Dale Jensen
Gers
it as te
myo wnb lo od
o nth ef ing ger s
ofm ym in d
Signal
he but it sets the stage for contrasting portraits
i am an eyelid a gun a shot of whiskey come back
until we came to the crime scene tape
firing the cannon you keep track of them all
and then the bell rang
would be raised would be fired up
would be were healthy and fed on slippers
and windows of the shops
any fingerprints on that signal?
office was in the remaining lakes
prominent failures were a few from the water
you want to prowl if you want taller
fingerprint ate someone try again when it’s baggage
you could hear the windows from here whistling
Staying With That Now
loneliness is i told her
loneliness is the air between telephones
the one that had
the number you could reach
see you again i stayed with that name
a city so you could see it from the inside
a foggy drift of hearts they waited
with your eyes closed
then show you the golden apple
then pull it out of your blues song
i am things that once had each other
i was your you that’s you where
i am an address from a solitary sky
i am he didn’t say you remember
you remember spilled eyes that were the telephone
you are a reason floating four feet above the ground
everyone is watching with their astonished lives
lives once waiting in an ice cube
each of everyone you love
you remember don’t think
Eat That
that that eat you
that eat you that
that eat that you
eat you that eat you
say that that eat
you that that you
i accuse you you that
eat eat that eat
that that that that that
where can you find
that you
After the Train Snaps a Bad Decision
humiliation an impulse glory
a school thong thanking release
a strange to me
there is no reason to blame the stadium
he sits on his own lap at the edge of the bed
we get in the car
the evidence condemns
ask the judge the real world
and the unconvincing shrug
of a street corner
the phone bawled out its rigging
the ship set its sails to a sunset
you don’t remember innocent people
or the conversations their footprints had behind them
at night their shadows all remember you
the entrails of your own operation
that dead wall already
age brings bunnies
bunnies have handlebars
they chew steel like carrots
the self-humiliation of that
an impulse glory
Dale Jensen was born in Oakland and has degrees in psychology from UC Berkeley and the University of Toronto. He has seven books and five chapbooks out and in the 1980’s edited the poetry magazine Malthus. He tries to keep ahead of himsel