Author: randyribay

nowhere to go

poetry

on this saturday evening
when winter has finally
arrived
i’m sitting in the cafe
reading a book
admiring falling snow and headlights through
the foggy storefront window

while behind me
a disheveled man
unshaven
sits on the couch talking
to himself

Sam. You can’t sit in here and talk to yourself.
You need to get out of here, says the barrista
to the man

but Sam continues
sitting there and talking
to himself

Sam. Beat it, says the Barrista,
with words thrown like punches over the espresso machine

Sam slowly stands
and amidst his perpetual babble
says something quiet and coherent:
I’ve nowhere to go,
then without missing a beat slides back into gibberish

he shuffles by my table and
out the door (which, when opened, jingles
and lets in ephemeral snatches of hissing tires)

through the storefront window
Sam’s lips continue moving, muttering
curses
incantations
or

prayers.

8:41 am

poetry

through the night
rain fell thick and thunderous

by morning the sky was clear
blindingly scattering photons
sharply at a watery wavelength

by morning the ground was as dry
as the fallen leaves
leaving me pajama’d and wondering
what i’d dreamt
or not.

wild things

poetry

this should
be absurd
these beasts composed
of giant, furry costumes
and CGI visage
but I’m crying
numerous times
since my proclivity
is sensitivity
to beauty and sadness

and i reclaim
my desire to
do the same
only with words
will i pierce
your hearts
and open your eyes
to light
until your tears of
sadness and tears of
joy mingle
to become indistinguishable
and inextinguishable

and you’ll look up
from the page
bewildered,
baptized.

i suppose it’s time

poetry

to write a poem
about leaves falling
fluttering fragments
of the sky

but instead
i’m thinking about
what to write
on your parents’ sympathy card
choosing words to
express how blessed i feel to have met
you
and how badly i feel this world’s been fucking
robbed.
and i’m
trying not
to offend their grief,
oceanic and black as india ink,
by claiming to possess even
an ounce.

i suppose it’s time

but instead
i’m keeping my eyes open
until i fall asleep
because i know
in darkness i’ll think of you
and then cry
again.

(i’d like to understand this world
as temporary, a lightning strike–
but it’s so fucking hard to see eternity
with these weak eyes.)

cover each other first with kisses

poetry

I hate going to sleep before you
the bed, half-empty, feels
cold and continental

my alarm, set earlier, glows
sinister saturating my dreams
inevitably with uneasy sleep

so please
every night
let’s
fall into the sheets simultaneously
cover each other first with kisses
then the blanket
then our limbs
embracing into unconsciousness.

learning

poetry

my nephew started school this week
and i fear for his life.
i fear our system that teaches
the rote memorization of facts we’re quick to forget
The immediate or proximate cause of war was the assassination on 28 June 1914 of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist.
after the test
punishes thinking/exploring
Begin by dividing the left-most digit of the dividend by the divisor. The quotient (rounded down to an integer) becomes the first digit of the result, and the remainder is calculated (this step is notated as a subtraction). This remainder carries forward when the process is repeated on the following digit of the dividend (notated as ‘bringing down’ the next digit to the remainder). When all digits have been processed and no remainder is left, the process is complete.
caring only about arriving at the correct answer
You then have 25 minutes to complete 20 questions.
quickly
doesn’t matter
if you cheated
just did you bubble in the correct circles
in fact as i write
they’re probably teaching him
the correct way to hold a pencil
the correct way to draw his letters
the correct way to sit silently
accept boredom as intrinsic to education
the correct way to kill curiosity
and intellectual creativity.

*All random facts come from Wikipedia (as they usually do).