Living with Rats and Other Poems

Living with Rats

They’re sneaky, quick, stealth,
like a robber.  Like a world-class

So I hold a broomstick

thief.  Climb a wall, collapse
under a doorway, these things

in bed – clutch it

are unstoppable.  They’ll eat their way out
the room

to my breast.  Surprisingly,

I’m fearin’ they’ll enter. . . Can be here
at any moment, in fact, probably are!

I feel better.  I’m ready to whack

roving the downstairs
my bullshit existence; sticking their whiskers

those suckers.

into my business.  I’m forced
to think about this.

This Morning

I wanna write the perfect love song
this morning.

I

Forlorn, lost, wandering,
wondering, translucent,
transcendent;

re-                        LUCK

tant-
ly

giving in, now. . .

Simply:

can’t believe it.

found myself here
with you.

A Little Help

Do you remember
walking around in Berlin
right after you broke up
with your girlfriend?

You feel that today in Baltimore.
                        And if, if you could stop all this,

And there were no words
left, or rather,
they had yet to form,

you would – everything leaving,
                        a stamp for some
                        future postcard.  Everybody walking;

and the sunlight was so
naked! and every             single                         thing,
especially every one
was heartbreaking.  Why was that?

bleeding, loving, losing, laughing,
                        tearing
                        each other to bits, themselves

You were so
raw,
and more than a little afraid
of stepping away,                         stepping out –

apart, trying
                        not to cry.  Such a slow moan,

you had hid long enough. . .  And do you remember
even before that, walking around downtown Atlanta,
feeling that time out of time,

and all we can do is carry on.

a deep extended breeze blowing, You’re not really here?

—-

Jonas Kyle-Sidell is an adjunct English teacher at CCBC Catonsville.  He is currently seeking book publishment for his book, “Outta Time, in Love,” a collection of these collage-like poems.  He’s previously had poems published in the Los Angeles Review, Main Street Rag, Gargoyle, Pearl, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, Smile Hon! You’re in Baltimore, Paradigm, The Melancholy Dane, and Welter.