Tim Barrus Blog
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Wooden Porch Swing in the Distance
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behind the house, and just beyond the little woods of oaks, there’s an ancient cemetery where the confederate dead are buried in their sackcloths/ six of us are buried in here, too/ civil war is just another vulture’s boots/ the cemetery itself is dead/ not unlike a darkened theatre, and…
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That Boat Has Left the Dock
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i bought a boat from old man hughes for five bucks/ it was really only worth three/ the boat leaks/ i can’t afford to fix it but who wants a boat anyway/ i do/ i take the boat out to the middle of the lake and sit there with a…
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drinking with the dog
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u sitting on the bed again/ explaining yourself 2 me/ u looking downcast/ u unable to meet my gaze/ and this secret life u live is supposed to be unknown 2me/ please/ i have known u since the age of the dinosaurs/ like i give a flying fuck/ but i…
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like ships
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there is just no possible fucking way that someone at some point is not going to feel left out/ i never did allow that to bother me/ something that pours from him, stealing moments we all are thieves, in a cataract of tenderness and cruelty upon some weak, plastic life…
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you carried him
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you have carried him on your back through oceans of your sweat for a long while, now/ we both knew it was only a matter of time/ the big old boogeyman, time/ before you’d push back/ hard/ that way you push back when you push back/ it is always a…
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The Birthday Party
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the birthday party became too loud/ you could not handle it/ the other guys were slightly astounded that you panicked/ birthdays in general can be a dark afternoon where everything is forgotten/ i can’t blame you/ the counterfeits of our second selves/ what’s wrong with him he’s freaking out at…
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Grants, New Mexico
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that day in san francisco you picked me up on the bike after work/ i still had a normal job back then/ editing a magazine/ the entire staff went quickly to the windows to see you, 2stare/ you had consciously chosen to not wear a shirt good for you/ tits…
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smoke and mirrors
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the smoke he makes is obvious/ the mirrors in his pocket are less than obvious/ there are people who think he’s a magician/ he does have his tricks, but they’re play for pay, and they usually fall for his i am so into you game of reflective, thin ceramic masks/…
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Tent
in the morning they always have to pee somewhere mainly on a tree/ crawling out like rabbits from a magician’s hat/ izaak, randy, josh, and devon plus the rest of them like pilgrims for the whole marvelous and unvisited earth that blinds them in the aerial buoyancy of their raw-boned…
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How Do We Reach the Hard-to-Reach
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I call them Boys-At-Risk. The label is inaccurate. It puts human beings in a box we don’t want to look at, and it’s language as racism personified.
I loathe the terminology. But I am at a loss, not in terms of examining the many challenges, but how do I reach…