The following 25 Questions for Hollis’s Radio Show Just Us were written for J.W., and because J.W. asked me to write a 25 page poem, which I promised to share with just us, meaning J.W. and I (which includes my blog), with the caveat that, all the answers are already known to the following 25 questions so it don’t matter no how. So really, there isn’t a title here, it’s just what I used to jump off of cuz Hollis did ask me to make up questions for her radio show Just Us. (that sentence reminds me of a bit from Laurie Anderson’s Language is a Virus: “and he said…”are you talking to me? or are you just practicing for one of those performances of yours, ha!” No, really. These somber bits might be so funny sometimes.
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Page I
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When you open a door to a room
You have never been in before
Unless you are blind,
Why do you do the first thing you do?
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Page II
When you hold your friend’s heart
In the palm of your hand, if you could, will
You please remember the word
Thump is both a noun and a verb? Yes or no.
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Page III
I am going to see you so hard the next time I hit you.
I really think this is for the best: agree?
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Page IV
Thought to abjure:
For the case at hand, are we trying to obtain a moral value
Equal to the sum of all our rejected hypotheses on corrected averages?
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Page V
What “mechanical” value,
As long as we are longing for value,
Does the arm that heaves a hearty
hug have?
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Page VI
Ours is a sensible while unnatural position, to be
Part of us Milky Way and wise to our whatnot,
And part of us part of each other; so how
can we justify our consanguinity so we can start
planting new plants we probably need?
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….Page VII
Under your left breast is a hot star burning to root.
Not everyone has a breast!
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Page VIII
Do you consider yourself a terrestrial super-structure
And remember, with sorrow, the tremendous speed
With which you tend to forget love?
If so, I so loyally dig you.
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Page IX
I want to plant new trees around here.
Take me to your leader.
Page X
During the hiatus between visitations
By the love object, what sensations do you observe
In the fire-pit of your circular dream?
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Page XI
I want to thank you for having me over;
How clean is your fuel-shed?
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Page XII
In a recent letter I was informed the beloved
Is stuck at the crossroads. The letter did neither
Confirm or deny the condition of their overall impression.
What is the rational operation of a soul for?
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Page XIII
Some questions are not vital, like
if not Eve, than who?
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Page XIV
Is your type stable?
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Page XV
Better than y’all is all y’all.
What’s your favorite way to say everybody?
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Page XVI
If you will not be burned in death,
And you will be buried in the ground
And become a fossil,
What part of your body will no-one ever find?
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Page XVII
A member of the Royal College of Surgeons once said
Nobody even scientists will ever figure out why we’re here;
He, (yes he), said the only possible solution
Is to come up with a “great unifying principle.”
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Do you believe this guy?
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Page XVIII
If the proper environment for being man is mystery,
Than “who’s your daddy” might not be the right question
For getting at who’s in charge; what question
Might help us get more lost?
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Page XIX
Here are twin marks between which I
Is sandwiched like a pause.
Did you know that the symbol for caesura
Is the same as the one for pause on your media hardware?
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Page XX
Who (or what) do you miss most when you are missing?
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Page XXI
When two are gathered together do they need
One more thing and (who) what?
Need meaning need.
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Page XXII
It’s another day; sleet, snow, or singing?
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Page XXIII
That reminds me,
If a hen can hatch duck’s eggs
And a child can nurse a man,
Than how come you lock your house at night?
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Page XXIV
Why do we disdain unfamiliar data
When we know damn well?
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Page XXV
If you come to my house in the middle of the night
and I come to my door sleepily, what will you have,
half-smiling in the porch light, hidden in one of your two bunched fists,
you’ll be holding tightly to your back?
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