Adrian Matejka – Want List


Adrian Matejka

Want List

Bass lines like fat men squeezing into
3rd grade desks.

Coltrane’s squealing right before I was born.

If not,
            a pill that makes
the music in my head stop.

Immediately, then I won’t know
what I’m missing.

I want dissimilar words, hyphenated
by minty fresh breath.  What good
are words
                   if no one will listen?

A way-back machine, so I can fix.

                William Shatner, circa 1967:
guest host for my 8th birthday party.

I’m wishing for mandibles, clipping
the staccato lilt of my phrasing.

Mandibles to tailor a new dress.
My woman needs one.

Then I want X-ray vision,
            so I can ignore
            what I wish for.

In the semi-embarrassment of silence,
I want to understand

why Goya used spoons to paint
                       instead of leaves.

                       If nothing else, I want
a map with the exact location

of the crossroads, so I can believe
what I never should have known.

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