I don’t usually listen to jazz
So why do I like this album
No words
No beat
Nothing to stoke
No adrenaline
No loves
No breakups
No pronouns
Is it the famous names
Duke Ellington
John Coltrane
Just names to me
Couldn’t tell you what they look like
Or what they’d have said
about the traffic situation
going through the tunnel
on highway 26
Or what they liked about this album
But I like it
-T. Weeks
The dog is wet
Very wet
Like soaked to the bone
And so am I
Rain fell on us
Cold and oblivious
It fell everywhere
Nothing personal
Fingers and paws are stiff
Noses like peppermint
Feet soaked through
And our coats…
Not waterproof
Pretty sure mine used to be
We shiver
Tuning forks
Resonant with this winter note
-T. Weeks
Pool glows blue on New Years Eve
Chaos ripples the surface
A light Portland rain
Like the snow static on an old TV
Remember that sound?
Never thought I wouldn’t hear that again
TV static and the busy signal
Extinct sounds
Or at least critically endangered
But water ripples are doing just fine
Pools will always ripple in the rain
Always have
Ripples predate humans
Hell they happen anywhere water falls from the sky
Anywhere in the universe
As long as the aliens living there have ears
They’ll know what I’m talking about
Or maybe they know it by some other sense
Whatever that may be
Right now this pool ripples
And I can hear it
-T. Weeks
Early
Before the sun
Early
Too young
Early
Before it starts
Don’t be late
-T. Weeks
Dancing mechanical Santa
Wobble dip wobble dip
Dancing mechanical Santa
Take a picture strike a pose
Dancing mechanical Santa
More wine and a dessert
Dancing mechanical Santa
Get the check wave goodbye
Dancing mechanical Santa
-T. Weeks
Outside my window
Silver sliver shooting stars
Stick crawl collide streak
Horizontal jaggy walk
Not a patter drop in sight
If I was always on a plane
It’d never fall another way
-T. Weeks
Had a root canal this week
Everyone says they’re awful
I was expecting trauma
Didn’t feel a thing
I must have done something wrong
Even after the pain killers wore off
Still didn’t hurt
No one wants to hear that
They want the pain
To hear mine and share theirs
What am I supposed to tell people?
Maybe it’s better just to skip it
The part about the root canal
-T. Weeks
Something on my mind
More like in my face
An infection
Swollen cheek sagging
Doctor tells me it’s serious
Hospitalizable
Antibiotics arrive for combat
Parachute directly into a vein
Strike team deployed
Dr. Hindsight squares up
Lectures me on preventing infection
This could have been avoided
If only I had been more vigilant
No shit doc
If I’d seen it coming
I would have jumped out of the way
This chair is nobody’s goal
I’m grateful I truly am
You may have saved my life today
But before we start pointing fingers
Let’s count all the things
That haven’t happened to me
No need to hold your applause
-T. Weeks
Up and down the path
Zombie expectations
Eat brains
Run and overrun
Who carved this path anyway
Who called it a way
Who did it first
Who will be the last
Probably no one
Ed Smith might know but he’s dead
And kind of a fuckup to begin with
So what if I turn left here
Just head that direction
Nothing more of the same
This isn’t a path at all
A wide flat plan
Featureless unremarkable
-T. Weeks
I’m an old man
In disguise of course
My mask is falling off
Very slowly
-T. Weeks
Life Immense 