the squiggles of the moon
in the water ‘round your feet
is how powerful you are.
when I close my eyes,
I can see Alex flying.
the squiggles of the moon
in the water ‘round your feet
is how powerful you are.
when I close my eyes,
I can see Alex flying.
little yellow dog
without your nose
I ask you why
do you have
no fingers or toes?
little yellow dog,
loved for floppy ears
and for golden eyes
that haven’t changed
for twenty years.
I have a little puppy,
Her name is Laura Moore
She has a baby python
And I am hers for sure.
Her hair is red like crayons
She’s fun to tickle, too
My love for her is endless
And fat and big and true.
I am
read to a man in a wheelchair
who smiles and laughs out loud
because
he can remember.
I can remember
mixing the chemicals
then taking it.
flowers stand
in a pot for tea
under a scroll:
the rain is quiet
filling pools;
mirrors for the
clouds’ coiffures.
in an alcove
of dark wood.
so many big
things to capture
with the clumsy
butterfly net
of my poetry.
I lay claim to
this piece of earth.
something to
lay my picnic blanket on
when I’m dead.
sometime when
I don’t feel so lonely
and afraid;
somewhere to
rest my head.
I was captured in the mirror
of a pool of clear water.
I watched myself climb a big rock
behind me without falling.
I
I beat a trash can like a drum
in the alley behind your house
at night when the stray cats gather
on the fence around my feet.
we are all going
to fly to the dark side of the moon.
II
I see the big sack of your skin,
hung up as if in a slaughterhouse
and God stuffs in your muscles,
your organs, your soul;
sews you up and throws you to earth
to land like a leaping antelope.
III
I curse the dawn licking the city skyline
clean of the octopus darkness.
I hold my rings up to the last star
and plunge back into the timelessness
of the dirty brick alleyways.
Thor swung his
hammer aimlessly,
for there was nothing
left to fight.
I see the rain
breathe her mist
over the mountains,
marching relentlessly.
a fog’s curiosity.
smell the earth,
touch the wet drops
on a delicately outstretched ivy leaf.
where am I going tonight?
crowded subway train
full of sleepy dreamers;
it never stops, but they get off.
somehow I don’t notice,
surrounded by nightclothes
that are empty.
I fly away
to a mountain top
and let my breath fall
to the valley,
happy in sleep.
beautiful bat wings,
and strength,
watching plants grow,
my mountain eroding,
everything melting.
I plunge to tear out the heart
of an evil man,
crashing against his hairy breast
and falling
to the pavement,
staring at his shoes
as he, not noticing, watered his lawn
into my eyes.
I lurk.
a leviathan under the surface,
battling with dreams
and limitations,
darkly, silently.
I lurk,
therefore, I am
Kraken.
massive,
fear-inspiring.
awesome,
horrifying.
I lay at the bottom
watching my bubbles
swim towards the grey surface
around the unfortunate.
I gave my green to an apple.
I gave my yellow to a spider.
I gave my blue to a firework.
I gave my red to a blanket.
I gave my purple to a crayon.
I gave my orange to a streetlight.
Then I gave them all to you.
seven large pillars stood alone
surrounded by heaps of moldy bone.
your skulls are marked with waterstains
but flesh in your poetry remains.
climbing slowly around the piles
holding, examining your whitened smiles,
wondering what of my poetry
when I have become as thee.
A candle
Burns
With a certain virtue:
Demon, saint
Hesitate;
Damnation speaks
I am
Revealed in
Flickering shadow
Heaven
Slender shining
Tear streaked
Patience beast
Dancing
To the sense
Of smell
Sing praise
To the arch
To the pedestal
Nod the fire
Dream the sleep
Of kings.
poetry comes as the shadow of a cloud
across my paper, staining the white,
and I only remember how much I was
in love with you for that moment.
Imitation of The Hand
holding endless golden grains of sand
at arm’s length – my hand
sifts thoughtful each piece’s worth
feeling the elemental drums of the earth.
Imitation of The Island
alone on an island,
I build my own church
to God
and it was nothing
because I’d rather have died.
The lazy brown dog
stayed home and
watched the Chargers
lose 17-14.
the crows have
come to peck out
our eyes, peck
out our eyes,
peck out our eyes.
the crows
have come to
peck out our eyes
so that we may be enlightened.
decomposing, I lay in sleep,
wrapt in the silk of a thousand worms,
mixing with the rain
and the earth and the air,
melting like ice cream
on the sunny sidewalk.
frogs at the pond
make finger-shadows
and see them dance
on the surface of the water
during lightning.
what am I?
snail tracked and painted myrmidon,
striped with the best of the barber poles,
suckled as a final Lemonhead.
death comes as a white hat.
I am Amoebaman,
extending, distending
the mighty pseudopod.
phagocytosis: I eat,
scavenging across the floor
for succulent young
women’s legs,
dragging them under
my big checkered
protoplasm
and giving them cooties.