The Fly Wanders Along My Hairless Forearm: Luke Bloomfield, Poeter

[A gaggle of poems by Luke Bloomfield, excellent person, co-editor of notnostrums, man of the valley.]


PUDDING

Taking the day off from modeling
my unimpressive body is not a cakewalk.
Geese psych out so easily with a
warm loaf of spelt. I watch the boys
with bandanas tied around their necks
reluctantly explore a canyon and
I wonder what I’m made of.
I haven’t explored caves in years.
Pushing off from the bank in this borrowed canoe
and going eyeballs into the sunset
provides relief for the pain in my blood.



SADLY CONTENT

I am sadly content to watch this cactus grow. This cactus, which grows with unrivaled slowness, is content and not at all sad to watch me paint the wing of a fly. The fly, entirely sad and a little content, worries it will never know the meaning of hermeneutics. So sad as to be marginally content, the cactus subsists on barely anything. Sadly overwhelmed by a vast absence of contentment, the fly wanders along my hairless forearm, crushed by the weight of purpose, thinking “I am just a sad fly, lost in the desert. Who will know I roam in darkness for the remainder of this brief life?” After a quarter century the cactus grows a new appendage. My compassion is in the hands of a higher logic, thus I am limitlessly sad and resignedly content to apply this paint to the fly’s wing. This will be a most superb fly.



INASMUCH

There is a hole in
a lost cabin in
a hidden bowl I
am eating peanuts
out of and the moon
is crazy today.



HAMMOCK

My hammock was the victim
of a crime last night.
They took the accessories
of my hammock, too,
my hammock pillow,
two hammock nails,
and my hammock hammer.
I used to eat cheese fries in my hammock.
I used to drink ice tea
in my hammock
and watch the trees sway
in the hot wind.
But they drank all the ice tea.
And the cheese fries
had had a good working over too.
I go to where my hammock
was and gently rock
in the empty hammock space,
letting the iniquities of life
seep into my psyche
while the pigeons peck
breadcrumbs from my afro.



THE DUFFEL BAG

You climbed inside the duffel bag.
I climbed inside after you
and then we were both inside
the duffel bag, which was bigger
than a big bee hive.
We scoped out the duffel bag
from where we were.
That is, we had found it,
and we said this was it, this
duffel bag. We called
it our home and we hung pictures
on the walls. The pictures sagged
for the walls were saggy
and we swam in the pool
in the duffel bag,
which was like a rock
we built our cathedral on
in the duffel bag,
smaller than a copse of trees.
The Saints’ cemetery
had a little plot in the duffel bag
and white peacocks roosted
in the clerestory
and wandered around the
Lady chapel at day.
We fed them ambrosia salad
from our hands.
We kept the duffel bag tidy
and ornate which befit
the duffel bag.
The duffel bag homed orphans
we raised to be millionaires
with miles of boats
and vineyards whose grapes we jogged
amid while our famous bread
baked in the oven.
When the hills caught fire
we reclined in the
duffel bag and drank beers
and enjoyed the fire show,
breathing the thin arctic lightning.
When the tide went out
we collected sand dollars
and sea cucumbers, which
we laid in the mellifluous belly
of the duffel bag.