i jabbed the straw down deeper and
down into the mint and ice shavings
the only ice i want to see none on the page

and so hats off to that pants too sarong salutes
and i did so carefully i thought who are these
ice writers these canadians and their hard luck stories
hard rock and but the lakes are nice and cry me twice
rivers so stark and has beens like i hate skating

and sad streaming winter tears on pages and ice
spines the leftovers of salmon and trout so freshwater
tears i need salt salt shaker bones and skin and
i had to read the stuff for years i did really better
to be seasick and now i don’t i was freed and
what another landscape poem for let me guess winter
so happy they took me shook me awake
buy another round for sandburg and ferlinghetti
stewardess plane landings days in florida nights in LA

so happy too just so so happy to come across
a beach and a palm tree smile and she looked
at me with that slow palm look and the mermaid
next to me said bless the walrus he’s not on the
beach now is he whiskers and that there were no
forms to fill out no poetry rewritten and illuminated by
cold as steel or flat as pop on a hot day no one wants
to read ice spires and deep and dark any more so so
sad whiners no bubbles and ice in the veins and none
in their glasses and by the way top me up with some
corso or some dark punch better served poolside

still better reserved and while you’re at it just rip those out
rip the pages out cut it out and the only books burning are
read by crowds on a beach somewhere by those who can
fill out an arrival card and still write poetry on a napkin with
the shadow of a wet glass printed on it and where there’s
not a care in the world except why do i ever have to go home
because it never really was mine just a loaner a loaner

do i need to change planes again

Mike Sluchinski writes for the broken and boarded up people out there, the chipped mirrors, the ruffled feathers, and the less than fifths of anything worth drinking. Currently co-writing a chapbook about Habakkuk, prayer, and fasting, except for fasting. Dancer, aspiring mathlete, and part time Shyriiwook translator—currently seeking full time work! Gratefully acknowledges the Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Foundation and Freefall Lit. for their tangible support of writers! Very gratefully published by The Coachella Review, Poemeleon, The Ekphrastic Review, MMPP (Meow Meow Pow Pow), Kelp Journal, ‘the fib review’, Eternal Haunted Summer, Syncopation Lit., SOFLOPOJO, Freefall!