Shane Allison

A Sestina for Jarret

Jarret, do you have a large velvet pad I could borrow

Or a gold gift box?

I need a round velvet bar,

Jarret and an acrylic earring stand.

Do you have a velvet apple ring case

Or a slot bracelet tray?

Jarret, right about now I could use a bangle bracelet tray

And a few round velvet pads if you have some I could borrow.

Do you have a 7 spool case

and a leather gift box?

I need a 9-bar earring stand

If you have one, or an acrylic round t-bar.

They say if I don’t get them a round velvet t-bar

And a 12-slot bracelet tray

In 48 hours, I will be in a world of hurt. I need a black acrylic necklace stand

Too and a medium velvet pad to borrow

If that’s okay with you. Can you put it in a white gift box?

Jarret, do you have a 3-sided revolving tray in an acrylic case?

I need a 3-shelf mirrored locking case

With a small acrylic round t-bar.

Do you have any silver gift boxes?

I need that and a 15-slot bracelet tray

If you have one on you. Do you have a small velvet pad I could borrow

Until I can get that 4-row acrylic earring stand

I was telling you about? If you have a 6-row acrylic earring stand,

I would be forever in your debt. I know you have an acrylic key ring case

Jarret. Do you have a mirrored necklace bracelet I could borrow?

Jarret, I need a ½ dome t-bar

And a 72 bracelet tray

For 72 or so emerald boxes.

I could use a few gold gift boxes.

They say they’re going to cut off my hands if I don’t get them the acrylic earring stand.

Jarret, I need a 20-slot bracelet tray

Or an acrylic 3-sided case

Or two. Did you get that round rose gold t-bar

I told you I need to borrow?

Jarret, they told me if I don’t get them that

Velvet t-bar and a tray of gift boxes, it’s curtains for me.

They want the 4-row case acrylic earring stand and they mean business.

Co-workers

You’re not going to go to lunch?

You should go to lunch.

They’re just going to take it out of your check anyway.

Go to lunch.

You should go to lunch.

You’re not going to go to lunch?

Go to lunch.

You should go to lunch.

They’re just going to take it out of your check anyway.

Are you going to go to lunch?

You should go to lunch.

You’re not going to go to lunch?

They’re just going to take it out of your check anyway.

Go. Go to lunch.

You should go. Go to lunch.

You should go to lunch.

They’re just going to take it out of your check anyway.

They’re just going to take it out of your check…anyway.

Go to lunch.

Go. Go to lunch.

They’re just going to take it out of your check anyway

You should go.

You’re not going to go to lunch?

Go to lunch. Go.

Go to lunch.

They’re just going to take it out of your check anyway.

They’re just going to take it out of your check anyway.

Go to lunch.

Go to lunch. Go.

You’re not going to go to lunch?

You should go to lunch.

Go. You should go to lunch.

Go to lunch.

You’re not going to go to lunch?

They’re just going to take it out of your check anyway.

You should go. 

You should go to lunch.

Go to lunch.

They’re just going to take it out of your check anyway.

Lamps 

I’m in my bedroom eating chicken wings and salad 

For dinner when my mother walks in asking if I have seen her lamps.  

What lamps? I ask.  

The credits from Law & Order: SVU reflect in the lens of my Armani eyeglasses. 

The ones like in my room with the silver base, she says. 

She has taken over the house with tote bags of shoes, 

Bumblebee bins stacked by threes. 

A tattered comforter covers a rack of well outdated coats and jackets.   

One night my father called to me to help my mother out of a hoard  

She had built by her own hand,  

Fussing to rescue blouses, suits, and skirts  

From a leaky roof as if her clothes were her children  

She was fighting to save out of a fire.  

An assortment of hats hang on a coat rack  

In front of my sister’s old room. 

Necklaces, earrings and bracelets scattered across her dresser. 

Last week she was in an uproar about 

A picture of my grandmother and grandfather she couldn’t find.

I found it hidden behind a treasure chest of bed sheets.  

My father must have saved it from plumes of dust and debris 

The handymen were kicking up

While uprooting base board and rotted floor.  

Those lamps didn’t get up and walk away from here, she says.  

I know what she’s thinking; the accusation that’s running through her head. 

My father and I pay her no mind as she searches  

Among stacks of kitchen mats, rugs and ice-cream laundry baskets. 

