Poem

Enough --
It is time for me to disclose
That I know your kind well.
I can say your name in Latin,
Spanish, French, and Expletive
Especially the Expletive.

When I was eleven, I
Dressed up in camouflage
And startled a bunch of strangers
By telling them an Invading Army
Had arrived.
"Don't just sit there - Do something!"
I intoned dramatically
To make sure they were all paying attention.
I took home the 4-H state entomology prize,
Two hundred dollars in federal treasury bonds
(I would cash it out in 1996 for a mere $174.)

But, I digress. The important
Point here is that I have had enough
Of your random periplaneta
Tag games with my person.
I do not fly into you, squirming poisonously.
Maybe I crinkle my nose, if I see you,
But no court in the land
Would see that as assault.

After a long day at work,
I would prefer to ignore your invading army
In my tropical city.
Let it rampage at will
Alive, as long as it leaves me alone.

But in the last week, as if drawn to
My forbearance, you've seen fit
To invade my bath time, my kitchen,
To crawl across my ceiling fan too high
For me to catch and release so
I lie in my bed awake because I am
Too afraid I will awake in the morning
With your taste in my mouth
Or a stray leg in my hair.

For $200 depreciating cash value
I once was the child expert
On how to kill you in
A myriad of painful ways.

I re-declare war.

-EEG

Poem

I spend my days
Saying nothing
Because breathing
Steals my words.

I move
Cutting corners,
Ghostlike, invisible
To the top of this
City's world.

A lake spreads out
Below me,
Shivering from the
The wind's breath,
The breath of winds
Coming to steal
All our words,
Leaving only the sound
Of meaningful force.

Poem

We had no doubt whose
Poems were better, so
We polled the two best
Poets that we know.

And I said yours
And you said mine.

-EEG

Poem

One pondered
How
We were all there
Same time
Same circumstance.

And despite Kevin Costner
At my side
How you could be there
With your baseball cap
Bedazzled with
The Seeing Eye

And yet not know
How
Your lesbian khaki shorts
Could invade our space
Even after we
Gave you the pink lighter
(Don't tell his mother)
To smoke a bad joint.

Perhaps we must
And did
Judge you
Although our shorts
Were just the same.

Poem

I told you this, brother
And it will always be true.
I will never know what you
Would have become.

If your hair would have
Continued to tangle
Into unmanageable curls
After your voice stopped breaking.

Or if you would have
Scored the touchdown
That would have made
Our father's heart soar.

Or if, on some imaginary day
At my wedding, you would have
Cracked a bawdy joke
And brought the house down
With your blue eyes.

In my dreams, you occasionally show up
With different faces
And you tell me some wisdom
From beyond, that I always lose
Upon waking.

I told you this, but I know
This part to be true.
I have nothing but this tiny flower
From a Pennsylvania summer,
For a Pennsylvania grave.

I miss you.

-EEG