"A Line from Jukka-Pekka Kervinen," "You do not need to put it in a plastic bag," and "Otherwise, all at sea"

A line from Jukka-Pekka Kervinen

Hatred of soft con-
stitutes what? Is this
called character? Reason
says no, though I went

this way before, once,
my crew with wax
in their ears & me tied
to the mast. Now I am

alone in a small dinghy
abandoned even by
the birds. Strongwilled?
Or merely driven mad

by the song the jukebox
in my mind keeps play-
ing over & over until
I can hear it once again?

You do not need to put it in a plastic bag

We have lined our playaway
tops to make them heat up

quickly, enough to melt & pop
a balloon. Men might find it

baffling, but the kinetic energy
helps us pipe melted white

chocolate so it can be x-rayed by
officials when passing through

a security checkpoint, or, later,
be mistaken for food by wildlife.

Otherwise, all at sea

Someone has gifted me an
astrolabe.  I use it to determine
the distance between the end
of one line & the next.  Its

ethnicity changes daily. Is
determined by the type of
headgear it chooses to wear.
Today it is a pillbox hat. I open

it up & select a Quaalude. I've
read somewhere that's one of
those small countries in Central
Asia. It sounds exotic but brings

me down. Sometimes the astro-
labe cooks dinner, sometimes
it doesn't. Then we go out. It
has a real thing about eating

takeaway, says it's beneath it
to do so. I offer to marry it.
It refuses, totally turned off
by the idea of home delivery.