self-portrait of the apocalypse as a california sunset
there’s a turritopsis dohrnii in these waters.
locals call it immortal jellyfish b/c it reverts
to a polyp when it’s stressed or sick or old.
it can do that for eternity, living forever.
i hope i can achieve the same endless do-over &
wrap my arms around your tattooed body
when i bob to the surface like a buoy.
there was a 76ers game on one of the television sets
at the electronics store i went to last night. they
were up by five on the raptors. superstar hall of famer
absolute pimp nba center wilt chamberlain slept
with 20,000 women & if you laid all of their bodies
out across the pacific, you would have to do it over
270 times before you could reach asia. on the television set
next to that one, seinfeld was playing. & we were born
the spring before the summer it ended, the summer
everyone gathered to watch that show about nothing.
this a poem about nothing. the number one song in america
was “i don’t wanna miss a thing” because they all knew
there was so much armageddon in the future left to see.
i laugh into the ocean from the lens of the oculus rift
that my memory of you, my once-mansfield-now-japanese
sweetheart, is living in. & i think about the homeless man i
gave my half-smoked joint & leftover in-n-out fries to, &
how that warmth will last him forever. japan has already
started eroding away into the shape of ohio & america is
melting & will do so until it’s nothing. please let these
tides bring me home to you so i can be warm once again.
by Matt Mitchel
from Jam & Sand