Year of the Sea Monkey CVII

I pull all the lines 
and all of the wires I can reach. 
Most are attached to cheap 

prizes such as tiny 
plastic dolls with big eyes 
and painted-on diapers. 

Some are attached to lightbulbs 
and a few to giant bears. 
I tire of pulling lines, 

targeting the mouths 
of clowns and praying 
to come back down safely. 

The fun that other people 
have at the county fair 
has me heartsick, 

melancholy, touched 
in some complex way. 
Oh, high expectations 

and that for which we settle. 
Oh, lines attached to nothing 
and sweet nothings stuck to me.

Year of the Sea Monkey CVIII

I do everything I can 
to speed up. 
So does she. 

We finish in time 
enough for more finishing. 
The Finnish have a word 

that means “I wonder 
if I should run around aimlessly?” 
We have magazines 

about outsider art 
under our bed, and some 
of the pictures of childlike 

women nursing giant bees 
slow us down. 
I like sounds without 

significance. 
So does she. 
Seeing my name up in lights 

would change me 
significantly. 
She agrees.

Glen Armstrong

holds an MFA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and edits a poetry journal called Cruel Garters. He has three current books of poems: Invisible Histories, The New Vaudeville, and Midsummer. His work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Conduit, and The Cream City Review.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Year of the Sea Monkey XCIX in The Wild Word (includes audio)

⚡ Impossible Passages #93, prose poem in Biscuit Root Drive (13 January 2020)

⚡ Three Poems by Glen Armstrong in Hole in the Head Review (Vol. 2, no. 1: 2 February 2021): “Zorine, Queen of the Nudists #17,” “Good Neighbor #9,” and “Basic French”

⚡ Flowers in Stone (after Paul Klee) in KYSO Flash (Issue 4, Fall 2015)

⚡ Marooned, prose poem in KYSO Flash (Issue 4, Fall 2015)