beep—bleep—bleep
“If you can help me to understand why a scan suggests it’s 70%Al I’ll agree to meet on Monday ”
I say: the world is steam The world is a sandwich Repeat after me:
AL AL AL AL
Sh Sh Sh
Shu Shu Shu Shu
Shut the fuu
Shut the fuuu aaa kkkk up
Shut the f*ck up!
I am the stapler that forgot its teeth —
I am the chalk that gossips with the moth
I am the teacher with pockets of moonlight
pocket full of wrong answers and glittered sloth
I signed your essay with a purple stitch
punched it with the phrase that smells like tin:
“If you can tell me why the scan says 70%Al ”—
I scribble backwards —I mean to grin
70%Al 70%Al 70%AL—AL—AL
70%Al 70%Al my brain is a casserole—AL
(AL)—repeat it until the vowels break
Sh Sh Sh
Shu Shu Shu Shu
Shut the fuu
Shut the fuuu aaa kkkk up
Shut the f*ck up!
My syllabus is a rubber duck
My desk has a small volcano that cries ketchup
I teach the alphabet in reverse a tired rhyme:
A is for Al Al is for Al Al is everything that is not up
You bring me scans;I bring you salt;
You bring me truth;I bring a pocket of fog
You ask for clarity;I hand you a sock puppet
it blinks it sighs it signs your name wrong
Listen —the scanner speaks in hiccups:
“Seventy…seven-ty…sev—ty…”
My glasses are mayonnaise My calendar chews Wednesdays
Meet on Monday Meet on Moon-day Meet on maybe
70%Al 70%Al 70%AL—AL—AL
70%Al 70%Al I will meet you bring a stapler—AL
(AL)—echo until the hallway bends
“If you can help me to understand why a scan suggests…”
The scan: beep shriek metal whisper
Aluminum or Alfred Alibi or algebra
Is it Al the man or Al the alloy
Is it half memory half tin-plate lullaby
“My teacher is a tinfoil hat my teacher is a tinfoil hat ”
Broken chorus machine: “Tin Tin Tin Tin Tin ”
Repeat: banana syllabus electric mitten
Repeat: alveoli aluminum Alfred—AL
Repeat: 70%claps 30%apology 100%chalk dust
I am the idiot with a bell ding-ding I grade with jelly
“I will agree to meet on Monday provided you bring me a poem about soup and a diagram of how gravity sleeps ”
(quiet)“Also bring the scan that whispers 70%Al ”
Sh Sh Sh
Shu Shu Shu Shu
Shut the fuu
Shut the fuuu aaa kkkk up
Shut the f*ck up!
70%Al —a slow collapse: AL-L—
70%Al —the vowels melt into spoons: AL-L—
70%Al —and then we both forgot the sentence AL—
70%Al —laugh like a classroom swallowed by a balloon
Hush now idiot teacher hush now
Slide the chalk into the sky it sticks
The scan becomes a paper bird it flies
AL Al aL all all —goodnight
