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

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

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

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?

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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!

~*

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

I had a date with Bukowski.
No change for coffee,
So I brought him the piss awful stuff from the faculty room.

He either didn't mind
Or couldn't tell the difference
He wouldn't stop talking.

He spoke to me in the back of my pickup truck,
Taught me things
While America's youth suffered inside without me.

It was all very romantic.
I went home, took a shit,
And wrote a poem.

i want to talk cost

i want
to find my arms without him

i
want
him

clenched,
a fish on a dock
weighing its wants

poetry
has
its
costs

beneath easy gleam
nests a network of need

speak
breathe

speak
breathe

speak
breathe

looming network of nerves
need
beneath easy gleam

Hey WHAT'S UUUPPPPPP!

You ALL BLOW MY MIND! Spring!!!

UNBELIEVABLE!

~*Rabbit

luncheon

there has got to be a foward-flowing thrust.
even if the ceiling fan dissuades this stagnation.

my feet float above the floor
and the flowers fall like rain
and furniture spins and dances
like fingers strumming a violin
strung from the moon
my joy knows no gravity
my joy knows no gravity
my joy knows no gravity

shreds

i find myself in two separate dreams:
a green room
plush and fresh
abundant, clean, concise
embellished by plants
and creatures of the wild,
melodic with the beat
of nature and harmony,
smelling sweet of grapes and passion,
unruly but donning a mask of reckoning
organized with the rhythm of my life
and the life of one other,
flowing together through the written
words
of our favorite authors.
the other vision
deep and red,
dripping with the blood of desire,
yet dry with the air of resistance
having been created by two beings,
each with thoughts similar
but repelling like the opposing poles of
pride.
weakness allows indulge
in a glance at one another
every now and then
longingly
wanting to touch
and feel
and be inside.
[the toughness of the strong animal
being sliced
and picked apart,
pulled back-exposed
is excruciating
yet most satisfying.]
at once when the sun falls
and drags the guards down with it
the floor ignites
and the red turns ablaze
through their defeat.

we muster and fuss,
makeshift,
stuck
in umbrellas and loves,
in musings,
in musts.

The day is the color of oxidized copper
And the warm wind is turning you on
And over
To stretch and arch your back
Slowly rolling muscles
In your stomach and shoulders
See
The red rocks break open
Only for the purple flowers
And you can smell things growing
And wet wood
With birdsong and creek babble
What a good day your having

Floating in twenty something land
With beer, music
A cat and a room mate
Like floating
In a tidal pool
That’s warm and changing

What a strange vacation
And how things are always changing
And it doesn’t bother
Because I haven’t realized
Fully yet
That I’m getting older
Letting the water hold me

And feeling rather free
To roll about carelessly in sand
Or bed sheets
Or bank statements

Because I don’t know
Fully yet
What “having time” really means
Letting the water hold me

adrianna
flicks her cigarette
to often
cuz her soul gets nervous
in pleasant conversation
but the moon
always catches
her lips just right

the winter's been cruel
to light spirits
and wet eyes

to the exhaust manifold of the midnight smooth
to caravans of wandering chilren
to the hearts of women
to poets, drunk with clenched fists and heavey smiles
to stock brokers, pullin their coats tighter
to truck drivers

thankfully the frost has melted
and the wind feels
right
again

warm nights
pass the air across my skin
lightly
as i smoke my cigarettes
on the brick stoops
of houses

and thats when the whole of samsara
doesn't simply look beautiful

it tastes and smells and feels and sounds
with all the wild textures
of perfection

like its swallowing me

supertramp

alex,
you were a saint
and yr eyes and smile
in that self portrait
with the "magic" bus
rusting
as the backdrop
show
the dream and the power
of freedom

i hear all these
prophetic words
like fireside and primordial
of a world amongst
the gravel sides of ghostly rushing roads
and wide open
ness

and i have to wonder if that dream
still breaths

or if it has become
just crystaline myth
all unchanging
in memory
now

or if the American Road is still a wild thing
filled with tramps

sometimes it all seems unlikely

panic unknown yet and racing
and i beneath
this 900 lb statue
of knig neptune
falling

then

next to a towering
faith healer
in the dual engine sesna
with the holy rockies
reclining and sprawling
below

to live just one life
which crosses paths
with both rollercoasters and witch doctors
spitting sugar cane whiskey and blessings
with poets and proffessionals

