C.L. BLEDSOE and MICHAEL GUSHUE

★ ★ ★ ★

POETRY

This is How the Rain Gets In

When it rains, and the little monsters
come out of my beard to sing
about the joys they deny themselves,
I’m reminded of the particular shade
of your eyes, which doesn’t exist in nature.
It could only be seen by streetlight
in the front seat of an Impala parked
on a street that dead ends at the water
reservoir, the one they dragged all those
dead clowns out of. It’s raining, and there’s
a hole in the roof of everything. The little
monsters that hide behind my teeth
argue with all the old girlfriends
that hide in the back of my brain.
If I let them get loud enough, they’ll drown
each other out. It will be something like peace.

When You Can’t Find Your Stick

The way to beat the bureaucrats is to bring
your own timestamp. They’re impervious to paper
cuts but the ink stains their ties. Better yet:
construct a copy machine/fax from coffee stirrers.
Then submit your heart, one original, three copies.
You will never prove that you are who they say
you’re not. Life is no DMV; the line seems to move,
oh yes, but it might be the cubicles rolling backwards.
Yet we all spill from the doors invalidated.
The most life ever issues you is a temporary
learner’s permit. There’s a smeared expiration date,
staple holes through your photo which are strangely
complementing. The man at the service window was huge,
a beard reaching to his waist, a face with more scars
than features. He was no civil servant. He was a barbarian;
in place of a battleax, he held a vicious highlighter.

CL Bledsoe is the assistant editor for The Dead Mule and author of sixteen books, most recently the poetry collection Trashcans in Love, the flash fiction collection Ray’s Sea World, and I Never Promised You a Sea Monkey (a collaboration with Michael Gushue). Recent work appears in The Arkansas Review, Contrary, and Barrelhouse. He lives in northern Virginia with his daughter and blogs at https://NotAnotherTVDad.blogspot.com.

Michael Gushue is co-founder of the nanopress Poetry Mutual and he co-curates the occasional reading series Poetry at the Watergate. His latest book—in collaboration with CL Bledsoe—is I Never Promised You A Sea Monkey. He lives in the Brookland neighborhood (described by the New York Times as “a shabby and decidedly unhip neighborhood”) of Washington, D.C.