one foot in the stave of a stove moat
searching for meaning's orphans
derelict as advertised, and full of high dollar vinegar
attracting more sugar than flies can
pass thru an oligarch's sty
splintered into bacon only francis can sell
on a seashore swilling troll snores
harpy harpooning lampooned hydrofoils
skimming over the hedge fund miasma
at once encircling
and at once disappearing into reverse smoke
tossing unmeant utopias
atop the smearamid
2020
grasshopper on the warm autumn wall, sun
rounding the rough plank
getting painted, perfect leaves
welcome the veneer of human effort,
well until
i come across a squished squirrel in the residential
street, i pull and fling
it by its death costume
to some grassy crevasse
by a fence, that's better
2019
Wind sweeping tree tops so luscious,
Threnody of poverty
Aisles of leaves unwrapping
Evening's gold bars
From nocturne's sultry cogs,
Tossing all human care
Like an olive oiled salad.
2019
Good if children never know existentialism
Or sophistry or cognitive dissonance,
Ostriches are make believe chickens
And Charles Dickens was a
Chimney sweeper of clean coal
And Twain appeared in blackface only
To be stricken from the curriculum
Used to mop up the
Overflowing levees
Good, better to never know the arc
Of history or donny darkos
Apotheosis
Or the ways to neutralize satire
Or how to eat spaghetti with
Both spoon and fork,
That's not existential
That's team twerk.
2019
under apple roots chrome gnarled
merry her basket all berries bursting,
chirp cats birding.
watercolors all time revealed,
priceless spider tagged whisper.
trout paused under olive pelt shadows,
history pastiche drunk on fertile
weanings over sun scoured feet magnets
calendar collects as stream pools
murky his brisket all brimming
beside grail grackles grinning,
suspect.
2019
Of course mosquitos after blackberry
Shoots send blood into the breeze,
Peahens call over the hillside
At dusk, I saw two fuzzy chicks
Run after their scavenging royals
Not sure which is worse
Fresh scrapes or the predators
My day started great
I had a dream with Mesa
She was a silly kid having fun
The peahens howl behind in other trees
Fucking fireworks those sad birds
They made it thru a windstormed rain
Neither worse nor well,
America.
2019
Rex
Sitting at the park, moonlight lonesome asks fetch my poem
No I demure, 'tis for my daughters
Better make it good jerk the moon swings between trees
Oh how other me in my eyore voice drinking a small can of priceless
Who crushed who heart ten years ago
Was it pressed in a library book overdue?
They'd do impromptu plays, maybe ten minutes of practice out of sight
Our living room kept getting smaller over the years , Natalie's paintings everywhere
We had a hearth however with a beautiful woman holding her violin almost correctly at rest
I bought them violins a few years back, thought they'd beg for lessons
Isis loved dance and drawing and poetry, who's to prioritize
Mesa loved making cartoon stories with narratives, we have them today in storage
The girls had their own rooms
We had a bathroom connected to the master bedroom
It wasn't fort anomaly but the cul de sac was only blocks from their k thru 8
I had 5 gigs, jewelry at the psm, music all over town with famous old folks, painting the kingmakers home in eastmoreland, making delivering salsa to 12 mile, being a father husband poet
I made up stories every night to put the girls to sleep
I'd done that their whole lives
Now I'm not sure they remember anything
Creston friends and once verboten family, the wedge appeals to adolescence, interrogation knows
Ten years later they're women not girls they call their own shots
They got mom on speed dial and if my text arrives on a day of the week I'm subject to scorn and advice
Silence also intrudes
In a city not your hometown but one where all the sudden fuck i gotta buy my own quesadilla
dawns.
April 29, 2024
