Michael Rerick

FROM: SHORT LEASH, LONG LEASH

our children innovate effective backyard peek and sneaks

     peer into windows at dishwashing

     tv watching reading and cooking

they pick good grass and bush lawn cover

they know boxy apartment buildings and vacant lots

     bare careless blinds drawn to let air in

skin folds fall
as body skin
on skin parts

our short term plans peddle out to test the weather

     because the long terms are bankrupt

our bad ideas scatter like loose popping rocks

     like certain reused words reveal neurotic tendencies

but any road trip amazes us with each stop’s X to rest

Michael Rerick lives and teaches in Portland, OR. His work appears or is forthcoming at Coconut, H_NGM_N, Harp & Alter, Moria, Spiral Orb, and Tarpaulin Sky. He is also the author of In Ways Impossible to Fold (Marsh Hawk Press), X-Ray (Flying Guillotine Press), and morefrom (Alice Blue Press).