Autocorrect
Your text had turned me on:
A proposal of nighttime canoodling.
I was, therefore, a bit less enthused
by the I meant nighttime canoeing.
Let’s decide later? Both sound fun.
I will pack a paddle either way.
Late Night Chat
What’s your favorite kind, she asked.
Oh geez, I like them all, I said, I like
the white sauce style from Alabama –
that was started by a place called
Big Bob’s Gibson’s, I believe – and
I like the brisket-oriented Texas type,
I like Kansas City burnt ends, I like
St. Louis ribs, I like the way Memphis
does it wet or dry, like the weather,
I like North Carolina vinegar-based
pulled pork, I haven’t yet tried South
Carolina mustard gold but I’m sure
I’d like that, too. I have a question,
she asked – it was three o’clock
in the morning, we’d been talking
for hours / for months / like this –
when you order wings, do you like
them crispy or do you like them
more as like a conduit for the sauce.
Marry me
I wanted to say, but instead replied,
well, actually, I have a number of
thoughts about buffalo wings…
When We Use The Word Love
When we use the word love
said the one-eyed adjunct circa 2001
we must understand that by doing so
we’re referencing every other time
a poet before us has used the word love
This was on my mind last night
when I said it again in your direction
since I have sent it before oh yes
at others who came before
What if I tell you
it feels more real this time around
like a Casio keyboardist called up to play
on Carnegie Hall’s black grand
But didn’t you say such things before
you are perhaps justly wondering
Yes
So how do you know
I’m looking outside the window now
at the sky italicized in grey
just eating a can of cold sweet peas
just listening to myself
I’m learning a lot this life
What if I tell you
that I know that I know
Josh Lefkowitz won the 2013 Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Prize, an Avery Hopwood Award for Poetry at the University of Michigan, and was a finalist for the 2014 Brooklyn Non-Fiction Prize. His poems and essays have been published at Court Green, The Rumpus, The Huffington Post, The Offing, and many other places. He has also recorded humorous essays for NPR’s All Things Considered and BBC’s Americana. In June 2016, Josh will be in residence as a poet at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Berkeley, CA.