The Housesitter

The Housesitter, By Zachary Paul Sire

Impotent potted plants
empty jettisoned jacuzzis
canine fingernails on hardwood floors
fucking jumbo jets

A sort of metronome
Mozambique, New York City, Peru
go

You hear the air planes take off from LAX but you don’t see them if you’re on a condominium balcony in an apartment complex in Playa Del Ray. There are marshlands and long highways and fences that make them (the fucking jumbo jets) seem like monsters that hide in the sky but are strong enough to scream themselves into your night.

Maybe Lincoln, Bangkok, Amsterdam.

Pretty unimportant. Scavenger sex, cigarettes, entitlement booze,
Balcony perched, watchin the planes take off

You know stuff around you, dogs playing tug-of-war inside, the neighbors awake like you with tv’s glaring and glowing up their bedrooms that say “Life! life in here!”

Las Vegas, Jakarta, Bangladesh.

And it goes vroooom, shuuuuush, reeeeeee
With majesty, permeates
Swallows and burns and incinerates air behind its impression

You press little buttons
You have crushes
You attempt permanence

Juneau, Madrid, Baghdad

Scuffed socks and in need
Of a haircut
You’ve got the whole world to take on,
Tomorrow
Or the next day
Maybe
Fucking jumbo jets