the staging area

what’s missing in your life

– if we may be so bold –

is a good and proper staging area

don’t just take clothes out of the dryer

fold ‘em and put ‘em away in their proper place

that’s for losers

they belong in a good and proper staging area

an interim area, so to speak, where they lay

undefined and free for a while

waiting for a drawer or closet or body part

sometimes the wait is very long

we, and I mean the royal we, wouldn’t be where we are today

without a staging area

to buffer the friction between

a machine and a closet

between the known and the unknown

earth and sky

action and inaction

and those places in between

like inertia, nebraska

languor, maine

torpor, ohio

keg, georgia

now and yet to be

we and they

and apathy, texas

cushion  yourself, my good man

with a good and proper staging area

it will temper your quills

resonate your sexability

magnify the unknown

and hip-ta-phi your Christmas music

this free advice, this poem

is offered to you

from the depths of the staging area

don’t file it away just yet

just let it hang loose for a while

still warm from the tumble dry