poetry critical : poem

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chatting with a stranger on omegle

Sequiturist

back in the fall of 2009	1
I had an hour long conversation with a stranger on omegle:	2
a german man in his early 20’s	3
working what he calls “the comatose shift”	4
at some chain retailer	5
& living in a like-minded barbed wire district	6
on the outskirts of cologne.	7

says he prefers to take his daily smoke breaks	8
on a stone bridge	9
running over a dried up riverbed covered in weed	10
near his apartment complex	11
& always grabs a liter or two of milk	12
from the local grocer	13
on his walk back	14
because he once had the crazy idea	15
that calcium will make him grow a little bit faster:	16
perhaps blacken his lungs some years earlier	17
& he's run with it ever since—	18

tells me that he loves when good things go bad.	19

he asked me whether america, real america	20
is what wikipedia	21
makes it out to be:	22
the lady liberty, vast cornfields tinting the land a golden yellow,	23
& hollywood cheekbones on plasma greens,	24

to which I asked whether his cologne—	25
streamlined arches & unworldly towers	26
like those in the german expressionist film metropolis	27
is really what the future looks like.	28

& we both said no.	29

"no, i'm sorry, but I have to go now. schoolwork to finish up	30
& sleep & life to live..."	31
when he wanted me to stay a while longer.	32

asked for my name	33
says he wants to get to know a real american,	34
not the canon snapping breed who come for the upscale pubs	35
& cathedrals from the ancient mornings	36
when his people still had faith.	37

I said no. to leave	38
some emptiness: a bedroom window ajar in searching	39
some sentimental distance	40
that will let us forget the millions of rivers between us.	41

08/04/11

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