Dallas Clayton

THE ONE

THE ONE

I fit a drawing
of what I think you look like
inside a bottle
to throw in the sea
but I didn’t want to poison the fish
so I took it out
and instead
folded it into the pocket
of man waiting for the bus across town.

There was a note at the bottom
that you will probably think is funny
years from now
when you find it
stuck in between
some old periodicals
in the public library
where you were just passing through
on your way to cure something
with a spare half hour to kill.

RUNNING TALLY

RUNNING TALLY

I’d like to know the ratios of wishes being made
to wishes being granted
and which god turns up more victories for the wisher:
coin fountains,
shooting stars,
stray eyelashes,
birthday candles,
The clock turning 11:11,
simple prayer.

Whichever it is,
the most reliable,
we should let it rest for a moment
and give the others a chance to catch up
so all the wishes don’t get spent
the same as fossil fuels.

SO MANY

SO MANY

There are sports
that fill stadiums
cause riots
command salaries
into the hundreds of millions
break up families
and inspire the multitudes.

Sports you have never even seen or heard of.
Sports you will never play.

APPROACH

APPROACH

When you want to talk to a stranger
but you’re scared of feeling like a failure
you should just picture them as a grocery store clerk.
You have no problem talking to them
about totally useless mundane nothing
and you don’t consider it a failure
or even give it a second thought.

If you are a grocery store clerk
the same exercise hold’s true,
just exchange the word “clerk”
for “customer.”

LYRICS

LYRICS

If all goes according to plan
the adults
will get wise
start growing out their hair
in different awful patterns
writing ignorant things on their shirts
and quit work.

Then things will be shook up.

SUPPORT

SUPPORT

How much better would each day be
if someone told you
you had done a good job
doing something you’d never tried before.

THE COUNT

THE COUNT

How many leaves are on that tree?
No seriously I’m not being poetic.
A million?
Is that what a million leaves looks like?
I have no idea.

CROWD

CROWD

I can’t stand here and watch your band anymore.
I’m sorry.
We’re both just kidding ourselves.
I need to sit.
Or you need to play faster.
No two ways about it.

LAND

LAND

When renting an apartment
a landlord should just say
“Walt Disney used to live here,
when he was a kid, working his way through college.”
Who wouldn’t want to rent that apartment?
And how could you ever prove it?

METHOD

METHOD

We fix
to climb the highest
most terrifiying structure
plant a flag
with our name on it
and sit around drinking
and telling stories
about how hard it was
and how long it took
to get there.

I’D MAKE A TERRIBLE BLUES MUSICIAN

I’D MAKE A TERRIBLE BLUES MUSICIAN

I just realized
I don’t write about “women”
because I think of them
as people.

PEP TALK

PEP TALK

There’s an old gnarled football coach
who hangs around in people’s dreams
even though they never played football a day in their lives.
He chews on the rotten stump of a cigar
and says things like
“You can’t build a house outta poems!”

PIT

PIT

When I see you
walking a dog
that is obviously too big for you to control
I wonder
what you are thinking.
how much faith you must have
in things never going South.
A real optimist
with a tiger by the tail.