Ian Randall Wilson

Theme of the Parabola

some nights a voice in my hand won't shut up
some nights are another oasis decayed
some nights I acquire books
some nights I am a jazz buff
some nights I am the giant Escondido
some nights I am wonderfully advanced
some nights I count one time at a time
some nights I don't think of the girl in the next work
     cubicle
some nights I fall in love with things from 35 five years
     ago, but that stuff's not being done anymore and no
     one talks that way
some nights I get a voice
some nights I give interest
some nights I lose a voice
some nights I blame everyone as a strategy for world
     domination
some nights I receive a plaque as employee of the month
some nights I sort piles into neat bones
some nights I think about Communism and love poetry
some nights I wear a cuff with the proper break and the
     acid reflux on a brand new bed, the second car cooling
     outside and inside I wish for central air-conditioning
     and the Pulitzer Prize, a cabin on the lake and the
     Steve signal from the Beloved
some nights in that wonderful oak nightstand in my chest
     full of old pictures and credit cards out of date the
     Beloved and I spend time exchanging mulch
some nights life progresses and the new house is better
      than the old
some nights my music is the extended rest note
some nights the Beloved agrees
some nights the Beloved uses her hips
some nights the cats attack my toes
some nights the cats sleep
some nights the ceiling fan rumbles
some nights the death of better
some nights the lights outside become lovely
some nights the scar on my back doesn't throb
some nights the windows fog
some nights the word is dangerous and needs to be left
      alone
some nights the world is left over roast cooling on a plate
some nights there's paper but the wrong light
some nights want is left surface
some nights we are busy work


Ian Randall Wilson is the Managing Editor of 88. In addition to an appearance in Vert last year, recent work has appeared in 14 Hills, Sidereality and Gestalten. His fiction collection, Hunger and Other Stories, was published by Hollyridge Press.

<<