Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Here's looking at you....Emily Dickinson



I can't tell where your eyes go
when we whisper in the hall
there's something about the window
  the pale light only you can see

The first time you put your ivory fingers
        on my arm and told me about your flowers,
your little breath like petals on my cheek
       I felt like I was flying

 I pray to the arch of your back
     I swim in the glossy dark
in my arms, you are like the bird
     your bird that sings all night

 and when you speak, oh my divine
I hold air in my grizzled beard
  and my heart is a shooting star
       my love for you is made of clouds and starlight

Watching you do your baking and conjure your garden,
       apron and shielding hat become relics
I am old, not young and between the pillars of truth and experience,
     I see clearly the valley and river that line the difference

When I have found myself up high on tower or cliff
      I do not stretch joy from looking down
save for walking by your side
         uplifted by your faunish stride

when you make your blunted puns
or eat little onions right from the ground
    I could not find it odd or ill
 and love you all the more

       

Thursday, June 18, 2020

salty days



Be not afraid
when you hear the lion roar
keep watch above
in the lonely darkness
chop your way through
the thorny tangles of the forest

you may feel
like a beetle on a runway
a little leaf
on the stones of a fireplace
a skinny child, with a torn shirt
waiting in the doorway

Remember that the mind
can be dull and the
heart whispers lies to us all
but your blood
will always show you
 the way to go

your greasy, mysterious
 oceanic blood
holds every one that
 came before you
  and they have won
           every battle
or hid themselves more craftily


  you are the watcher and the warrior
the mother and the escape artist
 and so
be not afraid in
these terrible times
    because
a nation of heroes
    sleeps inside you.

Friday, June 12, 2020

forsazhe



The truth of her is flower between keen stones
blasted by  summer heat or beaten down by  rain

There are no others like her, because she stands alone
 When she's lined out straightly, she's drab and plain

It's the rocks in ancient state that are her mother's bones
and the roots unseen that spark flowers into flame

Pity the poor puppets who blindly pass her by
so full of hidden promise, so pleasing to the eye.

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

ha ha ha shitpost

Let's hear it for the good times,
  green lawns and gasoline
cold drops lazing down your glass
    a hot day kept at bay

Hooray for my sweet girl
 cotton candy and corn colored hair
    my American dame
she likes to kick it nasty

  me gotta get that
me gonna hit that
 me so stupid and
 predictable


  America, fine
you are
so good at church
 so down with whoring

         from the window
to the border wall
        twerk permits
and Oxycontin

    bitch, you like it
you say daddy choke me
 "i can't breathe"
is not a safe word

     like the song says,
my country tis of thee
 you get the ankles, I'll get the wrists
          it's come down to this

                  I'm longboarding down
the scaly tail of Satan
     With a menthol behind my ear
  and a song in my pants.

Friday, June 5, 2020

Feeling good



 You can't make this
        stuff up.
Am I the only freak
       in the waiting room?
walled in by wailers and whiners
          salty snot rivers,
 getting smothered by a soaked wet hot
        blanket of shame.

  When I hear a stranger bemoan a tragedy....
       bubbling with a loss so deep
they are willing to show their entire shame,
   I get to have all
 the feels, the pinata
       of loss
the licorice jelly beans and
         coffee chews of
     the crap sadness

  I can't be the solitary one
     that shrinks from
 the towering shit show
     of meat emotion

When I say that
  I am sorry
for your loss,
  what I really mean to say is..
      get the fuck away from
         me and suck it up

When you, a virtual stranger, grab
       me and wipe your nose on my
 shirt, I give you an awkward squeeze
      and say something about the almighty
 just barely keeping it on the chain

      to shove my two sword fingers
        into the spot where your lower jaw rests
           about an inch
            below your ear lobe
                   and p-u-s-h

           while you gasp, and maybe pee your
             pants a little, I say..
         Goddammit, man
             stop giving up
         your gaping asshole for the world to fuck

                    because, i say with a wise smile,
      feelings are stupid
             and should be avoided.