Poem by Robert Ronnow: Good at Marketing

Robert Ronnow’s most recent poetry collections are New & Selected Poems: 1975-2005 (Barnwood Press, 2007) and Communicating the Bird (Broken Publications, 2012). Visit his web site at www.ronnowpoetry.com.

Good at Marketing

Dad said I’d be good at marketing

since I like making lists. Classifying

the woods and herbs, jazz tunes, poets’ poems and poems for people

and I’ve also considered sorting humans into novelistic categories:

compassionate, responsible

logical, radical

scientific, silent

garrulous, querulous

masterful, mindful

leader, liar

persnickety, prejudiced

appealing, apoplectic

decisive, persistent

natural, enervating

effective, fastidious

passive, embarrassed

aimless, familiar

sociable, impregnable

amorous, demanding

delirious, disciplined

silly, assimilated

holy, hungry

Next there would be settings.

Deserts, moon colonies, submarines, George Herbert and his God.

Motives for acting

driven by personality, DNA (fucking DNA!), sinning,

necessity and whatever happens in the afterlife. Spinning

with the planet but sitting still and thinking deeply.

*                                  *                                  *

School bus, snow plow

train whistle, cello

alarm clock, traffic report

Beijing, Cincinnati

former adversaries, adolescent lovers

any day could be your last day, Hombre

mango, avocado

superstition, cancer treatment

enhanced interrogation, blurry vision

jacket and tie, why am I waiting

quiet remembering, day by day goes by without poetry without grace

seedless watermelon, rabbit in my garden

too much to do, not much to do

hip hop rhythms, how white people like to shake hands

who can’t do anything about his skin color, Nelson Mandela

pluck the gold key, touch me personally

breakfast salad, stay in school

Afghanistan, strangulation

banana, Guatemala

mountains and rivers forever, never will I allow myself to live long enough to end like that

that’s for sure, sure in your computer

the brain contains the universe, the universe has a brain

stream cutting gorge, last snow patch

photosynthesis, missing dad (or mom) in poem

whatever you want, the freedom of summer gone and only one fuck

paper sleeping bag, ear souvenir

peace, twice

lemonade, amulet

how to make history interesting for Johnnie, washing your pajamas

chain saw, no strip joints or strip malls in the Gaza Strip

frantic century, facial tissue

Jerusalem, reducing fractions

polytechnic institute, grandma’s sauce

© Robert Ronnow