{"id":422,"date":"2012-08-28T02:26:02","date_gmt":"2012-08-28T02:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sporkpress.com\/poetry\/?p=422"},"modified":"2012-08-28T02:26:02","modified_gmt":"2012-08-28T02:26:02","slug":"5-poems-by-ben-pelhan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/2012\/08\/28\/5-poems-by-ben-pelhan\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Poems by Ben Pelhan"},"content":{"rendered":"

when you land in Johannesburg<\/strong><\/p>\n

what day is it? today or yesterday and tomorrow a man with a sign with your name on it waits just beyond the gate and he has a car and thank goodness because everyone here is black and might want to rob you or white and might want to rob you. also coloured, indian, and shades of gender too and there\u2019s a boulevard for that when you land in Johannesburg. the flight was long when you land in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

you go to a museum where you learn about Johannesburg before it was today\u2019s Johannesburg. you might say you learn about yesterday\u2019s Johannesburg when you land in Johannesburg. you eat a steak and one dollar is like seven dollars but things cost more dollars but not seven more dollars and you take a cab to where you rent a car and you start your car in third gear and it\u2019s a German car and your gps is losing its shit and everything is named for the same Mandela when you land in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n

you need your passport and you need to remember that some things never change and you go to an art gallery where everything is affordable. you don\u2019t buy anything even if you want to even though you know you won\u2019t be passing by this way again and your credit cards get canceled when you land in Johannesburg so you have to borrow a phone. you should have called your credit cards yesterday when you land in Johannesburg and all the streets had different names yesterday when you land in Johannesburg and everyone is trying to put yesterday behind them and there\u2019s a boulevard for that when you land in Johannesburg. tomorrow is always a day away and it just isn\u2019t quite different enough when you land in Johannesburg. maybe try a smaller town.<\/p>\n

________________________________ <\/p>\n

when you land in Baton Rouge<\/strong><\/p>\n

when you land in Baton Rouge you are always flying coach. maybe you got a free meal, but you are still flying coach. there\u2019s also the guard who guards the cars against the cars when you land in Baton Rouge. he mistrusts false starts and idle hands and won\u2019t let you linger. his eyes make worries. his worries make a song. sung by anyone who didn\u2019t quite make it to New Orleans when you land in Baton Rouge. two six strings mingle up like Mississippi things when you land in Baton Rouge. like a river of mud floods a valley to save Baton Rouge when you land in Baton Rouge. the high notes hold the levees up and anyone who didn\u2019t quite make it to New Orleans got a sign and a paper cup and the music ain\u2019t free when you land in Baton Rouge.<\/p>\n

________________________________ <\/p>\n

layover<\/strong><\/p>\n

sometimes feeding yourself
\nis the hardest part of the day. sometimes
\nfeeding yourself and knowing what
\nto do with yourself is the hardest part of the day. sometimes
\nfeeding yourself and knowing what to do with yourself
\nand getting into and out of chair situations
\nis the hardest part of the day.
\nchair situations include chairs,
\ncouches, loveseats, futons, benches,
\nsometimes the arms of benches, futons, loveseats, couches,
\nand sometimes beds, and sometimes people.
\nsometimes people make better chair situations
\nthan notimes people. the best chair situations
\nare always people but there is no such thing
\nas an always person so nearlyalways people
\nmake the best chair situations except
\nonly as far as people make good chair situations.
\na chair is usually the best chair situation.<\/p>\n

________________________________ <\/p>\n

when you land in San Diego<\/strong><\/p>\n

the movie. business is booming. you
\nare booming. your Holly.
\nis a tree. and your Wood.
\nis your bond. the weather.
\ncouldn\u2019t be better. so get yourself off.
\nthe plane already. get off. so much.
\nsunshine. shadows hide.
\nin never land drawers. you squint.
\nnobody can\u2019t be bothered. forgetting.
\nwhat a dark thing looks like.
\ntalk about black face. you talk.
\nabout coffee. a little bit. you beach.
\nlike whales. whales are so big.
\nwhen you land in San Diego.
\nlike also the Zoo. is big. so big.
\nyou don\u2019t even talk. about it.
\nyou. and your together person.
\nwill have to break up.
\nsoon. because whales
\nare so big. belong
\nin a sea. maybe large
\nrivers. not in a zoo.
\nnot in an airplane.
\nsay hello. to your first
\nclass whale. forget.
\nyou ever came.<\/p>\n

________________________________ <\/p>\n

when you land in Denver<\/strong><\/p>\n

when you land in Denver your lips are chapped before you collect your bags. If you didn\u2019t check a bag then they were already chapped. when you land in Denver you ask where is Denver and no one can point it out to you, nor will they. <\/p>\n

when you land in Denver there are the Rocky Mountains looking like a beer commercial but instead of being funny it is just a pile of snow melting for 53 minutes and instead of women wearing very little clothing a bottle explodes in the 54th minute, and this is the Superbowl halftime show. instead of playing the second half the players nap in one long row from end zone to end zone. every so often, the coaches look up from their magazines to check on the players and rub their rippling backs. <\/p>\n

________________________________
\nBen Pelhan <\/strong>is a Pittsburghist living in New Orleans. He makes poems, videos, screenplays, and combinations of poems, videos, and screenplays. You can find his work on the YouTube as well as in OH NO, Smoking Glue Gun, and others. He likes most rivers, most movies, and most of the people he knows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

when you land in Johannesburg what day is it? today or yesterday and tomorrow a man with a sign with your name on it waits just beyond the gate and he has a car and thank goodness because everyone here is black and might want to rob you or white and might want to rob […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[10,86,104],"class_list":["post-422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-things","tag-ben-pelhan","tag-poetry-2","tag-spork"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}