Someone Keeps Moving My Chair

I’d fit right in with the bearded movers,
or so the saying goes. I have a handful
of piano keys and you have no piano.
When the weather clears we’ll search
the beach for the monster mask. How
does someone keep moving my chair.
My escape plan involves one trapdoor.

***

On Tour with JJ

Tammy (she looks like a Tammy) in her hair helmet, lugging around a cross in a dandelion skirt suit. History comes alive!

*

Let’s walk down to the river. Here is where Mike would stand in a hostage-type situation. Jen made friends with an egret, but we didn’t see a single one.

*

A general dazzle hugs Wisconsin this time of year. Each exit promising “fun.” The cheese castle has no royalty.

*

Later, inside the craft brewery, an elderly couple: a man perusing the newspaper, while his wife in the crossbones beanie reads historical fiction.

*

A mailbox full of poems visible in natural light. Read the Roman numerals or translated.

*

To cope in New Hampshire means to become proficient in setting fires.

***

I’m So Tired

Perpetually tip-toeing
along the drawbridge

of a manicured lawn.
They found the mayor’s

assistant laughing to a fault.
The meta-analysis suggests

people have been going
on benders since 1157 BC.

I’m the last in a long line.
If you’re old enough, you

probably saw me on television:
a walking carpet with shades

and bowler hat, blowing smoke.
I was quite the natural dancer

then. What’s cool anymore?
Every grudge I carry in my back

pocket. Don’t let’s start.
I’m not sticking around.

***

Nate Logan is the author of Inside the Golden Days of Missing You (Magic Helicopter Press, 2019). He’s editor and publisher of Spooky Girlfriend Press and teaches at Marian University.