with dreams all etheral
and concrete, slow and hard

sometimes it all seems unlikely

to be blessed

Trains

I always lived by the train.
went to school next to the tracks
and rode my bike along them
to the rail yard and
the eerie yellow lights and
concrete platform
and names carved jagged
into to the benches

then moved north
and the station was just upstairs
and when it rained
water would run down the stone walls
would smell musty

and the train would take me north,
or I would fall asleep drunk
and it would take
me too far south

and now I can see the
Long Branch train yard
from my window

which is good
because I'm a poet
and trains make good metaphors

i'm sittin on a trian
pt to asbury again
5 stops there
high school kids
fresh off the beach
all shinny sun-screened
hop on and on
not off
but on and on
aways on and on...and on on on
until the whole damn car
is sardined and seeping
with girls
not women
girls
all chat chat chatting
and seriously
there are hundreds of them
squishing in
and they all know each other
so i ask one
a pretty blond
their destination
the PNC Arts center
...a Tom Petty concert

and I'm the pop culture casualty

listening to records in the art gallery

we dance on paint splattered floors
painting the rhythm of our feet
our bodies move together
the way a paint brush glides
across canvas

our chemistry
in red acrylic

first speed -
weeks
the speaking in dreams

next precision -
the teachings

then the days like petals -

yours

yours is a china dream
inside a dirty box
inside shiny tape
you ought to gnaw through the package
tear it open, make it food
smash your china dream to dust
and run

what are you still doing here

jibittY OH YEAH i'm laced with toxins and i like the way i smell like innocence. she ought to be a little less descrete. i'm still amazed that it all became a cluster fuck. i didn't have it in me to scream.

Springtime is a fucking cocktease.
Summer is worse.

My sweater
Fairly reeking of your perfume
Found behind a couch cushion
And my cigarettes
Always shared
Lead me to wonder
If perhaps
I shouldn’t reach
A little further
And ask
For help
Or more simply
Ask
What the hell is going on here

Only one hour left
And I thought
That I would be out of this bar
Unscathed
And then he leaned up and said

“Is that a mirror in your pocket?
Because I can see myself in your pants”

I was drunk
And feeling rather surly
So I said

“No… no that’s just a really shiny bear trap.”
And left
Wearing the worlds smuggest smile.

fuck

i'm tired you see, i don't know. i'm out of terrificly splendid ideas for making you smile.
shut up. i'm a gasoline fueled explosion of what the fuck was he thinking. don't try too hard babe, i'm relaxing in a trash bag waiting for the truck to take me to the rest of the rubbish. throw me out and i'm looking for more like this. just a rebound player from the under skin. got a bug in my head saying take it apart and i'm fine just fine. one little mouse says its okay to feel in a world full of questions im looking for more than answers, thats a trip, a ride on today. right now i'm thinking of drugs i use to take and pains i use to feel. i like all this sullen garbage with a few gallons of screaming guitars and broken glass. just a sore throat away from the end of the middle. and i'm looking to never end up you.

If you want to write poems about women
Stop writing
You're pretty much writing about yourselves

We are the same eyes and knees and shoulders and hands
The same bruises
Every now and then someone puts a bottle in your hand and looks at you

The world is otherwise the same
Lush and bleak and never quite home
We're both poets, let it go.

i will not receive proper questioning
i will not be summed or summoned
my curt greed will take chances
a searing rift to bridge,
i will demand bandages,
ribs -

We circle

We cicle, work,
And work on circles
Nearly crime,
This maze of manic ills
Impeccably aligned.

Crisp beads to carry
Too many left yet
To keep the cords clean
Their tense anxious mass
Keeps tangling my hands.

Strings to pick apart and chew,
Time to tame and temper,
All those orbs to move
You shiver, tighten, pick up speed,
Unfurl and reach for fresh machines.

What will we deliver
But ragged nerves and meager green?
These spheres are squalor, let's lay them aside
Miles of skin still
Tender, blind.

Pink

Are these returning birds?
Spindle prints and glints in the dark
My throat, filled with new air, aches
My hands and feet bound and unbound
My sick skin pink with wine and cold

Williams' Mechanical Bulls

I can see our friend
William S.
hunched over the pedestal
talkin' bout
gravity
and love
and always
mechanical bulls

and Brownstone
finding the longest
darkest roads
wishing us luck
in our journeys
throwing his head back
laughing mad
at the night

I can see
Grayson
stumbling down
narrow pub hallways
and back alleys
to take a piss
always showin' us
and tellin' it
like it is

Ed's at the diner
and Fisher's on the road
convulsing in
nameless hotel rooms
somewhere in the west

and the countless faces
and names
that it takes
to start a movement
or a cult
can be found in
all night diners
and stranger bars with
all of Williams'
mechanical bulls

I welcome the hand fans
and thin blankets
I see on the horizon.

