kickstand
Doug Nufer 1999
Kickstand is antic ink.
A tack in a sack, a snack in a cask, a task.
As an ant is an acid tank and a kid in dank ick can stink
Kickstand is an act and a stand. It can
Sin, sic a cad at staid kin
As ticks sink in skins.
Kickstand can scan ants in sand, skin cats, stain a saint
Nick, kid, kick, stack, and sack a sick and sad anti-antics din
As it aids kids. It isn’t AIDS
And can’t stand tan Dan and Candi’s tics in a skit
In skin. As I sat and stank, I said
Kick it, kids. Dan, dick Candi! And Candi said,
It ain’t in, it’s an act: a knick-knack, tic-tac, sin-din in a tin can
An act can’t stick its dick in.
In Kickstand, I said, it can.
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I have no recollection of how Doug Nufer got these words to me. Perhaps he handed it to me at the Elysian. Or he handed it to a bike messenger and they handed it to me downtown. Maybe he sent a fax to WA Legal... ...Anyway either way, it was printed in kickstand #9 in 1999. printed on actual paper. Photocopied, folded, stapled and hand delivered via bicycle. I'm sure I got a copy to Doug at the wine shop.
It was “reprinted” here ten years later. Now re-re-reprinted 26 years later. I’ve gained another whole new appreciation for it, as an interesting and humorous poem constrained by the letters found in the word kickstand. I also have a lot of respect for Mr. Doug Nufer who is a badass writer as well as a cyclist, former messenger, poet, MC and wine expert.
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