4th of July

fireworks celebrate the 4th of july sky over the gulf of persia
and you're in italy, sleeping off a siesta,

the plane's passengers crossing the channel to their homes
smelling of lebanese meats& spices, the sound of silly children

happy to see their daddy, the spouse's complaint
of the local vicious dog that terrorizes the meter reader

just doing his rounds, and i'm pitching horseshoes
in oklahoma, taking aim and firing with my lower lip

silently chewed in contemplation
throwing my shoe& hoping for a ringer

as the macho burst of fireworks resounds in my mind
&all i felt was disgust, a dust gust of remorse,

dashdashdash dotdotdotting thru all the miles times& warzones,
all i felt from this celebration of isolation was nausea,

mind churning with visions of bloated floating dead
O spangled banner of of amerika who'd guess

you're not an island? surrounded by mental waters, you only lower
your drawbridge to send out armed salesmen

what carrion you produce along the skyways of commerce!
what blisters swelling on your triggers of ignorance,

what vain nationalism with your civil plights
& condom nation of others! and here, what say i of myself?

i too am amerika
i too an isolatoe

but i think and think that my dream has abandoned me
expand the terroritories into hearts of love,

knock out those with too much to give
wrap nature in disposable diapers and talcum consciences

by proclaiming (i am not) me
we swear it don't hurt though the drought burns pink skin

patriots! independence day
fade away like a pipe bomb

like a stomach ache
like comparisons that knot the side& shatter our illusory caskets!





1989 Midland Review #5
Oklahoma State Univ.

Iran Flight 665

"While flying in Iranian airspace over Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf on its usual flight path, it was destroyed by the United States Navy guided missile cruiserUSS Vincennes (CG-49). All 290 onboard including 66 children and 16 crew perished."

& eat shit CIA.

conjugations of beauty

blessed by a true lover, honored by
the grace of surreal, i relish my orbit

thru time in the factory of libraries of deciphered
conjugations of beauty----

this leading trail of incense, this
premonition of chosen exactitudes,

fallopian utopia of poetry can be caressed
as earthiness in an amateur's paws

it can be eMailed or chainmailed
joking jesterlike before the courts

it crests as a sigh& languishes
on the backs of eyelids far from home

it drives a limo uphill to a crudboard home
where a modest crowd, decked out in

austere hilarity, graces the wildflowers
heralding a chemistry of conditions:

sunlight, dew, friendship enigma anomaly
plus natural spice




swale canyon, wa. 1999

i make love

i make love with my eyes
because i wish to be seen through, i

make love with my tongue
because i wish to be heard, i

make love with my touch
because i desire you you your uh-huh, i

make live with my food
because i will be devoured, i

make love in my music
because the ear is the best orifice, i

make love in the street
because the forests are gone& felled

&sent to the mills of japan

the ditch undug

one plants seeds in a greenish house
&clears space

for barn, wonders and lusts on time
with art's promise after giving

oneself a halfhour to peruse
library nooks

whose due date can be extended by umbilical redtape
of ordering instant fuzzy ducks,

incubating no sense
unless one sees all as a pipeline& all

as the ditch
needing to be dug




swale canyon, wash. 1999

finite take mean form

ice shelf is nibbled away to the

music of classical guitar and refrigerator

hum, this is how the ideas come, shave points

deducted to feed the rising

seize, whales eat golf balls

wrapped in kelp,

thaw out one species as the others are annihilated

it is about shipping lanes

& oil production,

about using. lapping away the horizon,

making finite take mean form.

4-26-12 SE Portland