BLAINVILLE
The two bohemian brothers
went to the big city.
They created sculptures
and useful posters.
The older me doesn’t
care for the earlier me.
One brother wanted fame,
while the other died in the war.
We are all poseurs
in this city on the plain.
NO MORE GREY SKIES
No more sun.
No more schoolyards.
No more yellow leaves.
Nothing can make a friendship
happen quicker than getting food
poisoning and puking together.
PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM
It’s a hilarious picture.
It’s not actually a picture
at all.
Do you understand that
he has abandoned painting?
Neither is it autobiography.
Silence is real.
COLD WIRES
I am looking at these dead links
and broken relationships.
So many gone this past year.
They are replaced by letters,
old emails, photos, and invites.
If love is always the answer,
what is the question?
KISSING WOMAN 1987-2000
She was taken from the borrowers.
I never bothered to listen to
what the aged gentry say.
Long Beach and Yucca Valley.
There are so many places I would
never visit.
Her makeup was still on the counter.
If we are not in prison,
why should act like we are?
No one bothered to find out
where she has gone to all these years.
My tributes disappear in the silence.
Maybe some ex-boyfriends
will give a shit?
Alexander Laurence was born in Los Angeles. He attended CSULB and San Francisco Art Institute. He has contributed to the books The Hipster Handbook (2004), Reefer Movie Madness (2010), Degenerative Prose (1995), and books about the history of Grove Press. He is also the author of a book of short stories: Five Fingers Make A Fist (2007). He has recently published two chapbooks of poems The New Spain (2020) and The Dieppe Circuit (2024). His collected poems will be coming out in August 2024. It is called The Analog Body (2024). He presently works as a tour manager and has traveled the world with indie bands. He is the founder of the website The Portable Infinite, and has a weekly internet radio show New Noise on Radio KAJW.
High Horse 