I gather the treats
Clean cups for lemonade
And chill watermelons

And long desperately
For the company
To share these indulgences

When I looked up springs skirt
I noticed she was wearing summers panties
But I only personify out of need

Because time feels unknowable
And if that makes no sense
Let me make less

Time ends too soon
And leaves nothing behind

Like a dream had
During a warm afternoon nap

It is the perfect crime

Happy National Library Week, Kids!

I am crouching over the flute
its body lying in my hands
fingers paralyzed, not touching the keys

I am unmotivated
falling short
one note short of the chord
one string short of an instrument
one musician short of a band

Music needs to flow through
the veins of my body
flow straight to the beat of
my heart
so my heart could squeeze
up against the front of my ribcage
pushing me
telling me to play my song

I have to move
move toward that source
move toward that sound
move toward that rythmn
that allow my fingers
to feel the keys
give me motivation
play my song

I'm spinning
moving
falling faster than my hands
alive
the ground begs for me
I'm solid
with thick spit
and my heart heaves
slamming on the front of me
alive
shaking
sight blurred
bleeding
but just enough to love it
alive

She

She chooses wolves
Lines them up like glass
She lets them choose her and chew at her lack
They abuse form and reason, all reckless and rash
She chooses illusion and polishes glass

walls are mans way of saying hey stop lookking at my insides

i got a mixed message from a woman who eats emotional salads with balsamic vinegrete.
oh the colors she vomits when she's speaking to me about the death of passion and the purpose of peace.
just a letter i wrote that said go if you must but you've got my number if your hungry or lost

i was an abstract painting of
Johnson Park

you
wanted a photograph

5:47am

i drive down the highway
contemplating
trying to reach a destination
come to a conclusion

the fog gets denser
down the road
and it's really hard to see
the sunrise
through all those clouds

Split

Today I twist myself until I snap
Split open
My insides raw and loathsome, old dough
I twist, snap, and call it dance

In a city full of beards and shields
I stand
In cellophane dress
Cold

Everything around here yellows and tears
A cancerous pool
Sick fruit and abandon
These fools upon fools

all the ways

from a sunny balcony with a picturesque panoramic view in Russian Hill

from a staple stoop where birds sing their hearts out all day long in Alamo Square

from a fire escape where NYC eludes to be just blocks away in Lower Pac Heights

from the back alley entrance way perfumed with sweet olfactory essences in Lower Haight

from a comfortable greasy spoon cafe that caters to all senses, destroying hangovers, and feeding the soul for under 10 dollars on Divisidaro

from the 12 galaxies of a dark windowless bar that hosts local bands where on any given night you can find a friend and the drinks are always stiff in the Mission

from an occasionally shady bus stop in the jazz district where the trees that line the street are lit up perpetually on holiday, where footsteps sound like saxophones and the history is as thick as the locals are black on Fillmore

from the window across from an ethnic mural on a secret street cornered by the Beat Museum and the first strip club in the area to go topless so many years past, where the ghosts of Kerouac and Cassidy laugh in the seediness of night over slices of pizza in North Beach

from the front room with double doors and lavender bedding in a house, on the outside, identical to every other one on the block, where the fog lingers longer and the breeze is salty in the Richmond

from my seat on the grass behind me a DJ plays while an eclectic group of beings flared out drunk and smiling playing slosh ball (kickball+beer) watching the frothy spray shine in the sunlight as they slip and slide from base to base in Golden Gate Park

from the entrance of the BART amongst the hustle and bustle, towering buildings, abundant beggars, street vendors, mass transit, business suits, and brand name outlets of Downtown

I love this city

A Warm Kind of Gray

I feel like something I think
A person who trims orchids might feel like trimming orchids
Where the furniture is a warm gray
And everything is clean

And not
Not right now

Like the way a person who wears bruises well would feel like when receiving them
Where the sky is getting lighter
And the gray is cold

on the sand

Wet salty cool air
Has a way
Of making me assume
All my delusions
Have some founding
Down here in the clouds

