the blister that loneliness created on Jake's
left foot had disappeared for a short time and would return,
and He was as lonely as a single spec of shaved
wood that was left on a woodcarver's shop floor after they
swept it, which made his optimism a single
pen mark on an otherwise blank and empty piece of notebook
paper. And, a small gust of wind might blow him away
if someone opened the door. This motherly world
transformed him into a piece of lettuce
that was fresh one day and soggy the next. This sogginess made
his dejection a blister on his foot that was the size
of a golf ball; he wanted it to burst and cover his foot
with a happy puss. But, he still hoped that he would see
Dana again, and this spec of optimism was
a pair of Yves Saint Laurent Chelsea boots buried under a pile
of shoes from Payless. He had to dig through the shit
in order to find it even while his problems were an overflowing
garbage can. But, he always found some way to take it out
and knew that life is as strange and beautiful
as a man banging a knife against a tin coffee
creamer container and calling it music.
Jakes loneliness was a single nuclear missile in an abandoned
Russian missile silo that was leaking uranium
into the ground until Mandie came and repaired it.
She was just in time too; otherwise, this missile would have poisoned
a town's water supply if it was alone any longer.
But, he also still knew that rejection and pain are annoying
aunts that you have to visit every weekend and can't escape.
He still had a strange urge to smile; it felt like
a caterpillar tickling him and crawling on his
skin. He didn't know how to respond to this strange
sensation, but his short fuse was a loaded gun that he nearly shot
and killed his chances with Lydia, and her need to wait
was a half-finished painting. The completed side was beautiful
and the unfinished part was gray and bleak.
She made his itch more intense every time that
he saw her; it was a sponge that continued
to absorb dish soap and water until it nearly
burst. He thought that she would keep her promise to move
faster; this knowledge was a safety pin that replaced the main
button on his jeans and kept them from falling off.
But, his brief infidelity was an alarm clock
buried underneath a few jackets in his closet that nearly
went off. He still found this clock and destroyed it before it made
a sound. human flaws then became blotches of spilled red paint
that had been soaking into a white carpet for three straight days
and have burrowed in and will never be removed. He left her and his
loneliness made him feel as if he was a page of a rolling stone
magazine that was ripped out and thrown in the snow. He would
deteriorate if he was alone in the snow any longer. But, the text
he received from Lydia a few days later was
a shot of morphine that made him see that the lawful
harmony of the universe resembled the perfect
blend of whiskey and ice that kept him sane and gave him hope.
An unfastened button on a men's dress shirt
resembled Jake's androgyny, and it allowed him
to breath freely and made him think that one can only
be near perfect like a pair of boots that are slightly
too big around one's toes, and he then forgave Trisha
because everyone has their idiotic moments. They
are annoying chocolate stains on one's jeans, yet
remind us not to take ourselves too seriously. But,
his luck with women was as good as a tuna's when
it tried to escape a hungry great white shark. And, his
contempt and hatred for women was a hangover
that only they could alleviate because they were sometimes
like a pint of Stella Artois at his favorite bar.
However, he moved on because Trisha was a pint
glass of miller high life that he liked, but didn't think
was great. His suffering then became a blister on his
left foot, yet he knew that it would linger for a time
and then disappear for a while. Until then, the bed bugs
of stress and dejection kept crawling on his
face, and they wouldn't let him sleep. He had to find some
way to crush them in order to feel sane and satisfied again.
Luke says, "I'm Luke Skoza, and I recently graduated with BA in English from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Also, I won the 2009 Academy of American Poets prize for best undergraduate poem during my time at SIUC. Now, I've moved to Chicago in order to work and write for about a year; then, I plan on attending graduate school at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland."