Saturday, May 31, 2008

the color of absolute nude
late afternoon light
the buildings out of their skin

for your faces

she still waits

...and one by one,
they filter in
each on their own journey

...and to see them bright
back in her life
the simple beauty of moments only

...and as they come
on their own time
she smiles wide to greet them

for each one holds
a piece of her heart
those travelers
both brave and bold
that have come so far
to glimpse her shore
to share their lives
and smiles alike
to keep the wander
and lust alive

come filter in
you're all welcome
...so still she waits

a night not so enormous
narrow as a voice
with little intent
light enough
for the right wind to handle

Thursday, May 29, 2008

We are seldom a distance,
though for days we have swallowed spaces
reached lengths with our breast and
seen our heaven persevere

We touch our caution like a brittle saint
breathe slow
adore the raiment
about our slender bones

words get full and burst
sunlight levels you
summer stumbles over you
your pages ache
there are names
you make
there are days you ache for pages

"There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

-from Hamlet

we ride trains

we ride trains
no destinations, schedules
only journey, discovery



and i wake up,
wrapped up in your arms
to the hum of the train
in comfort
we're still along for the ride

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

nothing left but weather
and everything else

finished with beginnings,
gift of reds,
the ancient pain of folds

my bleating flock of wants has stopped
nothing left but weather
and my strange weight

Saturday, May 24, 2008

I would hear myself
My big dignity
I deserve wistfulness

But in late spring I resemble
Rot and sheen
Service and a strong occasional color

I am ornamental
Wrapped in wool and exhaustion
Sustenance and self defense

misfed malice

all this
all this
all this
loss

offer
offer
offer
offer

come find me
i don't know where to start

Friday, May 23, 2008

Why Men go Mad

The full moon

It will pull at the tides of your mind, AND at the responsive bodies of every woman exposed to enough of its milky light. You can sense it and you can smell them. You should remember the moon when you’re robbing liquor stores or writing poetry or dancing wildly for reasons you don’t understand. Know that cycles are ending and beginning tonight! That your frenzy is caused by gravity and biology! Know that this feeling is just low tide and wanting madly every woman in the world all at once. This is Romance! This is Science! But it is just the moon.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

tossed into daylight,
my pavement scrapes gone blonde,
walking
your soft wall behind me all day long.

when the records stop playin'

wine bottles and cigarette packs
empty,
placed, and scattered
on the glass table
untouched
for weeks,
dust
collected
on the surface


she lies
on the couch
in the dark corner of the room
searching
for the light
that shines, awkwardly
through each bottle

unfortunately
moonlight
has a way
of washing flaws from you
leavin perfect silhouette memory

and i remember u in moonlight
frozen

theres a field unfindable
now out west
in dreams

and the grass tall
trembles slightly
and the lightnin bugs
flicker

their light hittin eyes like
memory or pain or beauty

and the moon shines on it at night
and its flaws get washed away

yr light hittin my eyes
like memory or pain or beauty

all the stimuli of this worls
all the stimuli of this world
all the stimuli of this world

no one dies, makes love, or ages

-triggering towns

allen caught walt all ragged and romance
wandering through produce

today
i saw you jack
wearing that crumby hat of desolation
in a walmart
in the slow hands
of misery cashiers
and the stoned eyes
of everyone impatient
and witing
in line

and in all those awkward spaces
between clothing racks
and the floor and the ceiling
in all that wide open and white

nothing like those spaces rolling and infinite
in the west above and between yr winding roads

all those mussed haired girls
perfect in one frozen moment
of light and shadow and bedsheets
that never caught up to the concrete
of tomorro

will always be
unchanging eternal
as marble or folklore

a frozen flame
of a star
burning in the perfect night

through all these days
all the ways
the light affects them subtle and infinite
all the eyes wet with life
and lips glimmerin below em
and the streetcorners all damp and accentuated
with perfect lamposts
all the curves and sharp angles
of women and towns and events and automobiles
those countless plunges the sun takes into a sea
that never boils

i have never seen anything
with more romance, more tempting
than the tragic flaw

boulder
coffe shop
a black clad couple
she
places a piece of muffin
in his mouth
slightly moving
the end
of her trenchcoat
across the floor


these are storms
the way air
from the great frigid terrifying
north west
wrestles stop signs
and the metal sound
rings out

the houses making noises like women

its midnight again
full moon
hungry, wants to swallow the sky
and you and me
and all the eyes strewn on these streets
the crystal fragile light
lifts
flaws from us
evaporating
so all the dancing women
shine invisible
the mens hands
dreaming of pale beers
and the feel of cold glass

