- Keith Banner
Indoor Swimming Pool Smell
everything was a pile
of shit
when I was a kid
if something
went wrong
it stayed in place
as in: washing
machine on the fritz?
here we come laundromat
grass needs
cut?
don't worry about it
weeds turn
into
lullabies after a while
big palm
trees
of pretend
and not even that
just
what it is: weeds, weeds, a bottle of vodka in the weeds
the house wasn't anything to start
with: 2-bedroom
yellow-brick ranch
the size
of a TV
dinner
and everything
turning
to shit, 1979
the kitchen sink
stopped up?
let it go
until the plumbing
consists of
a tupperware bowl
under the sink
catching
all the slime from washing dishes
and trash?
don't pay for pickup
put the bags of it in a
little white
shed
at the back of the carport
until
the smell
gags you as you wait for the school bus
or maybe
burn the trash in the backyard
like pioneers
a dirt-circle
filled with
blackened pringles cans
and
melted bread bags,
poisonous cinders in October air
the electric gets shut off
too
bad checks bounce the fuck off the walls
you run out of gas
you take
something really old back to the store
but
then one day he comes in
with wonderful news
some buddy of his
gives him
a month-long pass
to the sheraton inn
his wife manages
the indoor pool
near the interstate
brand new motel
and we go
me my dad and mom
and sister
escaping end-times
maybe 2 months
before the sheriff
kicks us out
and there is this
intoxicating
smell
chlorine
heat
fogged-up windows
people
without any troubles
and then sometimes
no people
just us
not wanting to go home
