Living. Obsessing.

Robert Ronnow
The Imaginary i

Living. Obsessing.

Obsessing
about sump pumps
and bulk mailings

Writing
a boring biography
for what purpose, neither

Understanding
the self nor
knowing the unknowable

Something
to occupy the time
between winter and summer mornings

Evenings
watching tv but finding
the stories risible, how

Irritating
wearying the killings
in one pint-size city

Identifying
my feelings with the feelings
of kings and fools and murderers

Recombining
repeatedly
the same words and memes and genes

Enjoying
orgiastically
autumnal delights

Playing
with the eyes
of other passengers

Wearing
a shirt and tie
and carrying a briefcase

Buying
yogurt and honey
in a small favorite grocery store

Eyeing
the lake from shore
for a bluebird or flying insect

Lying
low and breathing low
mists of pure noise

Dying
commensurate with the way
one lived one’s life

Trying
to educate everyone
to their individual capacities

Obeying
the speed limit
as my hormones permit

Touching
sweetly but staying
strong

Going
to the mountain
to mark my trees

Organizing
the unemployed alcoholics
and welfare mothers into

Flying
chevrons of
purposeful explorers

Satisfying
victories, compromises, achievements
the mind is the body

Paying
attention to
what it is doing

Feigning
respect for all
death denying beliefs

Learning
Sidewinder
playing it imperfectly

Seeing
trees swaying
in every direction

Hurrying
and hesitating
toward the horrible or pleasurable

Unifying
all physical matter
rocks and sentient beings

Specifying
classifying, praying
while all the leaves are falling

Agreeing
first on rules of engagement
then engaging

Partying
doing drugs
getting Trinity pregnant

Laughing
over recent visits
to marvelous cities

Trashing
fewer plastic contraptions
using less electricity

Hunting
mating, having
been too many places to count

Tying
my shoe, trying to get
my truck out of the mud

Crying
birdy birdy birdy
birdy

Exasperating
argument re immigration
the carrying capacity of the planet

Carrying
children away from holocaust
the fundamentalist army not far behind

Requiring
winter and the cold
that keeps us sane and sober

Running
and at rest
not at peace

Seeking
God, housecleaning
teaching our sons to use the word please

Knowing
how to say yes when you mean yes
and no when you don’t

Keeping
death before you
without perjury

Cutting
brush for a fire line
high up where raptors and ravens fly

Working
and dirty, joking
with the crew during lunch

Drying
to a taut drum
lying in leaf litter

Copying
wholesale from
the great poems

Planning
to arrest the president
for war crimes

Terrifying
thunderstorm, tornado
or volcano

Applying
the scientific method
a self-aware organism

Playing
cards, backgammon, chess
each move a variation on the next

Annoying
being the center of attention
the dead man walking

Destroying
the kind of power
that cannot be made socially responsible

Prophesying
success, explaining
failure

Believing
in the death penalty
knowing no pity or self-pity

Working
to abandon immortality
as a hope

Hoping
happiness outgrows fear
by an ounce or enough

Sitting
open to the blue sky
and jet stream cutting the gorge

Walking
and talking quietly
or going angrily to war

Weedsmoking
videogameplaying
tvwatching lawnmowing

Thanking
the young cashier
for doing her job, not

Beheading
each other
yet

Beginning
to reverse the future
loving the desert for having no water

Counting
your blessings
a healthy activity

Fructifying
English—to drown one’s book
is devoutly to be wished

Acting
tough, which isn’t actually an act
my ass is burning

Notwithstanding
melting icecaps and incoming meteors
all meaning must be found, here, in the middle zone

Living
until the body just stops barking
breathing