed around by a cloud of electrons that knew what he was thinking. I’ve given up lying, he said & then he pointed over his shoulder. What’s the point? They just go & tell everybody the truth anyway. It sounds worse than it is, he said. Once you forget how to do it, you think up better things to do with your time.
Pools of Light
My favorite time of day is just at dark when all thoughts
of what must be done stop & small pools of light
come alive on tired faces everywhere.
Porcupine
A few said they’d be horses. Most said they’d be some sort of cat.
My friend said she’d like to come back as a porcupine.
I don’t like crowds, she said.
Plumber
The plumber was digging around in the pipes & he saw something shine in the muck & it turned out to be the soul of the last tenant. He gave it to me & I said I wonder how we can return it & he shrugged & said he found stuff like that all the time. You’d be amazed what people lose, he said.
Pockets
She had a big coat with pockets she filled with crackers & cheese & little wrapped chocolates in case (she said) she ever got trapped too far from a convenience store. I don’t take civilization for granted, she said.
Pig Cat
Your cat seems very healthy,
I said to her.
That is not a cat,
she said.
That is a pig
in cat’s clothing.
Pillar of Flame
One summer night, we took my parents’ grill & we put in some sticks & paper & soaked the whole thing in lighter fluid & then my friend turned on his shortwave radio & we listened to some scientist in Houston who was saying where Apollo was at that moment & at the exact time it went over us, we lit the stuff in the grill so the astronauts would look out & see this light & they’d say ‘What the hell is that?’ & we danced around the pillar of flame & sparks laughing wildly because while the astronauts were out there unlocking the mysteries of the universe, we were back home in Chicago making more of them.
Pineapple Milkshake
This is a barrel filled with fish bones & pieces of old rubber cement & it smells like a pineapple milkshake. I have no explanation for why this is so. Chemistry was never my strongest subject.
Piranha Fear
I can’t take a bath, he said, or the piranhas will get me. Don’t worry about that, I said, Piranhas only eat clean people. You’ve got nothing to fear.
Pirate Logic
I’ve found it’s best to leave the hard moral questions to them what has hard morals, he said.
Place by the Sea
He kept a piece of algae behind his ear to remind him of his roots. A million years ago every place was a little place by the sea, he would say & my mind would go blank & I would swim through the day without a care in the world & it all seemed so familiar that I knew I would go back someday to my own little place by the sea.
Place to Fly
She kept asking if the stories were true. I kept asking her if it mattered. We finally gave up. She was looking for a place to stand & I wanted a place to fly.
Personal Business
There was a whole world here once, she said, but some of the smaller parts left on personal business & it’s not that easy to find replacements.
Personal Plateau
I don’t want another opportunity to learn & grow, she said. I just want to eat crackers & watch Oprah & pet my cat.
Perspective
standing on the shoulders of midgets, so even though she sees farther than most every one of her acquaintance, it’s still mostly the crotches of big people
Pesky Growth
I finally got to exactly where I wanted to be,
she said, so why won’t all these growth experiences
go away & leave me alone?
Perpetual Motion
Perpetual Motion Machine: this is the life that needs no words, this is the life that does