enchantment

From the Lives of My Friends

A Poem by Michael Dickman (a Poet from Portland)

What are the birds called
in that neighborhood
The dogs

There were dogs flying
from branch to
branch

My friends and I climbed up the telephone poles to sit on the power lines
dressed like crows

Their voices sounded like lemons

They were a smooth sheet
They grew


black feathers

Not frightening at all
but beautiful, shiny, and
full of promise

What kind of light


is that?


________


The lives of my friends spend all of their time dying and coming back and
dying and coming back


They take a break in the summer
to mow the piss
yellow lawns, blazing
front and
back

There is no break in winter

I am in love with the sisters of my friends
All that yellow hair!
Their arms
blazing

They lick their fingers
to wipe my face
clean

of everything

And I am glad
I am glad
I am

so glad


_________


We will all be shipped away
in an icebox
with the one word OYSTERS
painted on the outside


Left alone, for once

None of my friends wrote novels or plays, from the lives of my friends came
their lives

Here's what we did
we played in the yard outside
after dinner

and then
we were shipped away


That was fast -

stuffed with


lemons.