I return to my dinner with Captain Benson where the chicken wings are cold 

And the lettuce lies limp in peppercorn dressing.  

An hour later in the garage, my mother finds the lamps in a corner  

Next to the bumblebee storage bins  

That are stacked way too high for her to reach. 

KNOCK OUT, DRAG OUT

As a kid I never liked boxing

But my dad could sit in the living room for hours,

Sucking marrow out of the bones of pork chops

And watch every round. I hated when he yelled and cursed

At the TV, spitting in the floor model faces of heavy weight champs.

How could he eat while men bounced around a ring with fat black eyes,

Noses that ran with blood, sweat trickling into cuts?

Slurp water from a plastic bottle, swish and spit.

Gloved fists, swollen faces.

Boxers got balls to take a ten round beat down.

Give me the Olympics, swimmers with swimmer builds,

German gymnasts gracefully somersaulting.

Give me water polo over knock out, drag out fights any day.

Dad watched until the last man was left standing

As I cringed to left hooks, right jabs,

Q-tips, laced with Vaseline used to seal busted lips.

JARRET AND JENNIFER

Did you know Jarret and his wife Jennifer have some kittens?

Did you know Jennifer and her husband Jarret have some kittens?

They have kittens!

You know him

and his wife Jennifer?

Well, they have some kittens!

Did you know her

and her husband Jarret

Have some kittens?

Did you know him, Jarret

and her, Jennifer?

Well they have some kittens!

They have kittens!

Jennifer and Jarret have kittens!

Him

and

his

wife

Jennifer...

She

and

her

husband

Jarret...

He

and

his

wife

Jennifer...

Her

and

her

husband

Jarret...

Well, get this:

They have kittens!

You know Jennifer and Jarret?

Well, they have some kittens!

He and his wife Jennifer

and she and her husband Jarret...

Well, they  have some kittens!

Do you know her?

Do you know him?

Well, Jarret and Jennifer have some kittens!

Jennifer and her husband Jarret

and Jarret and his wife Jennifer

have some kittens!

They have some kittens!

They went and bought themselves some kittens!

Oh yeah, they're gonna have their hands full with those kittens

because Jarret and Jennifer

just bought some kittens!

Him, and his wife Jennifer

and she and her husband Jarret...

Get...

Get them on the other end...

Get...

Get those kittens on the other end.

Get...

Get Jarret and Jennifer's kittens in here.

They have kittens.

Please Stab Me with a Little Bit Better

Please don't forget about me

Please let me see what I can do

Please give me a call

Please take care of your own

Please eat me alive

Please watch the video on YouTube

Please order a new card for your phone

Please bring your work to work

Please be careful not to talk about the conversation

Please join the group of buddies for the summer

Please keep me in your thoughts

Please keep me posted on your new

Please keep me in mind for the first time in the future

Please let me see what the doctor says is the best way to get the money

Please post a picture of the new ones

Please get me some friends for the weekend

Please stop texting me so I can get it back into my mouth

Please slap your face and face it

Please confirm with the address for the meeting with the kids

Please zap me in the shower

Please update my mother in law who propositioned the same number

Please go ahead and go find out if we need anything else please

Please be careful out here with me

Please save your number for texting me so I don't have to go

Please join the team of people who have been on the phone

Please don't be mad about the new one in my room with the girls and the girls

Please leave it on the porch wrapped up the steps

Please find out what happened to the other side of the road in the past

Please call when you get a moment of your time

Please eat me dry

Please drink plenty of the food

Please open it up with the other day

Please order the money for the new one in the mail today to see

Please feed the cats with the kids

Please feed the kids so you can get them in a bit

Please open it up with the other day

Please order the money for a little more like the other one

Please jump off the car with my mom

Please run to get some sleep

Please sleep good for you and your dad

Please soak my hair in the kitchen

Please boil the chicken in the freezer

Please freeze dry brown sugar cookies for a few weeks

Please stab me with a little bit better

Please place your order in the mail box of raisin

Please slam my door to the door to the door

Please yell at the end of the day you are you

Please roll up your shirt to the top left of the bed

Please leave me alone for the minute being

Please spill it out of the office for the night of the day

Please just shut the fridge to the bathroom

Please close the doors to the front of the house and the house and the house and the house

Please thank the card for me to send me a pic of your mom

And

Please place the money in the bank box and get it for the next time I'm going to the gym for you