Some people don't know that the Scavenger Hunts
That Leah devised
Came from her writing a pulse about how she was needing motivation
To write prompts

And I said make them public
Now I smile every time I see a prompt
How an idea can grow organically
Sometimes so simply it makes you sick

After beating your head on that one
GREAT
idea

Ideas are funny that way
Little friggin' fingertraps
I usually destroy

The backpack sat
In Panera Bread
In an unassuming town in Indiana
I looked around and saw
People deciding what to eat
One lady prattling on about
How her friend was upset at God
For giving her a son instead
Of the daughter she so wanted
All of her other friends talked to God
And got what they wanted

The backpack sat
In Panera Bread
It sat there for ten minutes
I saw myself go up and report the potential bomb
And the cops showing up
Asking a few questions
A nice lady saying she just left it there while she waited
On her food

The backpack sat
In Panera Bread
I saw myself get up to go to the bathroom
And an explosion erupting blowing out the windows
The shrapnel from the cafe chairs and tables
Melding into my flesh

I got up and went to the bathroom
Put my tray in the tray bin
Threw my cup of water out
Went outside
There was a storm that was supposed to be coming
I looked for my raincoat

Minimize liability
Provide a service
Responsive to the public
Minimize liability
Provide a service
Responsive to the public
Minimize liability
Provide a service
Responsive to the public
Minimize liability

All burnt out and no where to go
It only took 13 poems
Someone to blame
Anyone to blame
I blame the school system
And the parents

I remember wise, old words
My grandpa used to say to me
Sitting on that musty porch

He used to say, 'Remember, the most important
Words you'll need to say are-

My existence is artificial
Propped up by technology
By the first farming implement
By the first real sewer
The first power plant
The first antibiotic

My hunter-gather self
Would never be able to support
This many people

The happiness manual says
Among many things
That for one to be happy
One must be in the 'present'

Not in the past
(The Happiness manual says
Among many things...)
((That's not funny))

Or in the future
(This is the last line)

What a boring proposition
I am feeling sheepish
Like an actual sheep
Take me out to pasture

What about all the ability of the world to come crashing down?
With a signature or a shot?
What about the loving I could be getting?
What about thunderstorms and light graces?

No
concentrate
on this poem
keep writing in quatrains

It IS the proper poetic form after all
No more ruminations or silly questions or poems
Type this until you get to the last line
This is the last line

Sources said they were supposed to have parted ways
10 years ago
But spending time was their main specialty
And defending their honor was their other

During those 10 years
They broke up 20 times
Every time he felt the pangs of the spring
Every time she felt textures on autumn leaves

The public just couldn't get over
Their love of each others isolation
Of knowing someone like an extension
That they sometimes cut off
And grew back
Like some crazy starfish

Starfished lovers
In love with the sea

I am growing this beard out
I am not especially proficient at it
It comes in patchy
A little less than professional
And red too, in no way matching the rest of the body

Kind of like this writing

I can't stop doing it
Writing
Yes I can
I do it all the time

Oh yeah
I am the tortured writer

Dear Mr. President,
Of these United States of America,
She wrote
I have the solution to your problems:

I want cold, steely machines
That look like people
Technocrats
With laser action and everything

They need the ability to feign compromise
To be in any part of the country
Falling from many stories up
And still land in the middle

This would be a sort of autopilot
Like the vehicles that drive themselves
I mean the Founders did most of the work anyways
Something something racial equality afterward
And someday gender equality
Maybe that can be a request to the 'technos'
That's what we'll call them

I am sure Google is already working on an auto-government machine
Maybe call them
You've seen the Matrix haven't you?
Just have them do that
Except attempt to destroy the human race
That would defeat the purpose