3 Odes
By Jim Daniels. Published on August 4, 2023.
ODE TO COCAINE
Just a few lines might kill me now,
past sixty, well above the speed limit.
I loved the rush it gave.
I have enough dollar bills to roll tight,
fatal prayers. What would I give for
just a few lines? It's killing me.
Nostalgia can kill you too. And bad jokes
and false piety and spoiled meat.
I still love, with diminished intensity. Rush
me to the ER for spiritual fatigue, bad back,
a general lack. God. Unfolded bindle of slick
paper, anticipation of just a few lines—
heart-flutter random, morning light faded
by the keeping track. Bloody nose—be still.
Death, don't rush me down your skeletal staircase.
A good idea at the time. A good time at the idea.
Clock hands exploding. Tick. Tic. No sleep. No dream.
A few scribbled lines could kill me in this artificial light.
Pale love. Rush. Cocaine, I gave everything for you.
ODE TO MASTURBATION
The inventor of bad habits
is sad. When does a good habit
turn bad? Take masturbation.
Pregnant pause. No one wants to
take masturbation. No one will raise
a hand. The hands are busy.
I’ll take masturbation for $200.
Whoa! A daily double.
The answer is The Bathroom.
I’ll take a vowel, try to solve
the puzzle. I wrote the theme song
for the “Masturbation Game.”
I collect vast sums of pocket change
in lieu of royalties. For our show
you don’t even need a camera.
Just the idea of a camera.
Why is the Inventor of Bad Habits
sad? Did his dog die after rolling over
in a stick of TNT? TNT is funny
in cartoons but not in real life.
Real life is over-rated,
unlike the “Masturbation Game,”
which has a viewer ship
of one: a row boat.
ODE TO BEEF JERKY
Our teeth are not meant for it—
an animal tear required.
Soften it up in your mouth
and take time to taste the animal.
It foments incomprehension
and grunts and grimaces
in lieu of fangs and claws.
It conjures flames, dry smoke,
wild spreading. If you drop it,
it will not break. You’re traveling
light, leaving no soft traces.
Grip it in your bare fist.
It is a sheet torn from the Bible
that reads just kidding.
Jim Daniels’ latest poetry collections include Gun/Shy, Wayne State University Press, and two chapbooks, The Human Engine at Dawn, Wolfson Press, and the forthcoming Comment Card, Carnegie Mellon University Press. His new fiction collection The Luck of the Fall, Michigan State University Press, will be published in this summer. A native of Detroit, he lives in Pittsburgh and teaches in the Alma College low-residency MFA program.
