In Ghostlier Demarcations, Keener Sounds, Lobster Tales, and Selling Yourself

by Kenton K. Yee

IN GHOSTLIER DEMARCATIONS, KEENER SOUNDS1 

Go ahead, whet your tongue. 
Find me the three tallest clowns.
The stuff’s zesty—roses for noses. 
I can’t sit through a ballgame without it. 
Thrice-cooked, much reheated meats.
Boiling, broiling, sous-vide—
you’d think it’s wasteful too.
What if we deploy accountants?
This is the way the world ends, 
not nukes but flaming hot.

1The title is the closing line of “The Idea of Order at Key West” by Wallace Stevens. 

LOBSTER TALES

A tenant in my complex 
posted photos of baby mice 
rummaging our courtyard 

with a caption expressing 
not delight but alarm, even 
as feathered and buzzing creatures

rampage our courtyard
eating crumbs and 
drawing our blood.

Why no captions then 
like “We’ve got blackbirds!”
and “Time to spray!”?

Happiness is 
a lobster on the plate,
not one in the belly.

SELLING YOURSELF

Time is money, but it doesn’t monetize
unless you sell yourself.

Start with a hand or foot.
Amputation’s doable under anesthetic.

Eat broccoli, work out, apply cosmetics.
Look successful to be successful. Hawk it!

Don’t break your customers’ balls. 
To help your child, you too would buy a knee.

Get top dollar for your smile.
If only I could buy mine back.

Kenton K. Yee has placed poetry and short fiction in over seventy journals. He recently placed poetry in Plume Poetry, The Threepenny Review, TAB Journal, BoomerLitMag, Sugar House Review, Rattle, Moon City Review, LIGEIA Magazine, Constellations, Summerset Review, and Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts, among others. Kenton writes from northern California.