Poetry: Selections from Jonathan Hayes

from Purposeful Accident

Skydiving and Ruscha

15,000 feet

 

gunpowder on paper

 

the flat space of words

explode for $119 a jump

 

you can predict when the tides come in

but what they bring and take is of their own

 

santa creature

by the boardwalk

 

wharf kids stumble

 

the middle name, “Seth,” papa red fated

and all its Homeboy [1991 Random House]

 

nepotistic Tenderloin connections

 

of fried chicken and laughs

 

and what Janis Joplin

 

left behind

 

between the bed and

 

wall/

Diamond and Sneakers

absence of anaphora

 

calling you long distance

as we walk together

 

organic secret:

 

whisper to a hole in tree

cover it up w/ mud and leaves

 

a throat of hair and blood

a faucet of tragedy

 

chocolate psalm

goat song

 

New England blue

Rolling Rock and Schweppes ginger ale

 

a funeral in Gloucester

 

barnacle barnacl barnac barna barn bar

 

prism

prison

 

amber

answer

Jellyfish and Vinegar

lightning

breaks the bone

 

Puck

is on the throne

 

duck egg / skin anchor

 

ball and alcoholic chain

 

(submissive cucumber)

 

the weight of defeat

 

[on the perimeter of Times Square squared]

 

she took a Polaroid picture

and placed it on her pillowcase

 

next to her head in bed, whispering

 

a mantra

of multiplication tables

 

product:

 

prayers answered

Knife and Milk

citrus youth

Tropicana morning

 

[tragedy of the Rubik’s Cube]

 

recess kickball rolling across the asphalt playground

orange peels and sandwich crumbs in parka pocket

 

Red Dye #2 afternoon

bug juice coming out the nose

 

back home, picking at scab until it bleeds

 

cupboard full of immaculate tin cans

 

a fish called tuna

 

spitting heinous mayonnaise

 

samurai tongue cuts stalks of celery

 

rime and wheat bread

Jack Frost in the backyard

 

each shadow, a parody of emotion personified

 

Channel Eleven: Sunset Boulevard

 

Her Claws, Her Claws

Glowstick and Ashtray

she farts and laughs

 

and they argue about the meaning of dialectic

 

like the jaws don’t hurt enuf

already four nights grinding teeth

 

and ignoring the Winterland wreath

de la family and flashbacks

 

people are too too nice in this land

need to get back to the concrete island

 

and invent something fresh

by the Hudson River while shopping for oranges

 

‘bout a dozen hours from Hong Kong

and a black dragon tattoo

 

“everything profound needs a mask”

 

French Onion Soup and fingernails

 

cool-breeze-liquid-menthol-aquamarine drinks at Argent Hotel bar

 

holiday o hollow night

 

blinking eyes

 

to make it all

 

neon gone

Clams Casino and Memory

does a cough have gender?

 

they cut off their genitals

and stuck them in a blender

 

she dreamt of Freud

his piano was out of tune

but he had the best coke in town!

 

a prospectus was needed

because every sentence bleeded

 

“ultimate freedom can only be achieved in isolation”

 

tell that to the Looney Tune

rolling down Market St.

 

doing as he pleases

smelling like rotten cheeses

 

that man on the corner selling paintings

could be the next Hitler, you know

 

BEWARE:

 

black ice

Fan and Summer’s End

w/ her in the room

 

“you eat like a little girl”

 

I’ll smoke one of my twice-lucky cigarettes

from the pack I found on Muni

 

cuz she keeps her bad fortunes from cookies

 

and tells me my dick looks like the devil’s tail

 

she didn’t like Sinatra

in the man w/ the golden arm

 

but was glued to the tube

while Angela’s Ashes played

 

she came w/ empty suitcase

to leave w/ all intended

 

b/w photograph evidence

 

Laughing Sal laughs

 

que sera, sera

Jonathan Hayes lives in Santa Cruz, California by the San Lorenzo River. His chapbook Purposeful Accident is forthcoming from Holy & Intoxicated Press, England, 2022 and his collected work Ghetto Sunshine / Poems 1997 - 2022, is forthcoming from Vulgar Tongue Books, San Diego, California, 2022. He works as a grocer at Trader Joe's.