two sedans • žsomeone very happy
stopped behind someone very lost ž•
underpass radio hiccup • a news
van ambles back from the news

land of milk sales • of improvised spelling
in the marquee • and calories chatting

in bags then wetted in cheeks • the convenience
store dissembles • ‘I’m not here’ hum
the shingles bricks and bins • really admire that

alcoholics next door
put air in my bike tires

jump me • why not
ten thumbprints on the smudged can • now mine
bought and carried home • maybe drunk and the light
is like gas • teens with knives • a hair-colored sky
eight thousand feet above their bus stop • more sky

scooped in by closing doors • plus a honey bun wrapper
melted to the heater • honey bun transit authority •
we have diverse residues and black drivers •
ads of slander in four fonts four colors • got off

by the park • saw an owl in the daytime park • now
watching third base glow • this dumb park by night •
do you believe in rat dander on the wind • does it skip
across your wrist • quiet plus traffic and the stutters

of hidden cats • half dead cats are our neighborhood
watch so the three blocks home are witnessless •
remaining fearless of course • but only as the buffalo
might be • drowsy and folded in the shaggy blue grass

got ashy overnight like a snow day • woke up to the touch
of sweatpant elastic that had been there all along • studio band
squealing next room over • here’s all my advice at once

disclaimer
people out there surprised the suburbs are boring • crying
some • this is not for you • and you won’t be mentioned here

LANSING LANSING • opposite
of coral reef • where quiet hawks
dominate small parks • obese man
in a hoverround walks his glossy pit •
hollow tent of sweatpant lap • folds
trapped under the thigh • slumped
fella • all body parts pointing down •
but that lil pit lookin ready to eat
the whole damn sidewalk

eviction sounds 
quaking laundry • suck
of the front door’s seal •

even in the last days • 2k on blast
or tv on mute • and a happy party

spilling off the patio •
once he chased her

down the stairs • on the phone
in the driveway he said ‘I did not

put my hands on her’ •
lemme pour you both

orange juice and a bowl that steams •
butter slid pans • laughing pigeons

on the morning show •
as you guessed folks

cried a whole lot • shy new dark
girl poking round tomorrow

LANSING sometimes known as cheryltown • karentown

tablecloth sits on rosy bristly thighs • let’s discuss the deal ya big differencemaker •
congratulations community guy thrilled wonderful rotary achievement

my boss wanted to talk
with his race boy • played
a radio feature • yeah
I know • about the only
white person killed
during the freedom rides •
‘isn’t it heartrending?’ • 
let me run • set up
in the shuttered
hot tub store • nibble
on ambushed meats •
stop listening
to anything
you people say

fantasy
acid rain destroys
LANSING • landmark
smokestacks melted
flaccid • hairless cats
chewing spilled candy • 
what is this lump says
everyone • when young
imagined acid rain
colored like antifreeze

oh boy • to have been there on that day • 1982 • when
every house in LANSING got its last coat of paint • 
lil guys adding pointless knee high layers • whole clouds
of bbq smoke • black people look good in overalls

a ring of birds round my parked car • unidentifiable species • leave before questioning

r&b blessing
late night radio on their silk sheets flow • ‘the quiet storm’ with randi ross •
randi sets the scene • LANSING a town in bumbling fog • your porch
become absolute • all drive-thrus open but empty • harmless ghosts rise
from woodchips • astrology! • it decides all • expect an unannounced visit

from your heartbaby • people fuck each other into carpets • and tenderly too • love
as scented oil • meanwhile raccoons do the unknowable • try to catch someone the way
a mattress catches you • this is the spirit • not the letter of what randi ross told me

litter game impeccable • kool aid bottles
with the pharaoh hats • wrappers with food
with faces • spring makes em shiver

fantasy
whistling train at dawn • lord this train is stupid • boxcar
of hard taco shells • of burrs • of dead wine • traveling
to wherever is most useless or !

   a watery grave • pray for it • derail now!

this daily question • alone in LANSING or alone as LANSING is

 

 

is LANSING big

yes                                                            no
zoo                                                            tallest feature • smokestack
state capital                                               parking • no problem
interstate highway spur                             “check out our summer
blighting the black quarter                         jazz festival”
                                   so Ionreallyknow

university of the great white OK • here
is your OK certificate • go out there
and show tim just how OK you are
(converse blessings to black students)

LANSING is best • LANSING is America’s realest

alone thinking of stunts •
could go to rite-aid • mix
every gel and lie down
in it • a restful stunt

hall of fame
am I depressed • well
look at my sponge •

iverson retired but the knockoffs live on • slack
on the racks at kingworld deli grocery • the people’s
rafters • star-spangled as hell • got beer instead

all things are possible through tv • such as joy on the outskirts
are we too rich for street dogs • or too cold

asleep in
a garden
of lamb’s
ear and
unlikely
herbs

fantasy
in the quirk district • wished for lava • swallow this
fucking bead store • leave us cozy in the glassy-eyed ranches

 

LANSING pauses
a few times each day • everything goes constant • all objects
in motion neither accelerating or decelerating • all talkers
repeating • for seconds or a minute a town unnecessary • 
after that it usually rains hard • a skyline of torn lunchmeat

white dad roars
for tryhard son

LANSING is a neutral town • with trees and less-than-trees

rite-aid again
remember how easy it is
to walk to the pharmacy •
rewarded in sights • a guest

careful with a screen door • 
a leaning boy who shakes a crackle
out the training wheels • well

what’s mine • the pedestrian’s trust •
the ant’s weightlessness • if I fell •
the sidewalk • it would be pumice

all apparent failures of LANSING are only mine

two grandmas • not mine
aisha ships twenty bicycles back to goma
and they arrive • the lord was willing

louise watches family feud for the raw english • steve harvey defines
‘schlong’ with his whole brows • ‘plaintains?’ • ‘I am tired of children’

fantasy or                                                a vision I’m awaiting
haunted tall tee floats through the streets bodiless • probably
orange • it’s shuddering • it loses control • here big ass tee • 
lie down on my porch • don’t mind the debris • press your
cotton to my pine-gone needles • they’re softening every day

psalm
the modest are
the shirtless •
the blameless pass
on clacking bikes •
a bowl of flamin
hots alight •
the smoke blown
east in thanks