2 Poems Jeff Taylor


Zeno’s Paradox


500 bricks
down the path
fron this half-
brick my left
sole rests on
there's a lantern
cracked 500 milli-
meters in length.
I know cause I
counted. I got on
hands & knees
held eyes open w/
toothpicks to make
sure I maintained
an accurate count.

The 1st brick felt like a toaster -only louder-
more romantic about the way it leaves things.
I could tell by the way the edges had worn
by the way the red was pink that it had taken
the wrong shape somehow -that this brick was
meant to be a kitchen appliance.

2 - three - 4

The 5th brick was held together by mortor slapped
across the exposed wide side in a way
I could tell the work had been done just after lunch.
The 6th brick was so covered in smut I could hardly
tell it was there. A woman in a blue pants suit was standing
on the 7th wondering why my gate was a crawl. She
had a fake tatoo of a cross across her left foreman -the top
part of the yellow vertical line had flaked off in a way it looked like
a capital T. I told her my last name is Taylor -but this puzzled her
further.

eight - 9 - ten

An 11 is two 1's put together -a couple of the loneliest
numbers on a date. It rained yesterday & crusted
a worm to brick 12. I picked at it. The worm came off easily.
When I tapped on the 13th it sounded hollow -like maybe
Whitey Bulger was hiding under there. Before I got to 14
a mosquito flew in my eye & was squished to death w/
the squint of my lash. I almost skipped ahead to the 15th
while I was pulling pieces of broken toothpicks from under
my skin. I dripped blood on brick 16 -pooled & crusted
into my eye- the plasma proved to improve my vision.

50 - seventyfive - 100

Suffering from seperation anxiety 101 cracked a clean
split when I rubbed it w/ my index finger. Romance
means nothing to bricks -heartless fucks everyone of them.
102 was painted blue -it reminded me of the rubber
ducky from Bert & Ernie. Y-E-S
was written on 103 -wiping the dried blood from my right eye w/
my left forearm- I scratched T-E-R-D-A-Y into 104 w/
a piece of glass. 105 had on the suit Napolean wore at Waterloo
-I don't know how they got the blood out- but I've never
been one to romanticize the truth. 106 housed a burnt out roach.
The 107th brick smelled like a chick -but never a second time.

onefifty - 200 - threehundred

#307 was once licked by Abigail Adams during a game of truth or dare.
The 308th brick has a family history of being the 308th brick.
His father was the 308th brick in the 283rd battalion during the Korean War.
His grandfather was originally intended for the Berlin Wall
-but was accidentally redirected to a blood bank in Detroit. 309 is wanted for murder
-she switched places with 412 (who had an alibi for the evening in question).
413 used to be an extra on The Banana Splits.
414 wets the bed.
I know this kid who used to date this girl
who saw brick #415 pass out at 32 Flavors last night -it's really serious.

475 - foureightyfiive - 495

On the 1st Thursday
of every month 496 serves
food to the homeless at the soup
kitchen on Essex Street. Brick #497
-not unlike my grandmother- hides
bottles of apricot brandy all over
the house. 498 walks like an Eqyptian.
Brick #499 has been the chief
financial officer for five
bankrupt dot coms. 500
is the # of Spree one person
can eat before puking.
500 was Nelson
Reiley's SAT score.
The summer of 500
was a great year to
vacation in the Fertile Crescent.

The woman in the blue
pants suit grabbed the 500th
brick and swapped it with the 105th
-but this is Boston Common not Waterloo
& if there's 1 thing I've learned it's not to
trust anyone over the age of twelve
that has a fake tatoo.






Talk Clean To Me


We speak unseen
Listerine. Blow up
On YOUR WRISTWATCH.
I left the lights on?

Forty Years Ago
(Your Bedroom Lights). I
LEFT THEM ON?