your soul in its true form
and then
Later
Row 8 seats 9 and 10
Behind a
Wide navy blue column
Sharp angle at the stage
But it’s a radio show
So you tell me it doesn’t
Matter you didn’t tell me
To go for the balcony
At the Ryman, the
Confederate balcony no
Longer, the host notes too,
He notes
Even after the family,
Loose-woven
Delicate listeners,
Who griped
Groused
Bemoaned
  Later
in the newsletter about that
dreadful
opening monologue “fuck”
we didn’t hear because we
dawdled when we dodged
the whole queue
around the block
reassured one another
(a cocktail’s no place to keep
your Kentucky bourbon)
walking nowhere and then
again because of the stained
glass and then again because
of my weird personal timezone,
already left and behind
them left their open
seats which by
Swing Low
Sweet
Chariot
we’d found

I’m a poet, now.
I feel the emotions,
Think about the words,
Put pencil to paper,
Let the form flow.
It’s okay that I erase a lot.

Impatient is my wandering mind
For things that can’t be sped
Washing, drying, tick the clock
I lie awake in bed

For things that can’t be sped
Repeat, repeat, repeat
I lie awake in bed
Thoughts tumbling in my head

Repeat, repeat, repeat
Each morn, each day, each week
Thoughts tumbling in my head
Clothes in the dryer, then to fold on my bed

Each morn, each day, each week
Washing, drying, tick the clock
Clothes and cups and hair
Impatient is my wandering mind

Let us share this slice of pie together
at the long linoleum counter
with the chrome napkin dispensers

and stools that let you pretend
that you’re your own planet,
and forget that the cantankerous bus

is arriving any minute to take you away
or even notice that the coffee
has no chance of growing cold

for the refills are free,
and they keep coming,
and coming.

It’s not a metropolis
and there ain’t much

here:        In this Jeep, 
lying in a makeshift cradle,
seats down, blankets strewn,
pillows bunched with sweat
trickling down a body
like gutters without room
for legs, trying to sleep
I can’t see any stars outside
the glass.  They must not like
the light from the Taco Bell sign
any more than I do.

Four hours drive from home;
three hours /with/ before
eight /without/ until
a full day /with/ and
having to leave

again.
It’s not a metropolis
and there ain’t much

here

but you were.
You were.

Today, she meant to
go walking and got side-tracked
by all the yard sales.

Then she rushed t’ward home
because she needed to pee,
but she sneezed instead.

мълчание (mǎlchánie)

*** Silence of someone not speaking

1.

couple marry,
couple fight first night

see also definition (n) when there is more noise

2.

the rest is

3.  

PLOTUS for POTUS
For the price
of an L
we get better rallies
      (readings really)
where words withstand
gunshots and mugshots
PLOTUS hasn’t fallen
when woke words walk
     the country
     wide awake
     with pride
candidates on the stump
PLOTUS knocking on doors
his stanzas of hope
like psalms
left in mailboxes
by literary missionaries

PLOTUS for POTUS
Find him incognito
selling fruit at roadside stands
We The People stop
by to buy
biting the cold skins
of national conscience
justice dribbling down our chins
America is a big red apple
a curvaceous pear
black and white grapes
bunched together
exotic fruit ripening
at our border

PLOTUS for POTUS
and revolution ripens
in coffee houses
where PLOTUS reads
     for free
PLOTUS in high heels
PLOTUS of dark skin
PLOTUS’ all-seeing
     almond eyes
PLOTUS loving
     their own sex
reading for free
(free verse of course)
PLOTUS sets our course at last
America remembers

I buried it in the back yard
next to mothers cat
who had hardly any fur left
when she died, a mouse under her paw.

I chewed on that bone, marrow
dried up and cartridge stripped
by teeth, still smelling red and iron,
licking my lips for one last taste.

I took a lesson from the dog
and hid my treasure where I will join it,
sheltering from the oncoming fire 

rising from the desert,
seeking no home,
Scortching everything. 

My dog, buried next to my cat,
beside my bone, smells blood
and barks his warning,
Take cover, everything is red.