Sunday, May 18, 2008

I always wanted to be
one of those blackened faces
with hollow eyes
that you see in
old photographs

and I imagine
that honest life
holding black hands
up towards the sky
and dieing quietly
in a mexican desert

flood watch

the street

like a dark mirror

reflecting my

darkest desires

to disappear into

that black road

and go find

america

slow work
all this starting over
ordering loves
placing ourselves
making

Thursday, May 15, 2008

the valium
softening
all the multitude
of stimuli

i become
the swirling motion
of Starry Night

the earth becomes
as cigarette smoke
wafting

and in that
we are intimate

sometimes i go to red cross blood drives
with nurses all in white and elderly volunteers
and sometimes i go to book releases

either way, we all wait around for our names to be called

then we spill a little part of our insides
through black microphone wires
or translucent iv tubing
secretly, in the cheap teeth clenched hope
that this act alone will redeem
all the other parts of us

then we eat chocolate chip cookies
and drink orange juice or coffee
and leave with a small piece of us out in the universe

sometimes i go to red cross blood drives
and sometimes i go to book releases

and practice the law of entropy

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

It's an old one 7/06

just
one
touch
your finger against my finger
as new lovers, we grab hold
as the friendship
slowly, breaks apart
piece
by
piece

at times, I'm
just fifty cents
and newsprint

I want to be in tomorrows paper
but it's doesn't handle the rain well
and the ink starts to seep
and the words start to drip off the page
and you and your history,
that moment they remember,
have no features

i can melt
or catch fire,
smolder or singe
or disolve


ain't it better to burn
than be yesterdays news?

Sunday, May 11, 2008

rules and companions
consolations, clues
decrees to keep,
pleadings

contemporary

Days aren’t episodes
But I can’t always tell them apart
I’m a modern girl
Or a version of one
But I haven’t got the pocket science
Only the latent appliance fetish

I can see it all on the box
And listen to the old anthems
With a key stroke
I’ve got the right receiver
For all broadcast transmissions

Days aren’t episodes
I go out when the sun is shining
I’m a modern girl
But I still have all the Romance
And listen to the old anthems

Friday, May 09, 2008

Art is a loaded weapon and i'm a pacifist

time i got this off me
out of my interest
show them who i'm after
let them know this is no test
I fed the infant wicked
till they stood on crooked stems
now the caps spread over us
in a starless arrest

mmmmmm but how do i put you back into my mouth
how do i shove you back into this house
they saw we birthed an insectile fruit
reared on Apocrypha, a seven headed truth

let it all hang down
let them all see up the skirt of my sins
it feels like it's drenched now
the water's broke and i'm flooding the lungs of my kin
i'm bleeding out the door
those drops breed a hundred more
i'm not connected anymore
but i'm coated thick with matte black like a
harlot's cilia left on the floor

time i felt the softening
of meal spoiling worms
read between the chalk lines
and you'll find you never knew where you were
when you began to seek light
the hazy glo of knowledge
will erect you to speak life
into a dead man's ears and he will know
the evidence in his betrayer's guise
he will find revenge in a fortnight
and the certainty of bloodshed
sure does make us feel right

Derailed Cigarette Blues

i could smoke a cigarette on this train
i could imagine i'm smoking a cigarette on this train
through album cover cosmos we cut
the cigarette
i'm imagining
while i listen to certain heartache
2nd generation prophets
it makes me weary

Thursday, May 08, 2008

no job
no car
your bills are unpaid
your mind aint flawless

shes swimming in your back yard topless and crazy about you
drinking in the sun
fights with anyone he can get his hands on
beat the shit out of an off duty cop
music ran off with his ear drums
are you bleeding
no better way to live
no no
just stop screaming at the inside of your head a while
shes always making you feel worth while

Raconteur Fest. Check it, kids! There will be a volcano!

The Idiom/Walking English have a table.
There will be a volcano!
Matt Fisher and Mike Noordzy will be playin some tunes.
The swans' artwork will be displayed.

