Apartment Poetry Quarterly

19A              19B              19C              19D              19E              19F

 

19E HENRY GOLDKAMP

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MOOSE TRAP

i had succumbed to my tininess me teeniness ze bopperness


within my moose call which goes


“help! I’m stuck in the phone! get me out of here!!”


moose traps are a highly specialized, highly complicated, western design


for moose are huge, dangerous, taller than wembanyama


i set it how all my foredaddies had taught me


and i will teach you the way


first, a small crumby text about an email


second, a crumbly emawell fuck I’m caught the moose caught me


comrade christine asked if i wanted to know the secret


the secret to what she never specified


perhaps the secret to a fruitful fruit


or to not being so stupid


but she said it just like this


girls


girls girls girls henry


this is the way


so now I’m on a stripper pole on a party bus outside the poetry reading


living my bereft life girl


dialing it back


i’m not going to take it there


i’ve been all in your face i made up


from way over yonder


as we like to say way out west


i’m taking a step back


none of the trimmings


you’re getting your money’s worth


you’re worthy of money


i’ll shower you with taxable deductions


i’ll simply sidestep any reality


if you want


beyond friendly commentary on the weather we’ve been having


lovely weather we’ve been having lately


the weather we’ve been having lately is lovely


the butcher paper sky and the hot-blooded sunset


dialing it back on a rotary phone


calling only you with each circular stroke of my fingertip


eieueuhhh like a freak on a leash


my creepy plastic vampire moment


my perfume voiceover OBSESSION


BETRAYAL INSOUCIANCE DESIRE


the atomizer the prism the rainbow


spectrum checking the bathroom floor where i think


i’m leaning into my crepuscular era


and my canine incisors cut to the touch


you’ve got a little red on your face


some blue in your heart let me get that for you


thumb stroke under the eye and


**yom yom yom yom** your heart is michelin-starved


likeable and bitter and yours


we encourage you to eat this meal as the locals do


without silverware with your hands with arrows in your back


i just can’t help my bad clavicle habit


i could not resist my childhood dream


of an open heart surgery at the paws of 8 organ grinder monkeys


to live a life of tv the rest of my days


soap operas and boxes


preacher man and kierkeygard


won’t you think of me as george clooney in ER


as george clooney in ocean’s 27


as vera farmiga playing opposite george clooney


in up in the air call it skillful suspension of lief


call it testing the tightrope over the canyon before i plummet to my


girl i didn’t eat any of the serious parts


girl i only tried a 2 ounce pour


i’ll toss it right back just let me bobble a little longer please


let me get it to the center ring* *bring* *bring*


forgot where i was for a minute


forgot the size of my antics within my juggling act


your moose part my moose part plus a cosmic bowling pin


on fire for good show and odd number if


i drop it big if


lowly likely such tact of a put-together shoelace


i’ll hose off all the sawdust and elephant shit promise


be my volunteer in the endless supply of audience


and if my full-shower lines read yeehaw to you


i will translate them to russian


for the sake of their cigarette smoke and coke mirrors


ah mother russia


ah драгоценности лось


girls girls girls


your iron is sufficient your skyscraper sharp


girl all i’m asking for it’s nothin really


in return of this major intern surgery


is its brutalist penthouse suite


and VIP access to all future emergencies