Lee Kisling

Ever since 1962 when The Crystals sang “See the way he walks down the street / Watch the way he shuffles his feet”, I’ve been shuffling my feet as a rebel. Kind of a pose, of course, but I took that obstreperous contrarian joy like a needle full of hard drug. I found out, by and by, that what I was was an iconoclast. Just can’t get in line. Never could, really.

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TOC | Next

Write 50 Times

               (for Dave Moses)

1. I will not chew gum in class. I will
2. not chew gum in class. I will
3. not gum in class chew. I will
4. in class chew not gum. I will
5. not sing The Marseillaise in class.

6. I will not, just incidentally, ever work for the telephone company.

7. And I will NEVER put my hand in my shirt like Napoleon Bonaparte.
7. Well yes, I suppose it all started with the gum chewing.
8. And some things just happen, of course.
9. I will remain gum-free, attentive, and responsible,
9a.  but possibly not in class.

10. I will not chew gum at my Uncle Inor’s funeral.
11. Tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm. Thanks for asking.

12. I will not chew more than one stick of gum in class.
13. I will not, as a rule, respond well to petty discipline in class.
14. I mean, who the hell really cares about gum chewing?
15. With all due respect.
16. Or bloody prime numbers. Or King Whatsit. Or wretched poems.
19. Like going to school ever did you any good.
22. Bongo the Clown probably makes more money than you
29. and he drives a red Camaro.

34. Christopher Columbus chewed gum and he discovered Philadelphia.

37. Actually, chewing gum is a sedative.
38. It helps me concentrate.
39. It’s a health issue really – I could get a prescription.
41. You don’t want to see me when I haven’t had a chew for a few hours.

43. Thousands of people work in the chewing gum industry.
44. Good decent Americans with mortgages and car payments.
45. Next I suppose we won’t be permitted to sleep in class.
46. What is this class about, anyway?
48. We the People demand to have the right to chew gum!
49. Give me liberty or give me some gum!
50. E chewibus pluribus gumbus!

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Lee Kisling is a recent graduate in Creative Writing at Hamline University in St Paul, Minnesota. In December 2013, his poetry chapbook The Lemon Bars of Parnassus was published by Parallel Press in Madison, Wisconsin. See more of his work at Leekisling.com.