Poem For a Musician and Scholar

In Stationary

 for Jill Bain

on-stage rage awakes to dollar store sadness

a wire cup can’t its contents any more than

a gift its delivery system

held to my ear awaiting its ocean

returned to the shelf no longer itself

but another dumb thing to be stepped from

last night’s mosh pit surfer rising

shirtless ribs a pitchfork into a broom

of ruffled jute its counterfeit effigy a life

returned to the cup but on its side this time

its face-out availability is what I am
getting you