i know i know

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Maeve Nolan Kurt Havens

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Page 1: I Know I Know
Page 2: I Know I Know

I KNOW I KNOW ____ MAEVE NOLAN

KURT HAVENS

Page 3: I Know I Know

FOR DOUG AND LIZZIE AND FRANKIE

Page 4: I Know I Know

MOSQUITOES

first mosquitoes in june I crush one bare-handed

that’s my blood shut up it’s anyone’s blood the moon on the unopened pool type o the universal donor

Page 5: I Know I Know

MEMORIAL DAY every sunday

senior citizens sit here

the dark arcade

playing slots let’s spend our

state quarters nebraska maine ___ look!

a small plane pulling its banner an ad two for one something we walk north pretending to

hear the ocean in things these screaming kids

this shell ___ someone points offshore

asking where oprah’s summer home was in lavallette

which direction

Page 6: I Know I Know

pointing out

at the water as if the whole house floats in front of us which way ___ cops lean on

a clam bar eat clams

and argue over storms and

superstorms wind speeds beached boats

looting a fleet

of lifted

trucks with confederate

flag license plates circling under

seagulls ___ two seagulls

share black chunks

Page 7: I Know I Know

of what we’re told was

a beached whale the town blew up

thinking there was no way

they could move it

Page 8: I Know I Know

SOLSTICE in the air

conditioned bank camp kids in wet yellow t shirts shiver share towels their counselors can’t keep count too bright too cold the precise air and tiles the new atm tablets the sun’s glare

on the screens we can’t see what

we’re withdrawing touching, overdrafting

Page 9: I Know I Know

FOURTH OF JULY

the radio lied

this morning more rain all day nonstop into early evening

and after that rain indefinite

rain stretching along the clear

confident voice of weathermen rain from here

on out we stand in the front

yard looking up what rain —— what do you want to ruin the way bottle

rockets fail water in the blast

Page 10: I Know I Know

us drifting doug’s dinghy’s motor blown out later we lit a mortar

a flash the warning said it sent a small

plastic paratrooper into the night ____

fifth of july! muskrat jack

the town exterminator drinks coffee outside quick chek always covered in

dirt he kills squirrels trapped in attics his shirt says you got it, I’ll

get it ___ bye doug before we leave remember — there’s quieter

ways to kill a roach

Page 11: I Know I Know

remember how mad lauren was at us drunk 3 a.m in the kitchen shoes in hand

hunting

Page 12: I Know I Know

THE HASKELL

horses on tv race slipping

eating dirt wanting the circle other dirt rises settles offscreen what’s a haskell who’s winning

Page 13: I Know I Know

EBOLA’S COMING EARLY AUGUST laughing at candles in Walgreens shooting stars don’t smell like anything not cinnamon we read ebola’s

coming north we feel around

with new caution boil our loose change clean a man with symptoms quarantined in Bellevue horse cops outside the pharmacy window spit and get off their horses our cashier says look the city cleans itself

Page 14: I Know I Know

GROSS SWANS three gross swans in rough orbit

of each other in the bay make an isosceles or equilateral

or the third kind of triangle we both forget, a body of shapes and oil and water the gross swans don’t recommend they know they know nothing, they swim and rest and forgive unfolding

their necks at us we have so much in common, both our parents’ middle child, both our parents playing the lotto

a combined 75 years across four states, in Minnesota the Gopher 5, in Rhode Island the Keno, in New Jersey the Pick 6 the Quick Draw in New York where we met, not a dime

Page 15: I Know I Know

LABOR DAY standing in weeds and sand a man with

white hair is telling

us to come back again at the end

of October that’s nowhere

close to now he waves his hand like a branch saying come back for the last night up and down this beach balloons and lights before winter everyone comes he

says the water is cold by then but it’s worth it every year you can just

show up you can bring

whoever you want

Page 16: I Know I Know
Page 17: I Know I Know