(repost from myspace bulletin)
THE RACONTEUR FESTIVAL MAY 10th
What do a sword swallower, a young female folk singer from Seville, Spain, and an author whose latest novel, Skin, is slowly being written on the bodies of ten thousand volunteers (each who've agreed to have a single word tattooed on their body), all have in common?
RAC FEST! Acclaimed Authors - Live Music Sideshow Acts 2 PM, SAT. MAY 10 Find out more, visit:www.raconteurbooks.com

description

i sat amongst the rest
graced with his presence
hearing the words fly from his tongue
like song
but not listening.
i heard the letters that formed with the
movement of his mouth;
they formed syllables,
which formed words,
which formed brilliance,
exploding with feeling
that he had reached for
with his own bleeding hands
and pulled out
relentlessly
until we could understand.
i heard
but i did not listen.
i sat there, eyes strained
forcing back the wetness,
oblivious to his genius
focused on the messiness
that is my emotion.
the pain felt
having lost,
having found
was cheap in my eyes as
i looked at him,
his intensity embarrassing me,
and although my mind realized
his talent was raw and rare
i thought you'd do better.
he has manipulated his words,
switched them
back
and
forth
and
back
and
forth
and
you
sitting on a stage
speaking
freely
beats
him
standing there,
lights shining on his
polished head
stressing each syllable,
emphasizing each word.
he worked so hard to convince us.
i needed you then
to get up and look at us,
silence him
and show us that
when it comes to feeling
to truly feel
there is no need
to convince,
for it is revealed
purely through presence.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Girl, piece by piece


She comes to me piece by piece
broken
her eyes, ringed, deep, and hazy
I know she's been crying
she looks so old
and worn

It's how she loves
with all of herself
every time
Her smile means it
Her body means it
Her heart means it
every time
and they use her
like a drug
she gets them high
A quick prick to satisfy 
and just like that
she is the needle tossed aside





Tuesday, May 06, 2008

are we truly blessed?
or is this
damnation
forever wanderin
between coasts
and countries
and planets
and states
of mind
Rabbit says
home is freedom
and comfort
and I'm a
Forever Wanderer
I don't wanna
hang my hat up
i don't wanna
stand in one place
just to let
the world
spin around me

How long could I be a work against his dark banner?
I would rather frighten and receive,
Inextinguishable.

I sing him handfuls of centuries
Superfluous realms

Oceans, industries
I lay down days

Monday, May 05, 2008

There was also an old jukebox

Do you remember that night?
You and I went to the city to hear my friends band
But you knew laughingly that you weren’t going to like them
And we parked near a chain link fence near construction
And it smelled like construction dirt

We were early
And slightly awkward about where to eat
We had burgers in a restaurant that had paintings of elephants
And the air conditioner was too strong
You’re friend was in town
The healer

And…
Checkered floors

The bar had checkered floors
And you weren’t impressed with the band

We were standing outside smoking
With your friend
The healer

And some kids took us to a rave down by docks and factories

Do you remember when that happened?

American Playground SuperNova

Give me swings
So I can feel it all
All the stomach lifting ups and downs
All the breakneck change in perspective
And some kind of giddy absurd high

Like flying recklessly down a wet and winding highway
with the top down to the storm
Smelling the ozone
Our oil and rain
Toward some thing solid and ridiculous
Toward some fantastically nonsensical explosion

That will surely make a star

significance and cloth
elegance and panic
my eager dread
my uncoiled decay
passionate and passionless
a medicine.

We will all recover.

you fall hard, it hurts

she told me
to watch out for those guys
guys like you
with those seductive eyes
that draw us in
the wit, the charm
a mask
to cover
lies
and dancin' eyes

let's talk enormous
glory and gore
storms
let's shed
let's get wet

Saturday, May 03, 2008

invitation

i can't let you in.
the table's set for two
and there is someone
lingering
behind
you

you first

You cover yourself in hate
And I’ll cover myself in lust
And well see
Who gets to hell sooner

Its suposed ta be easier

What happens to your soul
When you die
When you’re not in love
What happens to your soul
Then
What happens to you’re soul
When you die
And you’re not in love
What happens to you’re soul
Then
You’ve got to do something
When you die
You’ve got to do something
When you die
When you’re dead
When you’re dead
You’ve got to do something
But you’re dead
And you’re not in love

Johnny

Let us be dangerous
And stare into my deep black eyes
All pupils
And I stare into your
Hard plastic bit
And pretend you have eyes
Soft and yielding
Just like mine
It’s so dangerous

Friday, May 02, 2008

update: ex-communication

Hi ho! I've changed phones recently, same ol' number but all of your digits have vanished in the switch. I miss everyone and i can't call and harass you kids with my wily west coast shenanigans anymore! Please call me and update me on your lives! I want to know about em! I'll be able to save your numbers to my new phone that way as well. Cheers!

Live like you mean it!

~*

Thursday, May 01, 2008

godspeed to you
miami girl
rushing north
with flowers in your hair
with nothing but love in your heart
and your promises of sleep
godspeed to you
jersey girl
in reaching home in time
'cause I'm not sure
if I'll make it
but I'll try
you're always worth
the weight on my shoulders
you're always worth
my difficult smile