{"id":697,"date":"2010-01-01T23:18:09","date_gmt":"2010-01-02T04:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/?p=697"},"modified":"2010-01-01T23:18:09","modified_gmt":"2010-01-02T04:18:09","slug":"karl-koweski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/2010\/01\/karl-koweski\/","title":{"rendered":"Karl Koweski"},"content":{"rendered":"

the cats of Spain<\/strong><\/p>\n

the cats of Spain
\ndrink saucers of Irish whiskey
\nears attuned to the
\nmoonlight serenades
\nof the worshipful
\ncommuning along the mahogany<\/p>\n

the cats of Spain
\nprowl on padded feet
\ndown through the centuries
\nmaddening aloof<\/p>\n

their tails swish in concert
\nwith the pumping hearts
\nof those who love them<\/p>\n

the cats of Spain
\nremain untouched by petting hands<\/p>\n

feline spines arch
\nwith the promise of pleasure
\nmischievous cats\u2019 eyes glowing
\nwith an abundance of lives<\/p>\n

the cats of Spain
\ntravel America\u2019s chaotic corridors
\nfrom Omaha to Alabama
\ngypsy souls and harmonica paws
\nfollow the music on the breeze<\/p>\n

blue futility<\/strong><\/p>\n

seven hundred miles
\nsouth of Wrigley Field<\/p>\n

on a baseball diamond
\natop the second
\nhighest mountain
\nin Alabama<\/p>\n

my five year-old son
\ncrouches near
\nthe third base bag<\/p>\n

his glove hovers
\nan inch from the dirt
\nand he\u2019s ready for anything
\nso long as
\nit\u2019s a softly rolling
\nground ball<\/p>\n

batting gloves jut
\nout of his back pocket,
\na wad of Big League Chew
\nhyperextends his cheek<\/p>\n

he looks like
\na little ball player
\nexcept for one thing<\/p>\n

\u201cJared!
\nwhere\u2019s your Cubbies cap?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cno!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cwhere\u2019s your Cub\u2019s lid, boy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate the Cubbies\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cput on your Cub\u2019s hat
\nor I\u2019m gonna jump kick you\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCubbies suck
\nI like the Cardinals\u201d<\/p>\n

we stand diametrically opposed
\nacross a baseball chasm
\nwider than the
\n280 miles
\nbetween St Louis and Chicago<\/p>\n

and if he\u2019s better off
\nbreaking the cycle now
\nbefore chronic defeat
\ngets its hooks into him
\nI\u2019ll never admit it<\/p>\n

my book collection<\/strong><\/p>\n

I like to think
\nI have one of the
\nlargest privately owned
\nbook collections in town<\/p>\n

perhaps not that impressive
\nconsidering I live in a land
\npopulated by folks who
\ntake greatest pride in
\ntheir accumulated
\ncollege football memorabilia<\/p>\n

but I love my wall of books<\/p>\n

my wife despises them
\n\u201call they do is sit there
\nwhat use are they if you\u2019ve
\nall ready read them?\u201d<\/p>\n

but\u2026 they\u2019re mine\u2026
\nI own them\u2026<\/p>\n

lying on my bed
\nsurrounded by thousands of books
\ncalmness descends<\/p>\n

I ascribe to the Thomas Jefferson
\nbelief in literary universality
\nas long as it prescribes to fiction<\/p>\n

my collection is like your collection
\nexcept a hundred times better
\nand without all the boring authors
\nname checked by Bukowski
\nand wonderfully devoid of
\nover-rated Beatnik writers<\/p>\n

my book collection
\nis better than your book collection
\nexcept
\nyou can probably see your books
\nwhereas my collection is obscured<\/p>\n

by shower curtains hung by the wife
\nwho believes books look tacky
\nwhile shower curtains across an
\nentire bedroom wall defines elegance
\n
\n<\/em>Karl Koweski is a displaced Chicagoan now living on top of a mountain in Alabama.\u00a0 His chapbook of smut, Low Life<\/em>, is available from www.zygoteinmycoffee.com, where he is also the writer of the monthly column, “Observations of a Dumb Polack.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

the cats of Spain the cats of Spain drink saucers of Irish whiskey ears attuned to the moonlight serenades of the worshipful communing along the mahogany the cats of Spain prowl on padded feet down through the centuries maddening aloof their tails swish in concert with the pumping hearts of those who love them the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-january-2010"],"yoast_head":"\nKarl Koweski - Full Of Crow: Poetry (Archives)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/2010\/01\/karl-koweski\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Karl Koweski - Full Of Crow: Poetry (Archives)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"the cats of Spain the cats of Spain drink saucers of Irish whiskey ears attuned to the moonlight serenades of the worshipful communing along the mahogany the cats of Spain prowl on padded feet down through the centuries maddening aloof their tails swish in concert with the pumping hearts of those who love them the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/2010\/01\/karl-koweski\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Full Of Crow: Poetry (Archives)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-02T04:18:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ElynnAlexander\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@elynnalexander\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ElynnAlexander\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/2010\/01\/karl-koweski\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/2010\/01\/karl-koweski\/\",\"name\":\"Karl Koweski - 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