JOHN OLDENBORG
Our Two Villages
share Flamingo
Took them one year
to install Jumbotron
You purchase one Pink
Starburst in a can For me
largest possible water
Communal Ice Bath
could be Tiny Bomb
Fingerless Man tells me afterward
to rub myself down with Apple
Cider Vinegar Rebelling against
cellular division Mayor and
Beer Sign stop spinning
Afternoon’s Roast Beef Sandwich
does not complete me
You mistake Half
-Dollar Moon for
something
Child would do
to a doll Balloon
in shape of Pumpkin
Pie keeps levitating
longer than I keep Faith
I want to go to Montana
––
Note to Self on How to Fix Things
All my meals are liquid
should I be hopeless?
Our debates crux on legacy
on the road to the fountainhead
contestants launch watermelons
shells without snails or
what is the food pyramid
getting up to
in retirement?
Surfboards
fly free in Hawaii
There are disco balls
above all the stop signs
for you
for when you get the shivers
––
Please Join my Mailing List!
Banana in a brownie
pan no one will shut up
about The emboss on
the cleft side of your
belt reads Always
by Your Side Genuine
Leather!!! It’s Real!!!
I’ll need to brush up
on my poor poor Esperanto
Crispy Critters!!
Your weird shower dynamic
kinda freaks me out
Rog’s Thirteen Elegies
told me After love is nowhere
who the fuck cares Totally!
The whole tank
and then some baby!
Buzzing in synchronous city
Kurosawa Miles and
Duende Ought there be
clowns at the squid photoshoot
where the hedgehog works
through her dilemma Echidna
boyfriend on epinephrine
for the shakes He takes
off his pump cover What
a sad little tissue box!
At least fifty stage divers
jump off his apple core
that heavily seasoned devil
looks like an hourglass agaric
mushroom in a super sorry state
The meeting of metalheads
and magnetheads attractive and
nickelsilver brouhaha (If you say gauche
so help me..) Surprise cranberry
after in the lizard lot The pastrami
was a salve We are having
you for dinner Oyster first
your aphrodisiac then
(banned in California)
a melanchol cigarette If only
you knew I was a lover
of a good jigsaw puzzler
pan no one will shut up
about The emboss on
the cleft side of your
belt reads Always
by Your Side Genuine
Leather!!! It’s Real!!!
I’ll need to brush up
on my poor poor Esperanto
Crispy Critters!!
Your weird shower dynamic
kinda freaks me out
Rog’s Thirteen Elegies
told me After love is nowhere
who the fuck cares Totally!
The whole tank
and then some baby!
Buzzing in synchronous city
Kurosawa Miles and
Duende Ought there be
clowns at the squid photoshoot
where the hedgehog works
through her dilemma Echidna
boyfriend on epinephrine
for the shakes He takes
off his pump cover What
a sad little tissue box!
At least fifty stage divers
jump off his apple core
that heavily seasoned devil
looks like an hourglass agaric
mushroom in a super sorry state
The meeting of metalheads
and magnetheads attractive and
nickelsilver brouhaha (If you say gauche
so help me..) Surprise cranberry
after in the lizard lot The pastrami
was a salve We are having
you for dinner Oyster first
your aphrodisiac then
(banned in California)
a melanchol cigarette If only
you knew I was a lover
of a good jigsaw puzzler
where the die rolls seven
and my heart heats up!
from all your singing
I’m all agog a gaga!
Can you blame him ?
for such gentle recidivism ?
Such a Big and Portly Bogan!
The one who presses
the button wins the prize
A tornado of bears brimming
with moth balls launched
into the fútbol arena Spaghetti
alla puttanesca o all’assassina?
I love them both! Even the Wannabe
Size Queen Unbridled
means plucking the gag
from the mouth with a ~¡pop!~
Shouldn’t we ?
all make such a sound ?
at the self-same time ?
There’s a dude who can ~¡popp!~
calligraph every name
as an ambigram (sibling
to ye old palindrome)
Even Dingbat or
Alpaga In Poland
that’s Alpaca Bum wine
Nickel silver and/or metal
imitating silver like false garlic
and crowpoison This plant
should not be eaten But
I can’t stop you! You and
your love for wild onions
Cumpleaños! To the child in life
vest yellow plus rubber
giraffe flotation device
Baby’s first ocean! ~¡poppp!~
~Thank Christ~ He
just now discovers
how to swim Kawasaki
jet skis and private helicopters
over the quay-bay combo
splish-splish little water-bug!
splish-splish splish-splish
and my heart heats up!
from all your singing
I’m all agog a gaga!
Can you blame him ?
for such gentle recidivism ?
Such a Big and Portly Bogan!
The one who presses
the button wins the prize
A tornado of bears brimming
with moth balls launched
into the fútbol arena Spaghetti
alla puttanesca o all’assassina?
I love them both! Even the Wannabe
Size Queen Unbridled
means plucking the gag
from the mouth with a ~¡pop!~
Shouldn’t we ?
all make such a sound ?
at the self-same time ?
There’s a dude who can ~¡popp!~
calligraph every name
as an ambigram (sibling
to ye old palindrome)
Even Dingbat or
Alpaga In Poland
that’s Alpaca Bum wine
Nickel silver and/or metal
imitating silver like false garlic
and crowpoison This plant
should not be eaten But
I can’t stop you! You and
your love for wild onions
Cumpleaños! To the child in life
vest yellow plus rubber
giraffe flotation device
Baby’s first ocean! ~¡poppp!~
~Thank Christ~ He
just now discovers
how to swim Kawasaki
jet skis and private helicopters
over the quay-bay combo
splish-splish little water-bug!
splish-splish splish-splish
––
John B. Oldenborg (he/him) calls Tallahassee home, but currently attends the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he is earning an M.F.A in poetry. Some of his poems appear or are forthcoming in Misery Tourism, New Note Poetry, Rat World Magazine, Bullshit Lit, Rougarou, Gone Lawn, and elsewhere online. Twitter: @LMFAOldenborg Email: john.blake.olden@gmail.com