Improv, Week 13

Improv 1

“Laundry”

Jillian Weise

I do not need much: someone

to kill the scorpion hiding

under the cabinet, someone

to haul laundry two blocks

over, four across.

I do not need much: someone

to cook me dinner after

I get home from work,

someone to not wear makeup

until I ask, or always when

I need to show her off,

someone to rub my back

and feet, and tell me how wonderful

I am, compliment my beard,

someone to ignore my fish

feet, to enjoy the scent

of my sweat,

someone to make coffee

in the morning while I sleep,

fix breakfast before dawn,

someone to stay at home

with the dog, to clean

and watch television,

someone to keep the fridge

full of sweet tea,

to have dinner ready,

someone to say they love me

without expecting it back,

and make a house a home.

Improv 2

“Us, Like a Bad Mix Tape”

Jillian Weise

Us, like a bad mix tape without

slow songs. You like to hum

Desperado & tell people I look

sexy in the slip you gave me, even

when we’re not banging anymore

nor fighting, when we both know

screams count as cuts and must

be covered by each other’s hands.

At one time, we were our answers.

I like to hum More Than Words when

I’m snowed-in and hungry, when

your apparition stirs from my couch,

undresses, steps in the shower, where

you’re the goldfish & I’m the castle.

I hum Bad Romance while you write

about Bronte, which one I’m not sure.

You sing 3rd Planet while I read

Thompson, writing Mississippi criticism.

Tonight I’ll discuss The Killers at the Pig

while you listen to Waits and write

about the apocalypse. I sing with my sun glasses

that night, and when we lay down to sleep

you quietly sing Trapped in the Closet.