Mouths and Pants Poem

We’re going all in on the exhaust pipes,

resigning themselves to brown on one end

like mediocre cigarettes.

Other people bet on the telephones poles,

getting really good at exercising

without looking to convert with some kind of sport.

Cartoons did well with both,

adding mouths and pants respectively,

as if both wore the old boxer shorts

that still had built-in ribbon belts.

There were more dandies than you’d ever imagine,

looking backward through a cardboard tube

you can hold up to the sun

and redo some experiment spurred by dusty portraits.