Adamah: I have a terrible memory;
I've seen your face before
in a past life,
the one before the last life or boyfriend
(whatever), whichever came first,
but I can't recall
what death is like--
I left it in the movie theater on a cold winter's day.

-Adam: And then we found the kind of crowd
that digs on handcuffs for Tuesday,
and an open bar for my showbiz nerves
that makes it hard for me to keep from falling out of bed.

-Makes it even harder for you to love me.

-I'm going to church in my best audition clothes.
I'm learning to not be afraid of missing the ten o'clock train.

-Don't deserve a bit of it.
Don't deserve your fingers in my terrible hair.

Adamah: Is love
Pulling one's hair to the side
When she is drinking
From the fountain
Or throwing up in the toilet
Of the secret of life,
Lapping up holy water
Like a lap dance?

Forgive me;
I'm not a great dancer,
But I'll be running
Knife-cut circles
Around your head
Like Dante's circle of hell
In Minnesota
On the Border
Of Canada
In -40 degree hypothermia weather.

-Adam: So let's go dancing for no special reason.
Let's leave up the Christmas decorations until August,
because we're clearly fools of the highest caliber.

-Fuck it, man.
We'll even forgive those who took everything,
everything, everything, and then had the nerve
to take a little more before skipping town.

Adamah: You can't take it with you.
What is heaven like
Without death?
My memory escapes me
Like a heroin, coke, pot, cigarette,
Sex offender.

-Adam: We're all criminals. Cheap hustlers
hoping for the national stage
of the endless talk show circuit.

-Well, I am anyway.
You seem to be in the midst
of an honorable cause.

-Whatever that actually is.
I'm a little punchy on what it is that you do.

-I can only speak for the physical.
I can only reference the bite marks on my chest.

Adamah: All the world's a stage for cheap entertainers like you.
Who do you think you are?
A stand-up comic?
We'll see who has the last Word.

-Adam: It must be love,
or at least great affection.
I don't even mind that you can
turn on me like that.

Out of nowhere.

Adamah: Out of your rib.

-Adam: "Out of nowhere."
That phrase comes up a lot with you.

-I'm just glad my heart can take surprises again.

Adamah: Your status update said you know the secret of life.
But what is the purpose of the secret of life?
The secret of life is for
Giving more than you are,
Going out of your comfort zone,
Pulling things out of thin air like God
Before He existed,
The way history books
Write the rules and laws
About who you think you are,
And making miracles
Forgettable.

The secret of life--
It's a boy!
All men are boys,
And all girls are mothers.

Enough of my poetry speech
And society's incessant words.
I'll step off the podium now
Because the microscopic view
Down here
Is breathtaking,
And I'm starting to feel as fuzzy as
A mink coat
On a Hollywood Playboy star,
Meditating on Virgo.

12/14/2011

Author's Note: written with one of the fantastic new poets here at pathetic. playing by a different person's rules for collaboration has been interesting. i'm pleased with how the experiment (in which my stanzas, marked with a "-", were written on paper in a single setting) turned out.

Posted on 12/14/2011
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