Goosepup
Jake Bauer
I was in
the teapot, not
on it. Frances
poured me
into the cool mug.
The economics
of gentleness,
after saving
the child
toddling on
the snowy
train tracks,
go back
to practicing
guitar. The train
tracks more
charming
than ever,
the sun flicking
sunlight
at the troupe
of mimes. Nearby,
the icepick
stuck in
the fjord wants
to be found
in a few
millennia
by a couple
of lost
teens who’d just
wanted to touch
each other’s
cheeks some
place cold
and private.
A human
body can
park the van
in the driveway,
look at itself
in the rearview
and realize
it looks a lot
like a telephone.
Someone
calling, someone
answering,
saying hello
in a voice
that’s closer
to a dishrag
than a voice.
It’s drying
your hands.
Jake Bauer is the author of Tracey Emin's Tent (42 Miles Press, 2022), the chapbook Big Pool, Oh (Factory Hollow Press), and co-author of the chapbook Idaho Falls (SurVision Books). He is also the Marketing Director for Saturnalia Books.