Everyone I Know

The waiting room becomes impatient
for Monday morning?s oncology appointment
and curses at the soap opera star on the television.
Nothing in the office has hair
or doors
or windows
or chairs.
A pizza place has no cheese,
but it brings sauce.
A mailbox runs to the toilet
to vomit envelopes.
A street sign has forgotten its way home
and asks to call a sister upstate
but can?t remember the phone number.
It asks for a menu,
but the sister?s name is unlisted anyway.
A telephone pole walks with a cane
and wires fall off.
The receptionist hands the doctor
the file of a file folder
with a tumor on the fold.
She says, what do you want for lunch?
And he says, I have leftovers from last night.

John Lennon's Toenails

I

John Lennon had to cut his toenails,
but maybe Yoko did it for him
while in white pajamas.
A cigarette hanging from her lips?

II

A rumor
in a bar,
2 am in Watchung.
Lennon lets his toenails grow really long
and he uses them as picks, man.
No joke.

III

Bill's feet hurt so he wears flip-flops
while pumping gas in November.
He still has two more months
of growth.

IV

Bill trims his nails in his mother's basement.
He breaks a string on his guitar
after getting a small silver sound
that no one upstairs hears.

V

John Lennon trips over a microphone stand
splitting his big toe?s nail in two.
Later, his sock
gets caught on the blade.
He can be heard saying,
Fuck whenever he walks.

VI

John, I hope you?re not cutting
your nails in bed again.
I hate the little scratches
on my legs.