Otherwise

Known as Home

Tim Wood

BlazeVOX [books]
Buffalo, New York

Otherwise Known as Home by Tim Wood Copyright 2010 Published by BlazeVOX [books] All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without the publishers written permission, except for brief quotations in reviews. Printed in the United States of America Book design by Geoffrey Gatza Cover art by Megan Barron First Edition ISBN: 978-1-60964-030-9 Library of Congress Control Number 2010931946 BlazeVOX [books] 303 Bedford Ave Buffalo, NY 14216 Editor@blazevox.org

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1. Let the days begin and small rain down can rain. Can and will. My will expands in the C-lines can. Lands my can in Penn station, pen in hand, rain In my shoes. So whos the man Rattling in them now down to the train, Remains from the 23rd street Goodwill? May I ask and say whose? The train.

2. Lingering cab on 1st Avenue is as golden an impossibility as Ruby Tuesday sung in the subway Wednesday morning. As the first blush expresses toward a ruddier routine, I sing Let us roll rude rhymes and all the morning Into one farfalle! which will bring Remembrancers of some shindig Recitedly dropt like a hint that makes your ears ring.

3. L trains lovely voice repeating the first ave of the morning on a mute commute. And so a poem, if pure prayer, would fall on deaf ears and become moot. Like the falling Citiwide Self Storage sign along my commute Insists, the self is not, as foot by boot, Regaled by where it dwells but Resists the rooms that might contain it.

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4. Luckily the fall is a metaphor for a pleasant change in weather, Especially when you cant help but descend there. Whether Lotto tickets glint gold, bronze, or green, the weather Impresses us with its unpredictability. Whether Rain rejoices in puddles of its own making or whether Ruinous clouds obscure an oracular sun, we always have weather.

5. Left to their own devices, theyd probably steal Da Vincis. Coy La Giaconda, for her part, would probably sneeze. Leif, for his part, filches from the fridge a round of Happy Cow Cheese. Is happiness just a matter of being at ease, Reclining mirthfully amidst warm moments that swarm like bees Round a honeyed thought? Or is it teasing a one-eyed hound that likes to please?

6. Last night, full moon over the rooftops of the world escapes Almost above the landscape. A fine film of refinery smoke curls and unfurls, Leaves the moon guttering. The world Inescapable finally. The moon a pearled Remembering: its surface wincing and burled Remains wanting to be forgotten and into some impossible sea hurled.

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7. Leapt up the shade Trains will pass howling and unstoppable like shades. Lachrymose is not the word. Staid. Insouciant, maybe. A kept up feeling fades Resembling this consistent and incorrigible moon that overstayed Remorselessly through morning. What happened plummets forward. What goes on, platformed, staid.

8. Live it up. Cut to the chase. Take me to the river or Americas largest drive-thru safari. The whale is back, fit to be tied. Or Lets learn new steps. A great day is just a train ride away. For It really helps your game when your hospital knows the score. River to river. River to river. River, River, take me to the river.

9. Limping pigeons impishly prate About a sewer grate. Theres no debate Lingering in the hot air, no lavish need to state In uncertain terms what fate Rehearses behind its fur-lined curtain. No time for late Retorts to those who also stand and wait.

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10. Levity is the sole of Platos foot Captured by Michelangelo. Brevity is a boot. Leave it to coal to follow soot If you have two of a kind in the same suit. Remember apples and oranges are both kinds of fruit. Ruts are the soul of a well-traveled route.

11. Lying with you in bed, pink light darkens over half-lit buildings. Leif Calls it Sunset. Clumsy thief, Locksmith fails to break into his own truck. Leaf by leaf, Isabelle, unhurried hurricane, harries Remorseful sycamores. Scyld Scefing translates shield and sheaf. Recreation office left idle. A mattress of memory foam is our futile fief.

12. Lily is i-cumen in Express on the local, let fall begin, Leif croon lhude a little din, I-cumen is Lily, my kith & kin, Rock on your heels and knock your shins, Repeat with a Tin Pan Alley grin.

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13. Lamb is not a hard word to pronounce Even with its silent b. Once, Lets say, all bs were unpronounced. Instead of Blake, you said lake or bounce was ounce. Really there is not much sense Recounting such occurrences that have not happened yet or hence.

14. Laminate gutter water, Im innate, Exist to utter fodder for reflection. My mate Languishes on the surface, a state Insensate to any state of emergency: he ate eight Reubens in an hour and didnt gain weight. Remarkable Rubeunsated, no anguish. Flecks of sun fur his face then erase our mangy and emerging, marked-up pate.

15. Lets see, ought to theme our age of truant signs a bit with sentiments. Always glad to save you. Sent the rent Latewhat does that mean? A sentiment Is only false because it rhymes with itself. I Really meant the erstwhile oppression of the tenement Remains. I meant to write you a love poem before my compassed spoke, out of compassion, bent.

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16. Liberty is an empty blue dumpster free from Expectations. The notion of nation not taken, like slime and scum, Literally. Too early yet for some Instigator at a rally to drum Relentlessly upon its iron sides like a latter day Hiram Rallying the blue bedraggled Yankeescan you hear em come?

17. Listen, whats lost is ten times better than whats found. Every bell to lose its ring hums its sound. Luck has little to do with standing around In Reverie. What you said to me, love, as I slept is a hound Running around without the scent: its distant baying can astound.

18. Laughter after the Ignition Ally alights, Careening awkwardly from great heights Like an amused muse or gory allegory in turquoise tights. Im going through an award phase, he says and cites Rachmaninoff. Initially, cities of street lights Requite in chorus singing, You are Peter the Iroquois, man enough to defend his rights, fend off slights, avoid alley fights, and the voids signature bites!

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