formative years: the zeroes
recipe approx. 33% music videos
where'd you have ended up
without mopers on jangly guitars
probs a place without generation suicide jokes
who are these children
that never got a chance to murder their heroes
because the heroes had already killed themselves instead?

i'm not sure if this is the domino
the planet hardly ever shakes out like that
pues, john darnelle must own a french press by now
pues, he's on twitter
pues, has anyone heard from E this year?
pues, kurt cobain worship has moved to tumblr
pues, what are those stories about jeff mangum working in a bank?
oh "yeah, dude, i saw jeff mangum this week...at my bank"
pues, jeff mangum is back on tour too

post-"life is hard and so am i",
i suppose i'm asking,
is it any wonder at all that
being in on the joke is the joke

we've put our arms out car windows to this
teetering on the joints of salt box houses' roofing
hands flung out
were we dropping seed bombs of glib the whole time?
in the other room, a dead eliott smith still talks to me
and sure it shakes
but does stephen merritt really want to be taken seriously?

grass-stuffed stab wounds!
this subculture's bleeding out quick!
where does the drain go?
and how far to the community garden?

i smell time
in the wind
turns the leaves
leaves me
on the couch time lives
where time stops
the couch we made to hold our bodies
when we tired
from the rising
birth grave gravity rising tired
bodies and chairs to sit

look upon the world
beyond glass
moving around the world changing
house on a hill
3 years ago held a family of people
now sits too gaping
the forest and field have opened it
rot brings things down
doubt brought him down first then her
then him then her

floor drifts toward the basement
the couch slides into the ground
the whole house does
babydolls, exercise weights
and books on homosexuality