- Keith Banner
Wish and Hammer
i need to write one
tonight
i feel it happening
and then not
but here it
goes
that is what this is
poem
or pine-sol?
don't matter, same damn thing
dedicated to anyone
who has ever moved
into a shitty apartment
scared of what is about to happen
some pocket change
dollar general down the street
pine-sol!
that smell
returns you to some other zone
close to cleanliness
smells like too much
perfume
too much pine-tree
too much deodorizer
but necessary now
against
that one-bedroom
stink
old bacon
cigarettes
somebody's sweat somewhere uncurling
sloppy tube-sock snake
and then whatever hot water
you have
and that pine-sol
combined into
vapor
into wish
and hammer
clean
it all away
that smell
is
fucking
proustian
clean it
right now
clean until
you don't know
who you are
no more

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