notnostrums

Jordan Stempleman

Jordan Stempleman

A Wave

“When men are lovely, why don’t they see 
it’s in they share common attitudes.”
	-John Wieners

Though I never knew it, as if in a field 
too long, until you said,  I know 
you weren’t doing this, but in the light, 
you and the dog appeared as you 
riding the dog, or some other imposition
ruled by you on it, I felt ashamed
by how I sometimes spend my time.
A buffoon knows how to kiss you
and that’s unforgettable news. 
It takes all this time within us 
to really get going. I’ll be inside soon, 
sorry for such a late start.

Make It Up, They’re Alive

And at that moment, the rest of us offer resistance 
with materials refashioned from our limits-
drying the village swamp until it wags away, 
disappointing some plans or something else. 
It will likely take weeks 
before I can grab you like that again. 
The freakishly warm are popping underfoot. 
The virtuous growth is now an official looking place: 
a post office holding its ground. 
There’s certainly a man there waiting for us
to take us inside, who rarely changes his socks, 
but is reliable enough to watch over
the obvious, and fine with it, fine with how it all goes.  

Moving Into the Pony Wall

Probably, in your own way, you’ll have no need
for this reassurance. To speak is my way of saying,
no, saying, I am ready for staying behind awhile
longer, growling at the soup you’ve asked me to eat.
On the radio, is the radio. The reading of the long
billed birds, trust, I suppose, they are never as new
as they carry on and promise they are. Liveliness
bangs out the winter. You shouldn’t be surprised 
to hear, we look so crazy when we slowly back away. 

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