The Listener

I am not listening to you about your son. I am talking about the metal because you just mentioned your mother. I am trying to tell you that daddy saved the pans. Your mother saved metal pie dishes under the sink. We recently painted the spot on the wall the dog always peed on. I still have the wallpaper up in the nursery. I have the computer in there now. I am not listening to you or about your mother and the glass she saved or the string she kept in an envelope. I am telling you about the way daddy saved our pans when they had holes in them. I am trying to tell you though you are not listening about the pans. We had pans to cook in and they got so old that daddy would put screws in the holes and solder around the screw to save the pan. He would put a screw in the hole and solder around the hole to save the pan. This is important so listen. Daddy saved our pans when they had holes in them. He took a screw and put the screw and soldered around the hole to save the pan. He saved so many pans this way. He used screws to save our pans. We had plenty of money but using the screws to put into the pans and soldering around the hole was a good thing to do because it saved us money. I am not listening to you now about your grand-daughter. I have already told you that. He used screws to put into the holes in the pans. Then he would solder around the hole and it would save the pan. And we would keep it. We never threw it out. He would just put screws in the holes to save them. We cooked on the pans with the screws sticking up through them.
Now tell me about your son.
















Triptych: Moose, Knee, Paperclip

Even the moose in its rage
wanted to comfort the end table.
Burdens and mistakes.
To abduct the dream of a pinwheel.
To pin it to the courthouse door.
They will not turn away now.
Even the shingles of the house
wanted to shelter the new TV.
Innocence and a paperclip.
Now I unclip that clip from the
last page of my hour with the sneaker.
Intensity and mastery. Burn
the puzzle. 1500 interlocking fingers.
The bones were walking with
a limp away from a moose that
banged its knee. Black and blue.
I am stealing this animal and
holding its tongue down now.
Reach for the closest thing near the lamp
because corpuscle interlocutions demand rigor
and a healthy attitude for snakes.
Yes, the paper clip will work fine.












John Mulligan teaches English, Creative Writing, and Philosophy at a private school in Wakefield, Rhode Island. His poems can be found in 42opus, can we have our ball back?, and Eucalyptus.






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