Jerome Gaye

Apres Moi Rien

The extra bucket was for bonuses,
Assimiliations so out of the question we had to amputate

I like your little hat, the way it howls across
The EMS in the overloud sun

And we were so sure of ourselves that day we didn’t even look
To see if our socks were the same height

And you with the limp. And you with the limp, I said,
Little boyscout like a laptop with no harddrive.—
                                                                            Excellent.

The mold grows like schematics.

---

South Dakota

Because the considerable endemism is wizardry:
Capers rolling along like high-cultured cheese wheels—

I lower a bowler to my breast like a banker. Black & white.
Best of luck blowing this one, I say. Sheesh! Quiet as a mime.

And aren’t we just terrifically hungry, you say. Dust-mawed,
Helloquacious. We align ourselves like ruminants; face the west.

We tip our tufts to the taoishness of the Milky Way, and sing:
O saccharine sky / unfennel us cows // we presidents / we puma.

J.A. Gaye earned a Bachelors Degree in English from Southeast Missouri State University in 2000. He currently works as a preschool and elementary school physical and special education teacher and lives in Benton, MO with Alfred, his Siberian Husky.