SMASHING THE COCKROACH

SMASHING THE COCKROACH
with your left shoe

1: REDUNDANCY
with your left shoe

2: IMPROMPTU
you didn’t even have to think about it;
like running into a burning building when
you hear a cat meowing within

3: HAUTE CUISINE
I wonder if you would have done it before
you had the blackberry mojito

4: ALLEGRO CON BRIO
you have a beautiful singing voice,
but he will never know that

5: CAVEAT
I only would have been worried
if you had jumped up and down
with both feet

6: MARCEL PROUST
“The insecticide won’t do,”
you said. “And the house will carry
the aroma of clove cigarettes, lingering”

7a: SEVENTH INNING STRETCH
It’s funny that we were just talking
about reincarnation

7b: DYBBUK
yiddish for: “Soul condemned to wander
for a time in this world because of it's sins.”

8: COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE
It’s not as funny that we
were just talking about
Milton Berle

9: KAFKAESQUE
I wish I could say that it was
Kafka’s birthday, but it was
not

10: GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES
It was Judy Holliday’s birthday: IQ: 174

11: GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES pt II
I love me some Blossom Dearie: IQ: unknown

12: ENIGMA
me, too. I like being with you, too.
Life is so mysterious and unpredictable.

13: NO
I wonder if a cockroach ever thinks
about how mysterious and unpredictable
life can be.

14: A QUERY
now that it is all over,
how about a kiss?

15: EXEUNT OMNI
let’s leave our shoes
out here by the stoop
let them cool and dry
in the buttery night air,
rich with death