What have you done, dandelion?

What have you done, dandelion?
How will you pay your rent on this hillside?
Anton Chekhov was a doctor
and wrote great novels.
What have you done, dandelion?

What have you done, dandelion?
What have you done, little butterfly?
What have you done, grassy hillside?
How will you fulfill your obligation to society?
What have you done, dandelion?

What have you done?
How will you live?
What have you achieved?
What will your legacy be?
What have you done, dandelion?

What have you done, dandelion?
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a musical prodigy at age 4.
Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity.
Genghis Khan conquered most of several continents.
What have you done, dandelion?

What have you done for America, Dandelion?
At least get a job selling lottery tickets and cigarettes
instead of absorbing the free sunshine all day.
Please, dandelion, please!
What will you do, dandelion?

What will you do?

-Jim DuBois
April 24, 2016

Nachos at Fire & Water

They used to
bake the Nachos
in the oven
at first,
back in the day,
20 years or so ago,
at Fire & Water
and I remember
eating them
on a particular day.

Even though
they took longer
to make,
they came out great,
but then
Fire & Water started
using the microwave,
and they
weren't the same
anymore.

It was
a long time ago
and I never expected
something as ordinary
as that particular
plate of Nachos
to have such resonance
in my memory.


-Jim DuBois
Dec 19 2015

It Began

It began
with the smile on Jake's face.

Someone dropped their keys
Someone else fainted.

Jake kept smiling.

The people on the sidewalk
felt their neck hair stand on end
and their skin tingle.

Many looked to the sky.

Up on the 30th floor,
a woman turned into a sparrow
and flew away into the clouds.


-Jim DuBois
March 30, 2016
(revised some old scraps of writing from the 90s)

No Loitering (photo)

Waking up at 3:21 am on Valentine's Day

Waking up at 3:21 am
on Valentine's Day...
"Do you hear that beeping?"
and it was
the smoke detector downstairs
chirping out its
low battery alarm,
so we took out
its battery
and I was making jokes
about my bitterness,
about missing sleep,
which made you laugh
and when we got back in bed
you kept giggling
and accidentally bumping me
with the hot water bottle
and making me twitch a little
while we were trying to sleep
and I was like,
"Oh, so my misfortune
and bitterness is funny
to you?"
which made you laugh even more
and then the loud heater
came on
and it seemed more and more
like we'd lose the battle for sleep,
like a sitcom
where everything keeps going wrong
and it's funny from the outside,
so I said,
"Happy Valentine's Day!"
and we laughed.

I wanted to end this poem
with something like
"And there was no one else
I'd rather have been with,
or hear giggling about my bitterness
in the middle of the night,"
because that is really true,
even though those words
are a little cliche
and I thought about
other ways to say it
or imply it
but nothing better
occurred to me,
so I decided
that maybe the best way
sometimes
is just to ramble on
and say I love you a lot,
and be a little cliche
anyway,
be a little imperfect,
a little flawed,
just like
that night
which was so wonderful
anyway.


-Jim DuBois
Feb 16, 2016

Everything I did while you were under for surgery

I really
couldn't bear the thought
of you missing out
on even a little half hour
of life,
so I decided
to record
everything I did
while you were under,
as a present for you.

First I mailed out Magic cards
with Dimitri,
then we went to
Veracruzana
to get bean burritos.
I wasn't too hungry
but it was cold
and eating is such a delight
I wanted to include it.

Then I got the idea
for this poem
and snagged a pen and napkin
from the counter
and started writing.

...

Took a break
to eat one of those
delicious chocolate coconut bars
from the Roost
just to indulge.

And in between
and through all these things
I have been loving you,
holding you in my heart,
thinking of you,
waiting for you to return,
eager to see you later today.

Now we're headed out
to get more cards
and play some Magic,
and you should
be waking up
now too.


-Jim DuBois
Feb 12, 2016 1:17pm

Specific Memories of Particular Food

Usually, you can't pinpoint
the time you ate
the best version
of any particular food,
especially everyday food,
so those times
when I can
stick out in my mind.

The first time was
a basket of french fries
I had at Holy Smokes
(now defunct) BBQ
in Hatfield MA.
They were so great that
when the cook
came around
to ask how everything was,
I said they were
the best fries
I'd ever had,
and asked how come.
He said that they
double-fry them,
but it also depends on
the moisture content
of the potatoes
and that depends on
things like the weather
while they were growing,
so they can't control that.

The other time
I was a fruititarian,
so I ate a lot of kinds of fruit
just for variety
in such a restricted diet.
I decided to give
golden delicious apples
another chance
one day at Atkins
(fruit stand - not defunct).
I bought one
and it was amazing,
and for a few days,
all the golden delicious apples
from there were
actually delicious
and then that faded,
for a still undetermined reason,
and I have not
truly enjoyed an apple
of that variety since.


-Jim DuBois
Dec 19, 2015