Four Poems|Shawn Pfunder
A Short Love Poem about Sheets
We use sheets to learn how to love or how to tie knots and escape out of windows.
Or both.
Billy Corgan is an Asshole
Everybody knows that Billy Corgan is an asshole. Only assholes name their band something like Smashing Pumpkins. Only assholes smash pumpkins.
But when he wears silver pants and closes his eyes and yells like a madman—
I want to be an asshole.
He has normal-person teeth. He’s bald. He gains weight and loses weight. Sometimes he sounds like a saint and sometimes he sounds like thunder rattling windows.
Maybe a relatable asshole. An obnoxious uncle who smokes too much and laughs a lot.
An uncle who sing about butterflies and cherubs and melancholy. He’s okay to hang out with every once in a while.
Maybe at birthday parties.
Maybe at an IHOP after working late on a Wednesday night.
I’m Not Irish
I’m not Irish. That’s why the may-the-road-may-the-wind-may-the-sun blessing aggravates me.
I’m German. My blessing might sound something like this:
Run, you fool, run. And if you can’t run, you dance. Can’t dance? You walk. If you can’t walk, you crawl. And if you’re flat on your back and you think you’re done? You sing. And be loud about it, you dope. Make sure they can hear you. Maybe you’ll run again.
Love to Plant Seeds
There’s a good reason writers love to plant seeds as metaphors. But also literal, as literal as the small and dry kernels allow them to. They, too, like dirty hands. They, too, like water from a hose.
It’s good for the heart. It’s good for the stomach to plant, to nourish, to crawl on all fours, to search for the roots, to get tired and lie on our backs and squint at the sky.
Tiny victories, you know. We water them, we pull them into the sky. One syllable. One word at a time.
Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash
Author Bio:
Shawn Pfunder is a writer, performer, and creative coach. He studied poetry and fiction at the University of Montana. He is the author of the poetry book, I Believe in a God Who Roller Skates. Shawn lives in Phoenix, Arizona with a medium-sized dog.
