Andy Robertson & Eavesdropping

PHOTOGRAPHY Andy Robertson

EAVESDROPPING Michael Bazzett

Every day people walk
in circles on a footpath
designed specifically for that purpose

around a lake near my house.
When the clockwise
pass the counter-clockwise

about four seconds
of conversation
can be overheard

prompting my friend and I
to generate haiku
of dark provocation:

With enough gasoline
nearly anything
will burn.

A matter-of-fact tone
is important.

I don’t know why
she quit loving him
at exactly three o’clock.

Let questions linger.

How do you know
a human head
won’t float?

The manner
must be lackadaisical
yet understated.

The problem with the twins
was that one of them
was a triplet.

It is a form
Ibsen would appreciate.
Or Beckett.

What does he expect me to do
with six hundred pounds
of nut-meats.

Let the final syllable
carry the freight.

If he was insinuating
what I think he was
then-

If any response
is generated,
it must be ignored.

Wrap it in plastic
and bury it
next to all the others.