quail bracken

the quail peep
the quail scurry
there by the flag of death's dumb oak
in a larder of bracken
from which story moves

whooping crane

father took grant and i to be the salt plains,
to be the oil, to be the granite and heavy breath
of stars collapsed
and for his efforts was shown the swan
but we seed whooping cranes
when there were only 13 alive.
what did your dad ever do for you?

rune carver riven

stone carver stag gored on moss driven floors
his monument unfinished in a glacial mortal blink
fen sunk bog borrowed anchored in egyptian gold braided tokens
the stag adamant stomping clay skinned bipedal form
rutting good ground soddy in sacrifice woden won't mind but
owe hrafnblot under three mantles carried four ways under one vine
god odin godan goghs to gouda fur goods dogs blood
chiseled in antler his chest demolished with thunder crack oak smitten fury
one narrow eye losing the canopy life liquidates light
prisms primordial chip crystal runes to gotland telling mother
bird clergy quicksilver mercy arrows flit father our craft has sunk dead
roaring rotten slugs easy go working with raccoons lynx and rat fleshnixxing
and raven gets them later to mend all nine colors five fires seven warchants
roosting doom dragon night owls creating math
number tone peace bread hearth son splintering shaft of fate gnarling last
thing driven into slab rock upstood by twelve with mighty hemp ropes
an antler or root or river or sorrow or ravine thronged in wolves foreign
teeth clouds open the stag moves stage left
snails and bluejays quibble over liver politics peer pressure not woden

5--23-17 Portland, Or

as morning laid rare

as morning laid rare in rafters not wooden
the thatch still of the field in cones of gold
hemmed by song voices of women
both undressed in summer's roofless merge
in twilight tracked her dance made of stars long gone
along first faintests and marked on the beams
so that later left open, the sky
(heart always would visit)
inside cherry wood cupboards last reaches
sleep spiders dust fed and sluggish so gentle flies
off wayward cows milk the way the silky sway
showing deepest night born thirsting eyes
not lacking from cover more ancient as an echo
traced to recall some era or vault engraved forever
she once was love shown and splinters there were nun
as sun everslow wraps one in another
drowns lifting darks demise in relative pleasure
no shield woden brung to sleep sated and slain, replete
to hear as mind winnows making room for far misty
lands coined only in friendship leather-laced
patient as thunder to please light's table
in hearts caved snore down drops nine legged dis
-asteroid eyed goddess moon drunk or hunting
under there where wood knot rest in unskilled spear slinging
cracking cabinets of cherry tasked with guard of the mead
if sentries less truant existed woe to them woden
unwoken sweet strings left silver fall once waters
not larger than worry woden harbored when farm realm
keep ships home in bosom bounty
anointed in ambergris with whalebone thrones under oak timbers
borrowed from time woden met his mountain
far smitten in furs to brave more ice than hell dreameth
in cradle his young and three lions for arrows aligned
in burl arms self wooded an acorn woden gifted off to twilight
her sail soft lining gone ways left shimmered
his palace no forest but dormant lava forge
a nest of bees making honey in woden's keep

5-22-17 Portland, Oregon

ribbed

offered a rib amidst naked women
as a peace offering from a sometime antagonist,
i made it part of me, used 3 napkins,
washed it down in 500 ales
the boar who ripped my torso making it my job
to subsume& conquer, to join as hunger entreats
in taking that which defines a city split
into factions, the low road meets the high path
in between i pick my teeth with dove wishbone
smash the plate on my head greet the bus
no problem digesting that can of populace as
it fits the zig in my broken side's zag,
22 years since last barbecue infested fridge
overwhelmed temptations for some self righteousness
at that hawthorne house wearing
scarlet lettered sauces where
my woman went astray, where my brothers fell
into her sty, where i broke my wrist in an empty kick
at a pinata the ceiling bore like fruit,
mane in streamers, toy filled,
plucked from one for the other to roast
in savory satire seasoned by real pain.

Portland,Or 6-1-17

life museum exit

                             

the indelicate theatre of sky
sits on the edge of its seat closing hours,
guarding heaps once lawns where trees
spoke. turn left; go right
names of masks or cases of rare colors,
homes rebuilt, fresh burlap ready to
plant as fruits of war fall.

1991

episode

big yellow strands awaken the island

within the pupil of laurelhurst park,

raven families course the airspace of engineered spuce  

beckoning duck cackle commotion

----lighter stations running older channels watch garbage cones

crosshatch by the bridge an escher picnic table feeds,

somehow, this nation of wants-----------

zero-panting about the ankles itchy from blue skeeters

                                  *

sidewalks start the politicians to magnify

cancer& reduce funds for marijuana

sweet medicine women procreate their own selves,

hatch books to generations choking on acid sleet

-----hypothesis yet a life unto what it dismisses,

goldsuns lash curlique attachments

to satisfy the segmented snoring blur, a thick worm

                                  *

feel the silence complaint mister nader pleads

under belittled constellations,

the pentagon's sunflower or a cheap van gogh

from the wrong year

whooping cough indians hi on robitussin launch a tribe

of antlered turtles into the language potion,

spell scribbles of preservative husbandry

on the arms of lucky charm knaves

                             1992 Portland, Or