A Sweet Sonic Youth

JUST A LITTLE DETERMINATION

My mind’s fully aware of that ----

yet this rambling form, directly turns

toward, sometimes around, me, break,

fracture the strong concentration that is purely

come here to be written

and lay a thick snap in a liquid coat of souls

of the smooth intermittent

touch of that illusion of perfection.

And with both hands crack the pencil.

Coping cheap weak wood,

MDF particle board, long points intersect,

paint the Drivot addition, and reconstruct

electricals, fastening squiggles

in deep gray Greenfield.

Yet there in the open plywood

in the subflooring

old nail holes and duct rectangles

or circles of greenfield plots, seams

where old walls used to be

and the utilities or heat runs

and some formed pencil lines

extended passed, beamed straight along

the obtuse imaginary level,

where it used to be

straight.

Now with so much more sense

than I do remember; never wrote down….

a great line

Like smooth dental molding

the chair rail, spinning nuts on chrome rods,

frictionless glass panes adjusted, countertops

–appear floating—and sharpened

that unmistakably gleans

and phases the mind, and almost,

chopped phenomenon, inwardly

envisions toward a place……

that’s nothing more than imperfect.

Mmm yes quite like

cutting up cardboard into smaller

more manageable pieces, fragments of boxes

from kitchen cabinets with a maple glaze,

crowned-molded together, trimmed along

the creases, the folds, the rippled ridges

all the way to the jagged angles

-undercabinet lights; glass corner panes;

these cabinets with lights inside, rope lighting

and accented wall-hung units;

and there are

in the magazine reflecting creases,

assembling the bent island

with a snack bar counter leveled slightly higher,

yet at this moment

a shade of gray tall atmosphere

in the background

and marooned Pleiades

purely white in that. . . .

Outline of the partial wall

forms a Corian countertop fastened atop,

brackets that angle, widen the kitchen,

give that sense of space and fastening;

push the vortex back,

with hardwood floors ¾” thick run next to the burber

and the vanishing point which meets the marble foyer,

follow the same island bend and angles

into the high-efficiency gas fireplace,

the center obstruction to the view

into the living and dining rooms

framed around fluted pilaster columns;

breaking levels up to the textured ceiling

to the jutted window,

to the backwall, through wildflowers

into a valley where the Maumee

lines bodies not ten feet apart, crowding the edge

and the position for the slant

as the first fish in March rain [and that’s how

this one began or signaled away, or started just before

it come apart or went or filled myyyhead

once more, but piled more down each side

then turned away the folded crease,

aligned the cleft inside a split-level home

to the edge of the ridge of the river.]

Knifing long cuts

after pouring out foam corner pieces,

the kind of unorganized occasionally glances,

listening to the textured walls gripped

to a whole home radio system

I had to myself that afternoon…..

Reflecting a half painted, an even level

of base cabinet height, all the plugs and switches

absent yet, holes in walls, electrical wires

stubbed for lights and the microwave,

and speaker cables………..

Now I do remember; before installations

An angled Schizophrenia side at how it bugged me

so I must disregard all of that, but

again, and more intermission….

Form ages passing and centuries

between myself and you, the reader;

and then 500 years from now; that split

whenever the tangent

the experts studied and learned everything about

the everything; where it broke off course

but oh how

when they tear into them walls and never know

who I am. Who I was.

But only the mark in the caves or cavities

The stud space of where he

Once was before I started

but to conjure coincidences

in the inventions 500 years from then,

the crafting you are holding world

of who I was.

In that quality

which undertakes

life; and in those very same coincidences

-Yet sharply refract.

Was the River Road home,

the grass hill up from the bend

the street somewhat formed,

too, the in-between entry

as one continual and ceaseless looking

curve; in the built-in blinds open, in the light,

traces met at the center

right through a nook, bay window,

and that soft bench for reading

into the river view, doglegged too.

Emptying blue sky drops yellow

onto Douglas Fir framing construction,

adhesive lines that fume highs and stares

as we lay out the ¾” flooring;

for the garage portion of the addition

then I been telling you about

to allow for the kitchen extension;

working forearm,s form protrusions

of veins in my dreary little limbs

dreamily telling these spirits this;

the same storied entrance in wonderful

formation

of wood skeletons against that sunshine;

but to remember the moments,

the sawdust and dirt,

the splinters roughing up my palms,

the humping of lumber

the science of structure and of things

perfectly refracted within boundaries

antique streamlines

forever untouchable as ideas

and made at angles in the

curved world.

Rices my shoulders

like kidney beans

like stories taking shortcuts

to the neverending -----