Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

40
DOLPHINS ARE DIFFERENT DOLPHINS SOMETIMES

description

poems by Kevin Dunn

Transcript of Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

Page 1: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

DOLPHINS ARE DIFFERENT DOLPHINS SOMETIMES

Page 2: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

poems by Kevin Dunn

Page 3: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

ACTUALLY DYING, HEIRLOOM TOMATOES, and THE FIRST TIME THEY SHOW YOU THE MONSTER first appeared in LETTERS FROM BUMMER CAMP, VOL. 1:

http://issuu.com/bunkmate/docs/lfbc1ebook

Some lines, titles, or themes of these poems were inspired by the following people: Kelly Kraemer, Trevor Perla, Hugh Roberts, Emily Poe, Connor O'Brien, Jim Zimmerman, Jessica Perla, Allie Kriston & Jon Dunn, George Boff, Jeramie Powell & Brian Zimmerman, and Phillip Laudino. Thank you.

Page 4: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

The boys above the swimming pool receive the sun.Their groins are pressed against the warm cement.They look as if they dream. As if their bodies dream.

- Jack Spicer, Imaginary Elegies

Page 5: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

A TRAIL OF BREAD CRUMBS

These are the two dresses. Leaves falland sometimes a hunter will take his markand shoot out of season. Poach me for my ivory.Drop me into boiling water and be carefulnot to break me until I'm right where you want me:over toast with ham and Hollandaise. Swallow mewith Echinacea, licorice root, raw honey,and apple cider vinegar. It'll make you feel better,mend the torn, floral pattern it's been too cold to wear. Sacrifice me for your own strange comfort.

Page 6: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

THE PROBLEM WITH THE FOUNTAIN

You came to me wrapped upin chainmail, ready to fightbut that doesn't mean that I'm not

going to try to stab throughyour heart or cut your arm off. I'm readyto make this harder than it has to befor both of us.

Page 7: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

ACTUALLY DYING

A cat crosses the street and is immediately hit by a car.This happens to her every day.She has been hit by the same carevery day of her life and, every dayof her life, she comes so close toactually dying that sometimes she actually does. It's not truewhat they say about cats havingnine lives. They actually have zero.She knows that the secret to staying alive is on the other sideof the street, but she has never beenable to get there. One morning she ishit by the car and actually dies. The car is never seen on that street again.

Page 8: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

HEIRLOOM TOMATOES

After walking for several days,I finally got to the market just as they'reabout to close. The manager tells methat they had just cashed out their register,that they really can't make anymore sales,but that they have an excess of heirloom tomatoes,and would I want to take any home with me?I didn't have any actual money. I only cameto the market to fall in love like everybody, but heirloom tomatoes seemed, at the time, like a healthier alternative. As I walk home with severalbaskets full of heirloom tomatoes, I wonderhow many I would have to eat before I turned into one. This seems like the kind of thing my mom would know, I think, but I never ask her.

Page 9: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

THREE-LEGGED RACE

There are always an oddnumber of people at thefamily reunion, so everyyear I have to sit the three-legged race out. Ialways pretend not to care, that it's stupid orwhatever, but there'sreally nothing I'd ratherdo than tie my right legto the left leg of somestrange relative I barelyknow. I find comfort inthe fact that if there weresome kind of emergencyduring the three-leggedrace, I'd probably be theonly one to survive becauseI'd be able to get away alot easier than everybodyelse. This calms me downand I like it. After a couplehundred thousand yearsor so of this, I've finallydeveloped a third legof my own, extending from my hip, next to myright leg. The family saysI have an unfair advantagenow and still won't let mein their race, but now I really don't care. I've met and married a three-legged girl and we have a beautifulthree-legged child. We'vestarted our own three-legged race, and we're all so

Page 10: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

happy together. At our family reunions, we have five-legged races and trade tips on finding the appropriate amount of socks.

Page 11: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

THE LEAST POPULAR EXHIBIT IN THE ENTIRE MUSEUM

When we were younger and the floor was lava, we were always too afraid to jump from couch to couch, so it always ended with us burning up or melting or drowning or doing whatever you're supposed to do when the floor is lava and you're younger. We did everything you're supposed to do except get out of the house alive because we didn't want something bad to happen. It's taken a little while, but all that lava's finally dried up and cooled into a smooth sheet of hard, furniture-filled rock. In a thousand or so years, a curator at the Museum of Natural History will decide that the floor has been dormant for some time based on the bits of mid-90s decor present in the rock, and an anecdote about our lives will continue to bore sleepy children on class trips for years to come. Our bodies will be left there though, bones burned up, melted, drowned. Just an ashy black spot where the foot of your bed used to be.

