Jackie Simmons recently moved to the NYC area and is playing in the fields of verse. She can be reached at jackie203@aol.com. Her new chapbook is called Thank You, Goodbye.







This is one of those nights when I just wanna say,
"Fuck it, I don't want go to sleep!"
Why should I go to sleep tonight when I
FEEL THIS GOOD?!

I don't wanna stop!
This is wonderful!
It's so quiet!
The owls are chirping.
The racoons are sitting on the lawn furniture playing patty-cake.
OH, LOOK!
That's so cute!
Look at the way the moon is shining on the road kill!
Look at the deer running into the traffic!
Look at the roaches crawling all over the barbeque!

It's nights like this that I just wanna do laundry 'till I drop!
I want to load up the dishwasher with office supplies & let her hum!
I want to scrub all the floors and then wax them with the cats!
LOOK AT THAT SHINE!
Look at that shine on your ass!
I've been meaning to buff that for weeks!
But, you know how it is, you put off, and put off.

But not on a night like tonight.
Tonight I'm gonna get it all done.
I'm gonna have some more coffee
and balance the check book
and sort the socks by owner and color.
When the world is waking up tomorrow morning,
I'll be way ahead of everyone!
Don't fuck with me, world!
You can't stay up all night,
but I can!
WATCH ME!














I keep my external soul in one of those little plastic bags
with the blue-and-yellow-makes-green seals.
So now I know THAT'S safe.
I keep the combination to my safe
in my buttoned lips.
I keep a stiff upper lip
right over a trembling lower lip.
I keep forgetting what it was
that I wanted to tell you.
I keep telling him to lay
off the drugs.
I keep weeding my garden
with marijuana seeds.
I keep sowing the seeds of hate
'cause I hate taking orders.
I keep the commandments.
They're under that rock.
I keep my head above water
and, egregiously, my ass in a sling.
I keep to myself.
I keep him in sickness because
I keep my promises.












Let's....


Let's write a computer manual and pour our hearts out.
Let's get drunk and get laid.
Let's get sober and get hangovers.
Let's look into our drinks and try to find the fuzz, navels,
Russians, nude beaches and Waldo.
Let's knit a sweater that says "'Fuck you".'
Let's crochet a dildo warmer.
Let's cross-stitch The Dictionary of Sado-Masochistic Terms.
Let's go out for pizza and not pay.
Let's go out for a pack of cigarettes and not come back.


Let's register Republican and vote Socialist.
Let's move to Connecticut and drink Long Island iced tea.
Let's sing a song of inflation. Let's drink a pocket full of rye.
Let's wear orange robes and go to mass.
Let's shave our heads and go for hair cuts.
Let's send flowers to the National Allergy Foundation.
Let's pick flowers and get nose jobs.
Let's get blow jobs for twenty dollars.
Let's see if we can get Mikey to eat Pop Rocks.
Let's imitate death and get some sleep.
Let's sleep like a Pop Rock.
Let's sleep with each other and feel guilty.
Let's feel each other up and get down.
Let's go to the market and buy pork. Then let's get porked
and check the stock market.
Let's put stock in something.
Let's look for Elvis and find Jesus.
Let's look for meaning and strike ambiguity.
Let's grow cucumbers and buy batteries.
Let's grow carrots and fuck like bunnies.
Let's do the bunny hop on a pile of cadavers.
Let's open a wound and piss into it.
Let's wound my ego and call for Super Id.
Let's come together and bitch and mooooan.
Let's drift apart and look for our limbs.
Let's write a feline catechism.
Let's make a cartoon called ""'All Cats Go to Hell.'
Let's take a good name and make it bad and spank it.
Let's have phone sex while wearing condoms. Then let's have e-mail sex
while taking antibiotics.
Let's have snail-mail sex while wearing bullet-
proof vests. Then let's have express mail sex. Quickly.
Let's grill each other, then go through the third degree.
Let's work ona spreadsheet while listening to The Fifth Dimension.
Let's spread out a sheet and lie there and sing about Aquarians even
though we're Capricorns.
Let's grow corn and talk about Indians.
Let's talk about sex without reservation.
Let's face the fact that Columbus was no better than Hitler.
Let's vegetate. Then let's eat vegetables. Then let's figure out how to
have sex with guacamole.
Let's have hot sex in a puddle of linseed oil.
Let's put on Oil of Olay.
Let's check the oil in the car. Then let's oil each other up and pose.


Let's pose as citizens and alienate everyone.
Let's call handcuffing me to the bed a citizen's arrest.
Let's call 911 and see how they're doing.
Let's get on with our lives and off on each other.
Let's get into each other.
Let's get into each other's hair. And into each other's pants.
Let's live off the land.
Let's get buried at sea.
Let's just see what happens.
Let's go to a happening.
Let's happen upon a criminal.
Let's do crimes. Let's do laws. Let's go out and burn our bras.
Let's go for a ride on the Hershey Highway.
Let's do it in the middle of Sesame Street.
Let's go to Pennsylvania Avenue and buy the best marijuana in the country.
Let's whisper and carry a big stick.
Let's stick to our guns, not melt in our hands.
Let's simmer in a melting pot, not boil in a caldron.
Let's melt into each other while we snuggle and read computer manuals.

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