Mulcher

POETRY

Mulcher

Prose poetry pushes against most every concept of verse and form, nearly an anti-form. So how is it poetry? Because it has been labeled as poetry. . . .

I pour in last year’s debris, oak leaf and deadfall, deer scat and squirrel scrap, determined to break it down, smaller and smaller, reduce it to anonymity, a sludge of humus for new failures. It’s all an act of evacuation now–junk food and junk mail, flowered shirts and fallen winter sprouts–the ridding of former lifetimes, in whatever incarnation they appear: uncaptioned photographs and Van Halen on 8-track, misremembered affairs and unread Good Housekeepings. It all goes in. Reduce, maybe re-use, but let’s not recycle. By now, what’s the point? Stale arguments, left far too long at the table, and dusty designs too thickened for Pledge, that weary story of adolescent embarrassment I save for parties, none escape this rust-red beast, a 1985 Toro’s indiscriminate charm for chewing. Be thankful we put nothing out at the curb! I wish this for no picker or pirate. It all goes in. Reduce. Make it smaller. Make it go away. Mulch it up, the Toro’s iron teeth spinning, still grinding, anodyne, senseless, and maybe final.

Mulch

I pour in last year’s debris,
          oak leaf and deadfall,
          deer scat and squirrel scrap,
determined to break it down,
          reduce it to anonymity,
          a sludge of humus for new failures.

It’s all an act of evacuation now–
          junk food and junk mail,
          flowered shirts and fallen winter sprouts–
the ridding of former lifetimes:
          uncaptioned photographs and Van Halen on 8-track,
          misremembered affairs and unread Good Housekeepings.
It all goes in.
          Reduce, maybe re-use, but let’s not recycle.

By now, what’s the point?
          Stale arguments, left far too long at the table,
          dusty designs too thickened for Pledge,
          that weary story of adolescent embarrassment
                    I save for parties,
None escape this rust-red beast,
          a 1985 Toro’s indiscriminate charm for chewing.

It all goes in.
          Reduce.Makeitsmaller.
          Makeitgoaway.
          Mulchitup,
          Toro’sironteethspinning
                    stillgrinding
                                           Senseless
                           anodyne
                           afterall