Page 12: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

IN REGARDS TO THE MONSTERS UNDER OUR BEDS

We learned, eventually,after years of staying awake,that it didn't matterhow close our mattresseswere to the floor or evenif we destroyed them entirelybecause they would still be there,they would still come out at night.

Page 13: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

THE RIVER

A non-descript man and a featureless man were walking together along the river. The non-

descript man was not much to look at. Nothing about him was memorable to anybody he met

so nobody ever remembered him. The non-descript man would introduce himself to the same

people thousands of times, reminding them where they had met before but it was no use so

eventually he gave up. Well, the non-descript man finally said to the featureless man, you seem

to be my only friend in the entire world, but nobody was there to say anything in return.

Page 14: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

A RESSURECTION

You were nailed upside-down to the big oak right outside the door.

You were in a white plastic cone with all your blood rushing to your head forming warm pools in your eyes that I could have seen myself in had I looked.

You were waiting for me and nobody else to come slit your throat twice. Once on each side, just to make sure, you said.

You said it was how much you loved me and I let you go through with it even though I never believed you. I just made my home in your blood on the base of the tree, drowning beneath your eyelids.

Page 15: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

YOU'RE SO GORGEOUS I WANT YOU

to tie my hands behind my backand put a bullet through my headexecution-style.

Page 16: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

THE FIRST TIME THEY SHOW YOU THE MONSTER

It is only slightly darker with my eyesclosed. The first time they show you the monsterhe is a surprisingly upright shadow on the wall and there is a windowpane-shaped grid projected through his body and he shuddersfor a moment where they edit the shots together.The whole thing is silent and although he doesn'tlook terribly unlike a real person, youcan just tell that it's raining and that he'son his way to the beautiful girl's room toprobably kill her but they'd never show that beforethe lights get thrown on and he disappearsout into the night. When I am playing the roleof the monster the lights never get turned onbut I never make it to the beautiful girl's room either.Instead, I lose my balance and begin falling down a never-ending flight of stairs in the hallway. By the time I reach the bottom, the beautiful girl has goneoff with the director and the film is left unfinished.

Page 17: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

THE ENORMOUS PITS OF AVOCADOS

The person who plays Jerry Seinfeld is the son of a former avocado farmer. He always looked up to his father, and when he was younger, the person who plays Jerry Seinfeld would spend all of his time trying to grow avocados in his bedroom. Both of his windowsills would always be full of plastic cups of water with the enormous pits of avocados suspended by toothpicks around the rim. The person who plays Jerry Seinfeld always used the rainbow box of toothpicks that his mother kept in the kitchen. He thought the blue and yellow toothpicks worked the best for avocado growing. Sometimes they'd grow and sometimes they wouldn't. He never told his father about the ones that didn't grow or about the toothpicks.

Page 18: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

EVERY LIVING THING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD EVER

Pretty weird how the turtle's hard shell grows as the rest of it grows, but the regular crab just jumps right out of his and starts over.

You learn early on that the age of a tree can be determined by counting the rings in the trunk after you cut it down, which is very clearly wrong unless there's some kind of ratio they use like dog years or something.

Someday, somebody might want to count the rings inside you and sometimes it will be because they love you

or maybe they just think they do. But sometimes it will be because they don't love you, and if it's that kind of time, you should keep your eyes closed and your enemies closer and just grow into a new one.

Dolphins are different. Dolphins sometimes wash up on the shore, but mostly they're pretty happy. Dolphins teach you how to be dramatic. I was a dolphin once.

Page 19: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

RECLAIMED BY NATURE

We'd finally had itso we dug up all the old cemeteriesand found more productive uses for the bodies. Some of the bodieswe put into our paintingsand some we used for movies.

Then, of course we had to decidewhat we should do with all the openspace we'd created. It was anational debate. New businessesstarted opening up all overthe country, along with new housingdevelopments for all the workers.

They put in a dog park where thecemetery next door used to be.The dogs of recently deceased peoplewere at first confused and thenovercome with joy to see their owners again.There's research that suggests thata dog can truly love its owner, but we aren'tlike dogs and dogs aren't like us.

