Winter 2017 - Cell
*after Robert Pinsky and Heather Christle*
The trainer the client the desk clerk the screen
the cell phone talker the Lulu lemon the camel toe cardio
the old money type
the stud with the guns and the dark Lycra mock
the stay-at-home mom who just comes to be touched
The bench in the back and the stopwatch at click
the now two more now two more featherlight chide
This V-shaped trainer was walking toward me the space
between the leg press and the abs was narrow but not
that narrow Never very good at things like gyms or
people and I was walking toward him too I was
like *When is he going to give some room? I need room too* I was
like *Dude go bathe your dogs* in my head
The doctor the cyclist the free weights the gotchya
Mr. Universe Mr. Platitude Mr. Screenplay-Always-At-Ready-
in-Pocket
Smug middle-aged and the kid companion the Here-To-Be-Ogled
the Let’s-Make-A-Deal
maybe does a set or two but mostly reads the magazines
The plates the bells the lighting the fees
the flooring the spacing the exit the rest of us
Winter 2017 - Cell
When encountering an emotion
they say you should visualize
it somewhere in your body
I feel this spray of wild dill
barely hanging on in a light breeze
but it clanks too like a tool chest
I like listening to the geezers
play chess and discuss
Normal Mailer novels
at the tiled table with folded up
paper under one of its legs
The man behind the counter
toting skullcap and attitude
I don’t know he’s interesting
I imagine myself so
inexact by comparison
I like the idea that I’m progressing
spiritually that I can maybe
sit longer inside the uncertainties
surrounding meaning
I sit here because it feels
like I’m not in the city
like I could leave life early
The loud types at the table
in the back make it clear
the world has nothing to teach them
I could learn something
from them too if I paid attention
long enough not that I will
2026