by George Searles

The Undertaker & His Pals,
The Apiculate Members,
The Holland Daze Source,
The Roth/Updike Blues Band,
Time Ghost,
The Inca Pacitateds,
Three Dog Night,
The Dirty Elbows,
Phivestoopidlookinphux,
Flight Risk,
The Doobie Brothers
The Men in the White Coats,
Rialda and the Pissantics,
The Swingin’ Johnsons,
Mott the Hoople,
Those Stubborn Egg Stains,
Stone the Crow,
Post Release Supervision,
The Rez Erections.
Behind every great band
name, there’s a story.

by George Searles

It’s easy to find fault with how we live
in this country, killing half our time glued,

as the saying goes, to the television,
watching a bizarre array of extreme sports

and equally pointless conventional ones,
and wasting the other half scanning our phones

in garish shopping malls as big as baronies —
faux villages with junk food franchises,

private security squads, and valet parking
for the luxury sedans, racy coupes, and SUVs.

Elsewhere in the world, life’s song is played
in a simpler, less self–indulgent key.

People go about their business
in a more purposeful, down–to–earth sort of way,

undistracted by excess, alertly scurrying
from place to ruined place in a wary semi–crouch

while trucks explode at curbside and bullets ricochet
off buildings and splash on pavement stones.

by George Searles

Here’s what to do: Arrive as the child
of an educated, well–positioned mother
and a father straight out of Lower Nowhere.

This will guarantee an interesting upbringing —
a lively, nourishing one that will leave you
alert and bicultural, at ease and at home

wherever you roam, calmly self–assured
regardless of your ambit or circumstances,
and discerning about your allegiances.

by Gary Mesick

She seems nice enough. But we are
An odd family. And her family
Is just as odd. It may not matter to you,
But it wouldn’t be fair to your children.

Think about it. Christmas comes.
It’s an odd–numbered year. Where do you go?
Here? Or your in–laws?
And if we concede, what about
Your brother and sister? Where will they go?
And what about their in–laws?
Something has to give.

Unless you kill her family first.
I know a guy who knows a guy.