jonathan powers

The Chicken

I asked one of the white chickens, William ,
about the red wheelboro
So it's never used?
"bock bock bock"
How often does it rain here?
"bock bock"
And your flock never walks around it?
peck peck peck
"bergock"
That's what I thought.

graduate school

so you guys gonna live on campus
no, we traveled down in september we found an apartment.
Fourth or fifth floor of the complex
only a mile from campus
next to the airport
good view
it's gonna be more humid down there
gators, insects, lots of bugs
bugs everywhere since it's so humid

Hungry Hungry Hippie

A fifty year old exhippie who hadn't had a haircut
shave or shower since the start of the 60s
bolted into a chair outside the cafe and
wolfed down the leftovers of patrons already gone
and stopped mid chew
staring

two tables over a woman was offended.
she scowled and looked away into the street

He stood up, bagette hanging out of his mouth, garnish lettuce flapping like an extra tongue
and got very upset
"Whafafuck lookinat"
He mouthed a string of expletives choked by food and stalked
up to her table and threatened to throw the stolen meal at her
"godamnbitchthingyourbefferme"
his arm cocked back, garnish dropped over his shoulder

The owner, gaurdian of the patio, saw this coming when the starving anachronism
first took a seat
She blocked the toss, holding his hand.
"imfuckinthrowinbitch"
They struggled, she slowed his arm enough so that
the sandwich plopped on the woman's plate
"I am calling the cops"
He backed up
Owner rushed inside grabbed a cordless phone and dialed, coming back out as
the exhippie stomped away trailing bits of lettuce and bread
still cusring
"fuffinyuppiebitch"

Cigarette butts abut
the groove that cuts
the sidewalk near the tree's ruts
black spots stain the grey cement
where a thousand extenguished smokes have gone
smashed out flame first on the ground under foot down
twenty filters form a growing mound of cotton sucked brown
by puffs of burning retreating smoldering tobacco towards a frown
inching close to squinting eyes until the butt is too short
to drag in without burning the
filter fabric

Oh the Humanities

he paid for it
the graduate
worth a half semester of british lit
easy to get fellowship
for phd ontop of it

eska

two japanese women spoke at lunch
and ended every phrase with 'eska'
how polite

Water Hazard

a hundred pound black labrador disappeared one night
barking near the lake on a Florida golf course
turns out the lake was just the right size
for a lonely alligator and
three hundred pounds
of hunger

Acceptance

princeton, harvard, yale, dartmouth
you know he was rejected by several of them
the ones he didn't get rejected by
he was wait listed
I think that hurt his confidence
but you know
he could have done better in school
maybe his entrance essay didn't have the
creativity it needed
it's not like we didn't schedule time for
art lessons
he got into McAlister though

Rising Tide of Expectations

The acura integra is the most desireable car
for car thieves
used to be the Honda Accord
Seems thieves are getting more accustomed to luxury
that
or more people are buying Integras
wait, doesn't Honda own the Acura brand?

Clutch

Mom pushes
a double baby seat carriage
two boys
one 3 one 1
dressed the same they sit side by side
the old kid leans over and sticks his tongue out
at the younger kid.
One-year-olds learn how to grab
before they learn how to let go.