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Pickup(Gaza)

  1. I took the package
  2. and he said,
  3. “Sell your cleverness
  4. and buy bewilderment.” I guess
  5. that’s what he thought
  6. he was selling and I
  7. buying. On the wall behind his desk
  8. that Japanese print
  9. of the wave punching the sailors
  10. like spent batteries
  11. floating in their transistor radio.
  12. That’s
  13. what it feels like.
  14. The Green Goblin isn’t raping the sky
  15. then changing heart
  16. saving Spiderman
  17. from his own
  18. stupid, evil creation.
  19. There’s badness in the world
  20. like a spider web tattoo
  21. and there is us
  22. sailing the seas of meaning.
  23. And no Peter Parker dance number
  24. is going to change that.
  25. So I took the package
  26. and I’d take it again. And you know,
  27. Peter Parker,
  28. MJ is kind of a slut
  29. playing both sides like that.
About the Author

Dan Boehl works for the University of Texas and writes about art for ...might be good. His manuscript, Kings of the F**king Sea, was a finalist for the Octopus Books 2009 open reading period. Other Kings poems are available in Handsome, Sawbuck Poetry, and Sink Review. His chapbook Les MISERES ET LES MAL-HEURS DE LA GUERRE will be available from Greying Ghost this fall.