Page 20: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

A TOURIST TOWN THAT NOBODY EVER VISITS

You are a tourist town that nobody ever visitsand that I never visit.

I have never seen you in personand so I can't even be sure that you actually exist.

You have two rare used book stores right across from one another on the same exact street.

They are both full of millions of dollars worth of rare used booksbut nobody has ever been inside either one of them.

This is how I know you are a tourist town:

No other town would have two rare used book stores right across from one another.

There's no way regular citizens need that many rare used books on a regular basis.

It would be a terrible business decision but business isn't your strong suit.

Everybody thinkssomething illegal must be going on there.

They've never

Page 21: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

sold a single solitary rare used book but they've been open since the beginning of time.

I'll bet they're in cahoots.

I'll bet they're to blame for all the strange things that've been happening since the beginning of time.

I'll bet they're the ones that painted the Statue of Liberty green.

History has shown that they were right.

Page 22: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

BEAR POEM

A small group of bears escaped from the travelling circus that just came to town.

The mothers of the town worried frantically that their children would all be mauled

by the bears, but of course that isn't what happened. Instead, wild bears started popping up

in the intersections, waiting at red lights, or standing in line at the supermarket, and taking

overnight shifts as custodians at the schoolhouse. The escaped circus bears taught

the wild bears how to juggle and balance themselves on rubber balls. Having lost all interest

in the circus, the week's performances were naturally all cancelled and all the elephants

and tightrope walkers left the town. They would be out of work for quite some time.

Page 23: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

SWEET NOTHINGS

In those days I learned what your

ears tasted likebut was careful

about not going too far.I came close once

and what I saw was frighteningly

similar to the things inside my head:

a black-eyed bear, hollow, and impaled

accidently upon a fencepost, unseen

in the furthest corner of the dying garden,

just out of reach, and breath.

Page 24: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

HOW I HAVE SPENT ALL OF MY LIFE

I have spent all of my lifeand a good part of yours opening and closing the backdoor of our house

so the heat will kick on and then turn off againabruptly. It is difficult for you

to remember a time before I was doing thisand you never even find out that it's me.

It's so cold, you say as you pull up the covers,why don't you love me anymore?

And so I sneak downstairs to close the doorand when I come back to bed you've forgotten all about it and love me

more than ever.Sometimes I forget that I've abruptly opened the backdoorand fall asleep before closing it.

The gas bill is a lot higher than usual when this happensand it makes us both angry at each other.

And sometimes I remember that I've abruptly opened the backdoor and so I close itafter I've fallen asleep.

Page 25: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

We love each other so muchwhen the gas bill comes those months.

What do you guys, live in a barn? your father askswhen your parents come to visit. Yes, I say, we do.

Page 26: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

GETTING THE SECOND WIND KNOCKED OUT OF YOU

The house was big and empty, so our voices and all the other little sounds we made seemed much greater and more important than they actually were. Sometimes you'd say something and it would take years for the echo to die down and sometimes it would take even longer. There were so many sounds reverberating all at once that we would occasionally forget which ones were ours. We had some extra money after selling our bear costumes so we started buying furniture for the house. Couches, a bed, even a Persian rug to help keep the hardwood flooring nice even if it meant we wouldn't get to see it anymore. When the house was full of all these new things, the echoes stopped completely and when we spoke to each other it was hard to say who had said what, and when, and we grew to be afraid of the things inside our mouths.

Page 27: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

THE THINGS INSIDE MY MOUTH

What is in my mouth doesn't belong there or anywhere or in anybody's mouth. What is in my mouth? Nothing now that all of my teeth are gone and besides, you're the apple of my eye, so what do I need real food for?

Page 28: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

THE THINGS INSIDE YOUR MOUTH

There is big news inside your mouthbut it's not like you're a teething childor anything like that. You are about to tell me something of great importance but when you go to speak the house falls down around us and you forget what it is.

Page 29: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

HANGING IN THERE

We were playing Never Have I Ever because we're actually children, but it was only the two of us playing, so it was just like telling each other everything that we already knew about each other.But we already knew everything about each other so we stopped. I was losing the game because I have a greater number of undesirable characteristics, or rather, you were winning because you have fewer. For example, you once climbed to the top of Mt. Everest. I once painted the Statue of Liberty green. So here: Sometimes your hair is curly and sometimes it's straight. It is always a pleasure to see you. And sometimes you remember your glasses and sometimes you don't. It is only a pleasure to see me part of the time.

