daybreak
soon the bird
will leave the nest
and find another home
(blackout poem from Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms trans. Yu Sumei)
bring evils and destroy,
obtain,
claim all great things,
court the mountains and spears.
orphan and abandon shelter
before you understand the aspirations of man.
suffer and seek,
seclude and scant.
weak men, burn away.
how an urge from under
keening from the past
a woman’s long dirty nails
reached out to sully you
what grasping fingers
rescued from creation
what fingerprints of genius
hold you down
Jimi on that strat ax hammer penis
Crosstown Traffic
Can You See Me
make me stronger
then you kill me
Sunrise on the starship
Tear down the walls, motherfukers
Go ride the music
I’m So Glad
Green Grass and High Tides Forever
nervous at the movement, the car window
and the glare
Road to Ruin
I Don’t Want You Anymore
they load the rolled-up air with anger
you play it loud to
kill the windshield time
without a woman
Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad
Lou Reed John McLaughlin Bowie Jethro Tull
vinyl lying on the floor with ashes
fryouts way too loud and late alone
Odysseus chained to the mast
sirens eat out his liver
they think it’s a different movie
sailors didn’t sign up for this shit
You said you had cocaine
She don’t like
She don’t like
She don’t like
Cocaine
the glare was daylight
now it’s poison
are you a bad witch,
or a good witch
Dorothy?
AM I ROOTED
OR COMING CLEAR
PRAY EVERY MORNING
you’re my blue sky
you’re my sunny day
Lord you know it makes me high
when you turn your love my way
walk along the river
I had the water hose in the sandbox
drowning the enemy army men,
turning their battlefield into a quagmire,
even my own bazooka guys were sinking
out of sight so I ran over to the faucet
under the wood worktable propped against
the back of our garage to turn it off.
And there was Vicky Veeden, the girl
next door who was in 3rd grade but often
stayed home and hung out with me; she’d
brought her stepdad’s old navy blanket
to drape over the table for our play house.
“Just home from the war I see,” she said.
“Let me hose you down.”
The cool water ran muddy and then clear;
it shot through me like a bolt when she put
the hose into the front of my shorts to get
the sand out. “Come into our house to let
me check your wounds,” she said. In the dank
gloom she looked at every bit of me for
imaginary injuries: a broken leg to be set,
a head cut to be bandaged, a hurt in my
middle part that she had to examine.
Then our play changed like a dream.
I held back from Vickie’s embrace
when she tried to show me what mommies
and daddies did at night. Still, I wanted
to know about our underneath parts
so I stayed for all of the show and tell.
I knew I should be learning something
important but I had no idea what.
When my mother called me in
for dinner she asked me
which side had won the war
Shakey, Silver & Seven
Romana Place Pack,
we ran in gangs.
Ringing doorbells at apartments
on Elaine St.
running home to put on pj’s,
alibis in bed.
Jevenile jet set,
we were wild.
All three kids,
we cracked our noggins…
Ralph, snowball held high
turned to smack into a pole.
The Big Wheel Wagon parade
handle slam mishap
got me 5 stitches.
Ryan, little Ryan’s sweet head
under the library bench
rushing to Children’s Hospital
blood on the seat.
Rachel Ann (cuz I was Rachel
there couldn’t be two)-
her sister pierced her brother’s
ear with two cubes and a needle
right there in the kitchen.
Up on the hillside
the boys with their club house,
no girls allowed.
Catching Collette
with Jaylene without me
playing in her back yard
my heart feeling so crushed.
Stollen from city
My City
abandoned for farm life
Brown County.
the straw
that would have broken
this camel’s back
you added
to your light bundle
making mine weightless
The world collapsing all around
My mind a cyclone of words
Painful words
Through the dark I found your hand
you found me
You brought light
I couldn’t make a spark
Labored breathing
A heart bleeding from words
But you found me
Giving me strength to go on
