Millenial Dust (cont.)

silent and unsilent

about the pain of others

all I can do here

is reexamine our long standing

friendships

some of us who have 

want for nothing

can only criticize fantasies

talk about the same films from

America's heyday

even that term, America

sits in the past

at my one on one we talked about

Home Alone 1 and 2

and I thought it to a point sadistic

the way Kevin toyed with his invaders

and I thought of him not

as a victim but as a maniac

written by those who sought pleasure

from pain and we call that now

a classic tale of Christmas comedy

Millenial Dust (cont.)

wounded, shuddering,

a child that is the source of blood

we'd been out,

a van pulls up

and out comes normal

               everyday people

a woman sits down

she catches her breath

lights a cigarette

artillery smoke fills

the reflection

of her thin sunglasses

my friend didn't get

the job he wanted

but it became a million poems

I wish I could take

those hardwritten poems

and fuck all you sons of whores

with 'em

I gave him my Heinekens

and some of those

fat blueberries from Wegmans

they're as big as grapes

he says

I saw an ad that made

me both horny and patriotic

anything but completing

my parent's Medicare

                       applications

when I got word from my

mother that our relatives

abroad, a maternal uncle,

his wife, and two young

adult sons, successfully passed

their visa interview

a dull dread fell over me