Page 30: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

WE ARE VERY MUCH IN LOVE

Everything you do smells like vanilla extractand you never say anything about that shirt I wear that's too small.The bed we share isn't big enough for the two of usand we don't have the money to get a bigger one.We are very good at getting lost, so we sing along with the radioeven though we don't know the words or speak the language.The wallpaper in the living room is a projection of a four-hour train ridealong the Norwegian countryside, northbound in the dead of winter.The people at the station wave to us as we emerge from the tunnel.

Page 31: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

WE ARE VERY MUCH NOT IN LOVE

Everything you do smells like vanilla extractand you never say anything about that shirt I wear that's too small.The bed we share isn't big enough for the two of usand we don't have the money to get a bigger one.We are very good at getting lost, so we sing along with the radioeven though we don't know the words or speak the language.The wallpaper in the living room is a projection of a four-hour train ridealong the Norwegian countryside, northbound in the dead of winter.The people at the station wave to us as we emerge from the tunnel.

Page 32: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

A LEADER OF RAW MEN

They replaced your body with 27 seagullsThey replaced the forest with the Thanksgiving Day ParadeThey replaced your dog with the wood you'll later use to heat your homeThey replaced the ocean with loaves of breadThey replaced your favorite records with somebody else's favorite records and they replaced their favorite records with yoursThey replaced God with a deck of playing cardsThey replaced your childhood home with something much worseThey replaced your fifth birthday party with a murder/arsonThey replaced the clown your parents hired for your fifth birthday party with a similar looking but less well-intentioned clownThey replaced the rain with people falling from the skyThey replaced the sky with the first boy you ever kissed that one summer at camp and then never saw againThey replaced your chessboard with eight glasses of water and they replaced all the pieces with plastic ice cubes with fake flies in their centersThey replaced the vacuum cleaner with your favorite holiday traditionsThey replaced your first serious romantic relationship with a yoga studio at the end of the worldThey replaced the end of the worldThey replaced Lake Michigan with the Electoral College and Niagara Falls with the great horned owlThey replaced your carburetor with what your bedroom smells like when you're sleeping so they replaced it with what I've always been curious aboutThey replaced the Statue of Liberty with an identical statue and no one ever noticedThey replaced your beach towel with cultural differencesThey replaced the cemetery with so many dead peopleThey replaced your favorite food with so many dead peopleThey replaced love with so many dead peopleThey replaced so many dead people with so many dead peopleThey replaced the place that we love and hold near and dear to our heart with a gas stationThey replaced the bathroom mirror with a hyper-realistic illustration of a giant spiderThey replaced your daughter with a funeral procession for your daughterand they didn't think to replace me with anything at all

It will be the bank that does itIt will be the governmentIt will be your sisteror it will be your boyfriend

Page 33: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

It will be the cat that only has one life leftIt will be the monster that doesn't even have the decency to hide beneath your bedIt will be the movie you thought was silent until you found the remote controlIt will be the remote controlIt will be the glass of red wine that is actually a glass of bloodand it will be the holiest thing you've ever tastedIt will be a basket of laundry with an odd number of socksIt will be a plugged in toaster oven the moment before it hits the waterIt will be a lifetime's worth of bread crumbs that could've been used to feed your familyIt will be a regular crab who never found a bigger shelland it will be the dolphin washed up on the shore that eventually grew legs and drove to workIt will be a keychain bottle openerIt will claim itself as a dependent on your W-4and it will never move out of your basementIt will be an Arthurian legend nobody's ever heard ofIt will be a charming pop song from the 1940's that our grandfathers still remember the words toIt will be vaguely good for youand it will be pretty similar to the things inside my mouthIt will be of average heightand it will have long dark hair that is sometimes straight and sometimes curlyIt might wear glassesIt will look good in a dress and it will know that it looks good in a dressIt will have big eyesIt will call me darlingand it will always know what to sayand it won't ever say anythingIt will be absolutely beautifuland it will look a lot like you

Page 34: Dolphins are Different Dolphins Sometimes

AFTER EVERYTHING THAT'S EVER HAPPENED

I apologized again and you told me I didn't have toso I apologized for that and then

once more for being unclear.I thought you thought I was being unclear because when I

apologized for apologizing you looked annoyed, like you thought I wasn't listening to you or something,

but I really was. I explained this to you and then apologized for assuming and then you really

were annoyed, so I apologized.No, really, you finally said, it's fine. Alright, I said. Sorry.