Jason Gordon
STRING THEORIES
1.
It’s still December still July
a blue cloud walks a dog across the lake
my hands fall off
I glue them back on
my head falls off
I warm it in the oven
I no longer exist I will
exist again tomorrow
I can’t remember
my name can you
remember my name?
it’s cold in the microwave
2.
Even dogs have feelings even fleas
but fleas are not important
the Stanley Cup is important
energy drinks are important
lighter fluid is important it makes
fire for smoking pot and pot is
important God is important
he has feeling he has blue
fleas in his beard this isn’t
the 60s or it is he can’t tell
time his bones dance on the sea
3.
You steal my hubcaps
I buy them back
you eat a peach
with a fork made of blood
it’s an old heart it weeps
each tear is a seed
or a metaphor for something maybe
love or the sadness of trees
leaves shaped like hands
hands shaped like leaves
your hubcaps my hubcaps
inner-child outer-child
mirror image
reflection
it’s a roadmap crumpling
un-crumpling in the dark
4.
so many dimensions in the universe
only one dream a cold white flame
dancing on my forehead or passing
from room to room so quickly it’s
impossible to tell where it is where
it will go next I can tell where it’s
been it peels paint off the walls I see
cave drawings from the future not
a reflection of the past it’s the mirror
image a paper swan unfolding then
crumpling into a ball or a poem my
inner-child swallows before I can
read it tastes like love he tells me
Jason Gordon received an MFA from the University of Maryland, as well as a scholarship to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. His poems have appeared in Abbey, Bathtub Gin, the Delmarva Review, Poetry International, and Presa, among others. His first chapbook, I Stole a Briefcase, was a finalist for the Black River Chapbook Competition and was published by Pudding House Press in 2008. Currently he lives in Catonsville, Maryland, where he teaches English at a high school for students with emotional disabilities.
Read more from Cleaver Magazine’s Issue #3.
