without directions & with
BY BRUCE COHEN
I’m so done with God & honking; I attribute my new anxiety
To the fact there are three mutually exclusive remotes
On the coffee table. A test-tube baby is hatched with a serial
Number instead of a name & every word she utters will be recorded.
Her cloned twin—they’ll beaker every drop of moisture
She ever produces: eighty-four years’ worth—and this is the new
Conceptual art. I believe gadgets are erasing our internal
Lives—the world escaping from its straitjacket.
Automatic doors have their own agenda. If only I’d taken
The butter dish out to soften the toast would not have
Disintegrated with this morning’s aggression.
I fantasize what I’ll have time to accomplish in the time
It takes the coffee to finish percolating. I don’t percolate as much
As I once did though erections are still somewhat involuntary.
I sobbed when I carted the felines to the Humane Society
When my pregnant wife’s asthma flared up but they were
Missing from their cardboard box. Then things got even
Stranger, like a paperboy delivering the Sunday Edition
With a duct-taped mouth. Domestic equilibrium, however, seesaws:
If the cashier rings up the wrong price you get that item free
But by the time I find a good parking spot & unload I ain’t got the oomph
To trek back to the supermarket. I like web surfing Before & After
Photos of meth addicts, mug shots of unmade-up movie stars
In orange jumpsuits. I’ve seen young women stick their bare feet
Out speeding car windows; their license plates verify they originated
From another planet but I have no interest in puncturing
Their delusions. Remember, my wife says as I leave for the office,
There are cameras everywhere. (There is no place that does not
See you—Rilke.) I accept the fact I no longer require a television
To watch television, but those taunting remotes. When the cloned
Kids were embryos I assembled toys (half-assed slapped them together
Actually) but always found myself befuddled with extra parts—
Kept them in a secret box just in case things fell apart…
