Rehearsal (Target Practice) – Theodore Heil

October 19, 2025

Say it now
No tomorrow,
Billboard, or
Basketball retribution
Say it like you’re dying
Never seeing heaven say it
Like salvation
Say it with a sandwich
Say it phony
Say it slant
Say it like forever
Say it like tell it
Say it never
In fifty days
Say it unconscious in a taxi and
The driver only takes quarters and
He dumps you in Brighton Beach and
You’re wearing blue jeans and
Your feet are dirty on the carpet
Now say it backwards

*

DIRECTION

I feel bad for actors
All they know is how
to talk to the camera

I know how to point
Both landscape and portrait
to diminish them

*

WEIGHT

When I was younger I
used to hide in the state

hospital and wait.
I have a bad habit

of opening closed doors
just to see if I can

take these crazy jobs
just to feel a new life

—point guard, wig salesman, clown
coordinator, lightswitch operator.

Most things are easy because
the feelings are universal.

Not wanting to wake up
after a dream so good

it turns bad again, because
he never came back, because

hope entered the room
like a centipede in summer

and left crawling out
again.