wakeless sleep at first #9; aces over eights
wakeless sleep at first #5
the towel that was thrown in 1
three punches too late, 2
the aneurism that burst 3
like a balloon filled with lake, 4
the taste that nauseated 5
like a mouthful of hate, 6
the lipids that stick 7
like the full house on your plate. 8
14.28 5.11.95
in principal
in principal
xeno’s plague
the moment i knew the moments were pared too fine 1
it was too late, 2
no fixative strong enough or taste anymore at all. 3
the finery swallowed all in its path. 4
the finery makes the sane girls laugh, 5
and kills a lot of the others. 6
18.23 2.11.95
all the s’ers sing
all the s’ers sing
all the s’ers are lovely, 1
all the s’ers are raw, 2
the s’ers are called berries, 3
naked faces, bare skin courage, naked flaws. 4
what s’er stra’b’ry sang: 5
i am brass strumpet, 6
i am looney toons, 7
i blow an ass trumpet 8
to wake the dormouse in the moon. 9
what s’er rass’b’ry sang: 10
when the king crocodile 11
of the upper white nile 12
went out to survey his dominion 13
he was bent on discovering 14
the origin of sackcloth covering 15
the sky monthly with breast fed opinions. 16
31.10.95
Yard report
In the yard right now–
- 3 Steller’s jays
- 10+ robins
- Varied thrush
- 2 purple finches
- 5 Oregon junkos
- 6 black-capped chickadees
- 2 red-shafted flickers
- Bewick’s wren
- Red-breasted sapsucker
- Downy woodpecker
Squirrels and there were a couple crows flying around too but they almost never come into the yard. I also must assume that there was at least one winter wren b/c they’re always out there. When they’re out there all at once like that I can’t help but daydream about what any given meadow in the Jurassic might have looked like.
the sharks…
the sharks…
of love and truth
the boy who inhaled candle flames 1
asked the girl who sometimes did the same: 2
do you love me, dear, 3
or do the continents get in the way? 4
the girl whose palms were greased with shame 5
replied to the boy who often did the same: 6
i love you like the million miles, 7
nothing gets in the way; 8
our holy secret and how it pertains 9
to our unholy friendship and our memorial stains, 10
our desert love the city couldn’t contain, 11
my estrus leftovers, your penchant to maim– 12
all that matters is through the pain 13
you’re smiling, i’m smiling, 14
and the smiles are never vain. 15
0.55 10.10.95
come by next shed
come by next shed
of rain sucking down 1
through soil, i think 2
i shall die, 3
be sucked down 4
in beds of lye 5
and thank only the sweet 6
giving sky and you 7
for your different help, 8
both of you. 9
thank you for your purity 10
sweet tranquility. 11
i will worship 12
as much of that, 13
at least the illusion of that 14
from my death bed, 15
from my death bed, 16
from my death bed, 17
from my death bed, 18
from my death bed, 19
from my death bed, 20
from my breath said 21
come sky and ask the dead 22
n’why they nod heads 23
on necks thick as breads 24
and chew grave grass instead 25
of the fear that you 26
breast fed the children, 27
to our children, 28
to those children 29
alive and some by nest fled– 30
fledglings to the sky, 31
the greedy sky 32
eats them while i worship, 33
while i lie down to die. 34
5.4.93 2.04
arrangement in black and grey
arrangement in black and grey
every day is halloween 1
and every night valentine’s day, 2
the sunshine in the bunker 3
is one by nine and 4
it’s mine for four hours each winter day. 5
the shores where i sank her 6
are black as the bottom of the niger 7
at dawn. when we sleep 8
we climb under greyed sheets 9
with grey feet, grey hands and grey eyes, 10
when the afternoon is hot 11
we wake and wash 12
what we’ve got 13
but the color has never come out, 14
not in nine and a half thousand tries. 15
14.00 31.10.95
the pumpkin tree; they never touch ground
the pumpkin tree; they never touch ground
with your skinning knife a tolerable shine 1
you gave them new faces 2
and cleaned all their tines 3
till they sang pure single notes; 4
you released personalities i forgot how i was in love with, 5
not what was in it with… but how. 6
there is redemption 7
in the face 8
of a tremendous loss of the same. 9
and in the watering and care of this tree 10
what was never told directly to me was 11
they grow on other people’s work and other peoples’ cultures. 12
the clarity of the visions that may be present 13
is clear enough but the refraction angels… 14
therein lies the rub, the trick, the best reason 15
to just avoid the stuff; 16
stick with trees that grow familiar fruit, 17
falling and bursting predictably. 18
30·24.10.95
this is when we will be
this is when we will be
when diamonds are fruit 1
and rubies are candy 2
you’ll be my sweetheart, 3
i’ll be your dandy. 4
i’ll build you that soul, 5
we’ll chew flowers, trace spit, 6
roll out the soft combs 7
six sides bed thick. 8
and sugar, honey isn’t about blood after all. 9
4.2.95
an untitled christmas
an untitled christmas
there was war, 1
so you know what christmas this was. 2
i’d like to unleash you upon the world– 3
look at the failings 4
of the great men 5
you admire, 6
they will be yours 7
but the greatness will not be. 8
i’d like to unleash you upon the world. 9
revelations when the world will break down into 10
simpler blocks 11
and life will finally force a sympathetic simplification in literature 12
genre by genre until it is all symmetric, 13
bare clawed and pushing singles. 14
i see the angels every day, 15
they speak in tongues you ask to just turn it down, okay? 16
they show pictures without eyes 17
and you smell things you can’t identify, 18
smells that aren't really bad but make 19
you afraid to breathe all the same. 20
to unleash you upon the world 21
there are things you have learn; 22
you’re only dangerous now, 23
you need to be fatal 24
if this is to have significance. 25
i have no gift fit for a king 26
because no king fit my gift. 27
i’m expatriating next year, 28
let me know if you need a lift. 29
i have a present for you right now though: contempt– 30
without the strength to let it go 31
or the information to be sure where to direct it. 32
24·15.12.95
