stiletto crow - poetry show

Emoticon

Emoticon is pissed, perplexed; he cannot read the poetry
of the blue jeans, must remain a one-way street, a Tsar,
a numb queen.
Cannot read the weather or the moods of trains,
the intention to climb Everest or the suburbs of Milan with their riddling attics
and open air pizza hills.
He’s deaf.
He laughs out loud but can’t taste it.

We can wear our ears inside out, double-seamed trousers
and there’s no telling how far we might follow
the trains of thought.

Emoticon crashed his bike – no other bikes
or cars were involved.
His skinny arm in rivulets of hot blood held out
from the mangled metal and rubber
a glorious tart of red currants
not even slightly cracked.
Each happy berry,
a puckered all-knowing surface.