A Place For Everything (And Everything In Its Place)
Since it’s the time of day for tidying up
she takes pains to sort each of her words
into the appropriate category:
blue, red, yellow, sweet and sour, soft
and prickly, clean, dirty or just slightly off color.
Softly evocative, thuddingly utilitarian.
Love talk, hate speech, political diatribes,
rants, raves, angry spittle-flying denunciations,
baby-voiced endearments,
all put away now, well out of sight and mind.
And so we sit and stare at each other across
the dining room table, grimacing, shrugging –
blink hard once if you want the salt,
twice for pepper.
by Jeffrey Park
Long Flight
You just knew she’d
throw it a long, long way.
And she did.
It sailed out over the infield
further than all the others by
a full two meters
and stuck quivering
in the hard-packed sand
while the spectators clapped
and cheered and oohed
and aahed
but you could tell
really they were disheartened
by the sight of it
quivering like that in the
hard-packed sand
like a lightning rod
glaring up at a darkening sky
vibrating gently
to an approaching storm
unseen and quite
inescapable.
by Jeffrey Park
The Thrill Of The New
Why don’t you sit on down
and have a cup of coconut milk?
Get comfy, roll yourself up
in my Persian rug.
Try something new
for a change, like trimming the nail
on every second toe
just to see
what it feels like. Have sex
with a stranger
and tell him afterwards that you’re an elf
and you can prove it.
Buy a pack of chewing gum
and don’t wait for your change. Drive
a slow car
real fast.
Say something snide
about the person you love
and let your eyes show that this time
you really mean it.
by Jeffrey Park
Your Reflection, Distorted
I draw my dirty
claws
across the surface
of the water,
see your reflection
in the broken glass,
your hand
extended toward me.
No matter
how frantically I scrape
at your image,
you continue to smile
and oppress me
with your terrifying
generosity
of spirit.
by Jeffrey Park
Baltimore native Jeffrey Park currently lives in Munich, Germany, where he works at a private secondary school and teaches business English to adults. His latest poems have appeared in Requiem Magazine, Curio Poetry, Danse Macabre, scissors and spackle, Right Hand Pointing and elsewhere. Links to all of his work can be found at www.scribbles-and-dribbles.com.
