Americanese Made Easy

An enthusiastic Milwaukeean near-poet (too shy and/or drunk to open mic) approaches me at the merch table at Linneman's Bar. After testing my interest in the literary theories he's invented (words are symbols, hmmm, that is new...I'm working, I'm feigning), he wants to show me "the longest poem ever written." (Homer, Dante, Milton, Milwaukee bar guy). He brings over a bound stack. It looks like a script for a six-hour film. He tells me to pick a common phrase, flips to the w page, and orders me to read:

waiting for the other shoe to fall
waiting in line for no one
waiting in the rain

"It has over 163,000 phrases and 1300 are my own. I call it Americanese Made Easy. I also thought about Phrases for Dummies, but that's not as good." I try to engage him in a discussion about OULIPO. I write it in Sharpie on the back of a poetry bus sticker. He tells me he doesn't really go on the internets. Then he tells me a story about how he cut his toe a few months ago on the lid of a cat food can and bled all over the kitchen.

Night two: on the road, Milwaukee to Ann Arbor
Morning two: no shower

arrived at Ann Arbor, Michigan around 8am and drove around for an hour looking for a place to park the bus... Now in a wireless cafe with all the college students and my electronics plugged in and charging (except the camera... its cord is buried with my big suitcase on the bus, which is currently closed so the driver can get some sleep).

where the bus is now...