I water the fern
And the geckos
And the kitteh
And stumble around
The internet
Getting closer and closer
To the future

Once and for all

I’m throwing out this handset
Once and for all
To a cordless phone
We never owned anyway
Because so many things
And people
Just hang around this place
Collecting dust
And bottles in our only corners

My Angels

when i am low
bottom of the trough
dirt in my lungs
rotting
like neglected fruit

when i am so low
only earthworms and anglers
greet me in the morning
that never really comes anyway
for i sleep through it
because the cold and the pain
rarely permeate my profuse dreaming
so low a smiles a burden

when i am that low
angels come to me
without warning
and wake me
lighting my heart
and lifting me up

they never say or do much
or present themselves as such
they leave as abruptly as they appear
they are discreet
and i have yet to encounter one
wearing white

but they sure do fucking shine!
and it's aways undeniable
that i've been touched,
looked after,
by the renewed hope in my heart
and the tears
washing the dirt from my face

my angels
are cab drivers
of all ethnicities
overflowing with wisdom
and drifters crippled
bearing honesty and kindness
in it's PUREST
my angels are quick and beautiful
and when i am low
they change my life
every time

that peacoat in your closet
always
catches my eye
the one you always wore when i was a child
its 50's style
the way it weighed you down
because it was a size too big
you wore that ugly coat
without confidence or style
its musty smell
combined with old cheap perfume
still embedded in its fibers

the coat always reminds me
of that night dad picked you up from nyc
i was lying across the white seat
in the back of that rusty toyota
"aqualung" blasted in the background
while you and dad sat
silently and cold
your eyes heavy
from the tears
the lies
the guilt
finally revealed
the decision to separate
my eyes wide and intrigued by the city lights
not knowing what was really going on

the peacoat remained in your closet
since that night
you had bought a new coat
one with style
one that fit
one you wore with confidence
and your eyes were radiant
eyes i inherited

22 years later
i wear musty old clothes from thrift stores
longing to be in the city

Act One
scene one:

woke up
thought well fuck,
the night had killed me
I died dreaming
the light and sheets and ceiling
white like heaven would be
and soundless
like purgatory
I roll around a bit
it's comfy
clouds or pillows
engulf me
then I feel you
warm beside me
the fog lifts
with my eyelids


Act One
scene two:

make strong tea
of the Chinese variety
love please
I'll smoke cigarettes
on your porch
while the dark haired woman
on the rooftop
of the building
across the street
tells (yells to) me about
her illness
and her kitten
and it's stitches
you invite her over
she just wants a soda
root beer or ginger ale?
we turn our heads
she disappears

when you stop to think
you should hurry up and start again
make every decision based on the breakfast you ate in 1972
all th elimo drivers in all the world and you had to walk into mine
sunsets are pretty and homelessness abundant
but i'm tired of fake smiles and white zinfindel
give me the rude crude bastard child of rock and roll and crooket teeth with fist marked faces
where cigs are 7 dollars and gas is as expensive as milk
where the lights illuminate something worth looking at and where you can get in a fight at a bar with a stranger cause he spilled your beer on your cleanest pair of dirty pants

listenin to soft guitar driven
art rock
in parking lot desert
reading poems from america
one state at a time
in a suit jacket
before goin into
a bullshit job

thinkin about mans three choices
(staying with the pain
running to some eastern metaphor
riding the mechanical bull)

i feel the muscles in my jaw tighten
with stress and desire

i see
the new punk
standing tough
outside the cinemas
of america
on friday nights
in expensive and pristinely worn
skin tight denim

and i play a movie over in my head
where
the dead milkmen
walk up

and kick the ever livin shit outta

the whole lot of em

bloody fuckin wenkers

strange
the way dancing
freezes the world as a picture
resting on the mantle
and leaves
you with the girl
swimming
through the baseline

she was tension
pulled tight
like force contained
and the snap
when it comes
will echo
angelic voices
and
steel twisting

metallic dreams
breathe
on me in my sleep
the light they catch and reflect
perfectly sharp
and clean

of convertibles and messiahs
and friday nights
late for curfew
and redemption

of swarths of light
smeared by mass and acceleration
and the uncatchable
wind, all holy

of murdered youth and innocence
by the clean sharp edges
of pleasure

of faith
lost AND found
of rebirths just as painful as the first

these kids playing banjo music
dancing in doorways
right in front
where they throw cold coffee
and snuff out cigarettes

no slow heartbreak waltz
the street is a-glow
and trinkets roll down through
the drainage grates
i'm stumbling blind past taxis
and they don't even reflect
in the headlights

so the air gets kicked up
at their feet, and i'm
walking off a bottle of wine
whistling along, echoes
shaking into the future

