BILL YARROW IS A MOVIE ALSO CALLED BILL YARROW* by David Tomaloff

the governor of rhode island

is throwing apples at bill yarrow,

who is also drowning

in quicksand—

there doesn’t seem to be

any good way to end this poem.

+++

bill yarrow is a dragon

also named bill yarrow.

no one really

likes bill yarrow,

or they do and they are

just not letting on.

I saw another bill yarrow

in my facebook feed.

I think bill yarrow is

friends

with the NSA.

+++

I want to write a how-to book.

bill yarrow for dummies—

or how to spice up your bill yarrow

using nothing but a feather duster,

a groundhog,

and a list of baltic deserts.

+++

bill yarrow and I were having

tea this morning on the balcony

of leonard nimoy.

not the person

leonard nimoy, though.

that would be cool, too.

+++

the train ride here was atrocious.

you know how it is—

one bill yarrow right next to you,

another on the other side.

those people all look

the same to me.

hey, eyes up here, you asshole poets;

I’m wearing a shirt for a fucking reason.

+++

bill yarrow is a movie

titled bill yarrow.

sexy title, but I won’t

see it just the same.

the cast is another

yarrow fest—

                          as if.

another sex scene

featuring bill yarrow

hungrily pawing that

what’s her face

bill yarrow woman

is just too much

for a sane person to bear.

+++

seriously, though—

has anyone ever seen

bill yarrow and bill clinton

in the same room?

wait. has anyone ever seen

bill yarrow and president

obama together?

tmz said that bill yarrow

is the illinois state bird.

I’m really confused

for what all of this means.

+++

geologist bill yarrow was my

favorite action figure as a child.

we would pull at the string

on his back for sometimes hours,

but he never really said much;

either did or he didn’t.

talk, that is.

he didn’t like to speak

about poetry and such.

like, he told us once that rocks

are a kind of poetry if you listen

long enough—

didn’t speak after that for days.

+++

David Tomaloff is a very important something. His work has appeared in several chapbooks, anthologies, and in fine publications such as Connotation Press, Metazen, Heavy Feather Review, The Northville Review, CBS Chicago, Necessary Fiction, HTML Giant, A-Minor, Pank, and elimae. He is also co-author of the collaborative poetry collection YOU ARE JAGUAR, with Ryan W. Bradley (Artistically Declined Press, 2012). Send him threats: davidtomaloff.com

Street art by HARLEM.
Photo by Adam Lawrence. 

"Avant Gardner" comes from Melbourne's Courtney Barnett's album "The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas" which was released digitally in January 2014 by Mom + Pop Music and will be released physically on April 15th.

*For the record, David Tomaloff believes Bill Yarrow is one of the nicest guys in the world, and that you should familiarize yourself with his work if you have not already done so. Be the Bill Yarrow you want to see in the world, people, come on.