to be scrubbed clean 
until squeak-worthy, until 
emerald leaves streak 
green my knife hand. 
Pepper with parsley. 
Don't forget the paprika, lots of 
Hungarian paprika: 
Budapest's Best­
a squat tin can of 
sweet, wax-bodied 
red peppers 
dried in ruby strands. 

Untitled 
By bill mcC/ain 

I am really athletic and right-handed 
Made of wood 
You are short and sweet and rubber banded 
And that's pretty good 
See I don't wanna wanna don't wanna 
Do the things I should 
Everyone else is evil fuckers 
We're just misunderstood 

I'm thinking about purchasing a megaphone, some new clothes 
Angling for the motherlode 
Looking for something new to loathe, something ugly I can grow 
Something red that really goes 

You are skinny and pretty and pretty handy 
lam just skinny and nobody understands me 

l would die for ice cream 
And l would die for porn queens 
l would die to be interesting 
l would love to be anything 

4 Poetry 

-
You use me up like you smoke a ci 

breathing me in only to blow me c 
turning me into ashes you 
transform into a light brocade, 
unraveling at the slightest touch o1 

Stub me out when you've had eno 
or when you've smoked me to my 
and you just can't stand my taste 
anymore. 

Maybe this time you'll stomp me o 
once I hit the pavement 
with a barely audible thud, 
scraping your boot, 
making me leave my innards 
in a trail on the asphalt. 

No matter how I'm disposed of, 
be it fire-down in sand, 
or splayed on the cement, 
or spit on and tossed in the garbag 
or thrown out of the car window, 
my embers fleeing from my body 
with the force of the speed you are 
you will leave me wherever I end u: 
and walk away without a second th