DB Cooper
jumpin outta his plane
in the darkness
in the black beneath
in 1971
in the wind
closing his eyes
and clutching his chest

bandits may rob me
but I snatch their eyes

and keep the dust
outta my face,
peek out over
my eyes stinging

DB Cooper
in and above
the skyward forests
or Oregon
says "get away with it"
in the darkness
in the wind

speech leech

I have 4ooo feelings
welling inside me
expressionless
and coughing
just don't see how writing
could do justice
these emotions

words are quick
and easy
we throw them around
recklessly
in attempt to communicate
we complicate

but what of a smile?
simply
solitary
where no arrangement of consonants
and vowels
parts it's lips
obscuring it's honesty
and innocence

I've lost them
those linguistic little instruments
lost the will to manipulate
my spirit
into grammatical framework
to justify my smiles
with reasons why they exist

may have been obvious
in the growing silence
I've been feeling anyway
that it's not how or what we say
it's what is never said
that leaves the deepest impression

samsara

as all this samsara
is beautiful and holy
all our footholds
will be worn down by time,
leaving the world and us
sheer and shimmering, beautiful and holy

sing me a song, beautiful and holy
ooh-ooh, la-la la-la
don't you see i gone too fa
just gonna stay at home with my ma
cain't see for the light coming off that sta
sheer and shimmering, beautiful and holy

as all that is in the universe
and all that isn't in the universe,
time lapping like waves
leaving us battered,
sheer and shimmering,
beautiful and holy

too many days without a decent burrito
and i'm telling you darling i miss your smell.
i keep a lock of hair to remind me
of that time i almost dove out into traffic
in an effort to escape that song.
i'm trimming nails with my teeth and buying two dollar burgers on the beach
waiting for low tide.
just a man with a dream of nudity wealth and love.
brown toned skin from the all week sun and even on its bad days i find it so apealing.

living a rich lifestyle on a shoestring budget trying to remember that i'm only acting like i know what i'm doing.

Child Prophets

ive got my hand in the plate
will you deliver it unto the king?
my tongue is sharp, cutting through the collection
with shattered excerpts of prophecy
we babes are speaking do not turn away
we share a leaking
its dripping into a pool on a tile floor
where you'll all seed deceit
and it will flourish
like an infection

the orgasm of this wicked sowing
will chill you to your home
and the mountains refuse to give you comfort
and the oceans wont swallow you,
no, this station will not serve you
its not crippled its cocked for self destruct
its indifferent to the human plot
look out

shaking hands wet with the washing of hands
kept with the shivers of man in a place where light is in a great demand
ma'am i can't feel your fingers in my grip
the branches are slipping away slipping away
don't let the blockade of complacency stop you on your way
it's made up of wires soldered tight to the board
feeding their greedy little beadies greedy little fingers
great greedy arms of a great greedy bastard
beast is unarmed but LIVES like a weapon
beast is unarmed but lives like a weapon
throw us overboard
we're going to have to be the tribe of exception

Unmeasured Tides

for now its walking in the temple,
the cannonball through the mosque
paradise lost

christened with the toll
cremated at dusk
fire and rust
were his only parting gifts

but you can shake a hand
and feign to comprehend
we're full of failing dams
wither us, we rust
envision us as dust
its welling up inside me now

apply pressure release the puss
boils inside my throat
vomiting water
let the dogs come home and lap it up

i'm shivering shaking
we're a bomb without a casing
exploding little eyes to find the
carcass where she hides in this mosque
i'm quivering quaking
we're a litmus tounge into the acid changing
and when i think i'[ve got your hands
you'll be thinking about how long the fall is taking
we've reached the nexus
but it's just the vestibule
we've abandoned our dear friends
we've reached the next place
the unquestionable
its in our written end

turn off here,
the engine
may be on fire,
or there

may be an
electrical storm,
the sky ripped thru
with jagged fire

or maybe just a
beat up old field,
and we can build
a lean-to out of old
poems, radio
waves and opiates

I mean, the clock's
busted, so maybe we've
been on this road all day.
my eyes are starting
to reflect the pavement
in that way they do
before momentum
simply takes over

"Always remember, your focus determines your reality."