Space (Expanding)

I look for my wallet on the nightstand, but I find it on the kitchen table.  The paper wad keeps bouncing off the front rim of the trash can.  Each time I wear my Survival Research Laboratories t-shirt, the neck is stretched a little looser.  I don’t even want to talk about the TV remote not working.  No matter where I stand, if I turn on the flashlight, I still have to move to see what I want to see.  When I asked Joan out, I knew she lived across town, but I hadn’t met Myra yet, who lives in the next county.  My daily drive used to be fifteen miles one way; now it’s twenty-two.  Last month, I switched to a different car, and I’ve noticed that when I shut the door it never closes fully.  I have to open it again and push harder.

Solitary Sandpiper

Every song on Dean Martin’s Sleep Warm is about falling asleep.  My mother snores in one tone, my father in another.  Tom Clark thinks all the Everly Brothers' songs are like dreams.  Schubert often slept with his glasses on, but he left no record as to whether this made his dreams sharper.  When she was eleven, my daughter told me she had a dream about kissing a boy, then she said, "To be or not to be."  James Tate said that nothing is more boring than other people’s dreams, but he always looks as though he hasn’t slept.  Once, I decided to reverse Andre Breton’s habit of writing down phrases he heard just before he went to sleep, so for a week I wrote down the first phrase that came to my mind after I woke up.  The piece turned out to be about yawning.

Bahama Mockingbird

To speak means a dream is beginning.  I like how the word "elastic" means "capable of returning to its original form."  A book inscribed to an individual has less resale value than one with just the author’s signature.  Belief in yourself is no proof that you exist.  If the sub-titles are done well, I remember the dialogue in English.  A photograph taken at night that turns out completely black is still made by physical contact with light.  I like how the word "plastic" means both fake and alive.