My drink for the day:

tall glass of crushed ice

juice of 2 limes

2 oz. of Stirrings' Ginger liqueur

swizzle and enjoy.

Neoteny - Art Card series

 

 04132021

Eugene was in a dream

Being a being. 

It’s a beginning.

The sound suddenly

Notified me that I’d

Left the water running.

I hadn’t. A big jet

Was landing at the

Air force base more

Than a county away.

Eugene was untied

And ready for Jack.

Coy Moon

Pink cheeked in a peek-a-boo sky

Multi warbled birds circle the dawn

while we shadow ourselves in sleep.

Have you seen fish kiss each other?

Let’s swim deeper under the covers,

warm the rainbows in our desires

with schools of sparks and swirls of

fire. Every inch I give is an offered

mile. Now it’s new. Now it’s full.

We float deep in a pearl flavored pool.

Ice Sky

Jonah Talks to Pinocchio

We’ve got this problem. It holds

us in its mouth like piece of candy.

The cave is dark and breaths wet

air. Am I white or black, wood or

fat? I keep my thoughts in clouds,

but how crazy do you have to be

to think you could ever be real?

Your father was a clock maker

and your mother was carving knife.

Mine was a whirlwind and a song.

We both escape to be trapped.

The clouds conspire and thoughts

rain down like soft silver bullets.

All along the coasts guards post

flares, search the shore for missing

puppets and prophets. Hear their

hardware slap their thighs. See

the darkness in their dilated eyes.

We hold each other inside. We

know the white outside swims

in icy water. You say, “beluga,”

and get tangled in your own strings.

The cosmos commands me to say

important things which scare me

to say. Leave me sick on the beach,

while you drift with the sticks

out beyond the blue, blue, blue.

Coat Check

We could meet in the parking lot

Of the Circle Cinema; the coffee

Shop has tasty tarts and comfy

Couches for us to share. Stir my

Cream in mystic spirals—recall

Steam over winter grates, clouds

Like meringue toasted in sun fall,

We were women in long clothes,

Ornamental metals chained around

our necks. In the second it takes to

Spin I have fallen in love with your

Chin and how your laughs sound.

Brown leaves as frozen as green

Buds in glaze, the season wheels

Like a drunken cinematographer

Who tries to tell what kisses mean.

National Auto

The dealership by the highway

Never takes down the fleet flag

In its floodlights and flash,

Though, because of another

Meaningless American massacre,

It is at half-staff.  

     Past midnight

In a winter storm, hail and freezing

Rain, the seams have come un-

Done among the strips.

   A body

Of blue, the stars freeze silver.

Red ribbons and white bandages

Like tentacles coil the harpoon pole.

How fast can you drive on ice?

How far?

Reflection in Difference

My chiral lover from long ago

Don’t make me sad. Say, “told

You so.” I think I do not want

To know, or impose once more.

Peripheral to lives we’ve lived

Apart and still a part of today,

I could grab your hand and find

It warm. I missed your wave

From the window as I drove

Away into the rain, the night,

Drove away from this time.

Knightly Dreams

Boiler plate on my breast

With a crest of crossed fingers

I consult my arsenal, the ideal,

Like a falcon hooded on my wrist.

I campaign for the honest truth,

Love from lust to brotherhood.

Come, run with me. Noble,

Wild as mountains or wind.

We flow together, one in blood.

Years have turned and gone, heart,

Since I touched your shiny lips,

Your laugh warm against my neck.

I will not let your death be quiet.

Though my broken voice ages

What we share will fill pages.

Log In (a paste poem in memory of J.A.)

Got it wrong in the past, rewrite it.

The normal rules of nature do not apply.

It makes individuals sensitive to context,

Regardless of the level of existence.

The peach harvest is way down in Georgia.

Sensitive to context and 'open' to change

what does apply? A two-pronged approach

helps us adapt to adversity. Push RESET.

It has practical applications. By backing up

You watch where you no longer are.

Kick in to rapidly open a window.

Strike out to emphasize the need.

Enter into a more adaptive or 'plastic' state—

The idea becomes paradoxical, a contradiction.

Aren't we surprised that it might be possible?

Imagine “I’m melting” as permanent lifestyle.

We need to pay more attention to context.

Consciousness seems to be always continuous.

Reconfigure the juxtapositions. Slice and dice

Existence at the interstices ≈ the swerve.

I believe this is the future to believe in

Again. The illusions vanish but reflect

Caught in headlights at noon—BOOM!

There are no perceivable edges, only ends.

Doesn't Say Much

Blues in Green

Once a Future

Late

Afternoon and

I hold my balls in hand.

The world should be a better place.

Wait.

Hylozoist

Matter represents itself

As all possible reality.

This apple isn’t orange,

It is roughly vermillion.

I knew as much when I

Was only four years old.

I liked the feel of warm

Sand on a sunny day.

I built office buildings

For little plastic citizens.

My best friend was far

Away at kindergarten.

I barely knew who I was.

I knew what I could do.

How do you access the

Unconscious by yourself?

A fortiori, you understand

Yourself as a subconscious.

At the core, we know what

We think of a slow sun sink.

The sun becomes the moon.

Moon becomes midnight.

Ralph said stars are alive.

I let me soul come and go.

Tidbits and Gigabytes

Adenosine is an endogenous

Sleep inducer. That's why we

Feel more awake after coffee.

You may have known

Lithium from its role

In rechargeable batteries.

Do you think it more effective

To have a cooperative network

With a clearly chosen coordinator?

Such instabilities are akin

To a snake or dragon

That swallows its own tail.

Joe tells us that the citron was

Considered a valuable commodity

Due to its healing qualities.

'Life-years lost' is a better approach

To observing mortality trends, 

Than cause of death.

Repairs

Workers

Break the street,

Pour in new concrete.

Skilled hands sculpt the curb.

Park it.

Fairy Tale

Monsters jump around in my head.

Copper green with wing feathers

Sharp as saws and lightning eyes.

I try to run from your many arms.

Fangs like ice cycles drip poison.

Lips thick and clay black kiss

The back of my neck. I bleed.

I sweat as my burning eyes roll.

Don’t tell me what is real or

What I feel. You know this is all

Your fault. Born from heartbreak

Slim dragons and crystal snakes

Tie my hands together; gag me.

Where did you take me? Desire

Wires my guts. I swallow vomit

Like liquor. You twist my wrists.

I will not look. I will not feel.

I will forget that you are real.

Used Equipment (for Michael Robbins)

Nothing about growing up in Colorado

Wheat fields or Arkansas rice paddies

Makes you have to be so critical, Mikey,

Except maybe for the homogenous space

And the insistent vibrations in your head.

Pop music microwaves the countryside.

A really pretty-white girl writes love songs

With a purple ballpoint in her spiral binder

And somehow becomes a millionaire idol.

This is the dream of every worm alive

By a heat vent in the Pacific Trench. So,

We dream of deep water and hot women.

If words riot will books self-immolate?

Will the fire illuminate the dark face

Of what life turns from? Do you think?

You have to be anonymous to remain

Autonomous. Work through questions—

No, no answers at the back of this text.

On the Road to Salvation

In long black coats

And furry black mittens,

What causes these two

Nineteen year-old boys

On missionary bicycles

To be so eager to witness

Their belief in the Book

Of Mormon and Jesus

To me and my pooch?

Don’t they have a clue

How cold it is standing

In this empty parking lot?

My dog, and right on cue,

Has a deed he needs to do.