Tough luck rend

   

'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all (trite recompense truism)

***

Land with a home, with water year round 

On first visit greeted by turkey abound 

We'll take it the stake an owner contract

20 percent down eight years payment 

In dry season purchased the creek ambled o'er stone

Alder ash snags provided our thrones 

Tiny fish in pools ate algae the heron ate them 

The frogs at night chorus deafening din 

Of near 80 Acres not much fence hemmed

A south facing slope our swale portend 

How thousands year trickle become full blown torrent 

In seasonal escape the waters land rend 

Along canyon basin ten acres spread level 

Pine ponderosa and oak the basalt court gavel 

Flood as per wont resolution inure

The water table thru august endure 

Deer trails of habit of numberless trod 

Fractal rock no issue to four hoofed clod 

Up to groves unmilled unburnt the oak as hearty as time 

To clasp it round join children nine 

Late spring rain ceases but springs bring life strange

Midway off the hillside above 1800 ft range 

The spring mouth green cloistered it's descent likewise fresh grasses

Near high desert past the cascades moisture passes 

All animal seek sip to skip the climb down

Creekside means predators that's nature found 

Loggers or cougar or bobcat or hawk

The food pyramid lopsided gawks 

There by the spring now meadow unveil 

An oak 400 year on it's side prevail 

Ground offer glimpses arrowhead shard 

Home once and always but luck tough hard  

 

Portland vis a vis 

 Swale creek, Wa 

All the same

  

As they spray the garden 

I smell cilantro a hundred feet away 

The coriander eats from soil unburdened by locked minerals 

The spiderweb lattice whipped up 

Seemingly mid air depends on a far off branch 

The architect in center does their rounds 

Flies in summer sunlight sprout 

The imitation rain all the same to the thirsty 

 

Sleeping under the stars (1988)

  

Alone with a pack of sad sack cats and long legged

Flying insects listening to arlo guthrie  sing about the hills of Oklahoma

As dad hurtles thru the mexican night laden with vibrantly colored

Playthings and bottles of potent vanilla extract stashed beneath

Laurels of dried peppers, he's probably on

A texas highway listening to the hum of his wheels on the asphalt

Driving slower than he’d like to the hot rocks in his brain

Grinding his backbone against the clock, trying to make

Good time. Last night I slept on the concrete slab

Under the star, listening to the wind thru the trees, huddling

Up against the black nest of darkness, counting the shooting lights 

burning thu the immense tracklessness 

Weaving webs of sparkling filaments between barn doors

Of consciousness, 2:43 in the morning and the

Neighboring roosters are in the shower zesting their crapmatted butt

Feathers listening to the local weather

In a few hours perching themselves as pinnacles in the zenithed steeples

Of honest dreamtowns, crowing at the sun as it lifts

The dew off the pine needles facing east& dad

Pulls over at  truckstop for a cup of coffee,

A splash of water for the road

Oklahoma-Kansas 1988

published, Renegade (Point Riders Press, OKC OK) Frank Parman editor

Sure dig the ride (1995)

 don't be surprised when they sew shut

yer eyes& kick you along long a sailor to die

don't dare complain as they mutate yer brain

to thinking it can't fake enuff to retain

all glory's refrain

don't go to war unless it come to You

sure sucks to get shucked in sam walton's shoes

unless yer the boss of the boss of the boss 

and can occupy loss like old dental floss

so please take me along i'd sure dig the ride

just like i did panama and erie canal

so don't compromise when they exercise

a right to detain a portion of brain

It's jest ten percent post consumer cement

surely you know we never relent so don't make

love unless it come at you

sure sucks to get plucked wearing pistorious shoes

unless you the boss of the boss of the boss 

& can delegate loss like palenque moss

so gimme a dig, i'd sure slug the ride

Just like i did the panama and erie canal 

1995

Revised 

Smearamid (2020)

 smearamid

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  

Klieg light threnody (2017)

 An instrument balm, her voice aphrodisiac

booming emphatic enough to cardiac

   arrest any sheriff, or bailiff of cupid

   tasked to swoon swains;  stupid's

mead-merry eyes, drinking all wenches,

in bleary bleak praise, half-glued to benches

   teetering toward such sultry-smooth bait

   odysseus and frank sinatra can relate---

---mermaid her siren thigh shimmering tone

---oceans of strange fiends atonal, bone

   reaped of sheepskin the razor reefs claimed

   the toll song extracting, not first explained

Bombing a silent salient hero

searing ear pleasant (math with all zeros 

Stay green

 "some envy caught remains to stay

the crimson leaves" 

To stay

Stare decisis 

They never stay but linger longer 

Leaf leaves tree grieves 

What can you do 

But pine?