Thursday, October 29, 2009


STARE DECISIS


is unbroken, and you couldn’t
look further away from the truth.
Your vacation starts now.
The stakes depend on where
you pin the poisoned-eyed
absolute. I see you gleaming
in last twilight, but it won’t get you
any fast tracks to kingdoms best
left unmentioned. You are a far cry
from common ground, as we stand
by that which has been decided,
and still, you can’t leave the rest behind….

Sunday, October 25, 2009


YOUR SCARECROW


casts a crooked shadow.
In the cracked muddy rivulets,
we used to tell time.
You are less than yourself
when you step outside.
The sun runs its’ purpose
and the shade chases fast
and every line you’ve drawn
can be crossed and erased
and forgotten, because
darkness just went past.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009


AN EMPIRE OF LIBERTY
(for Tecumseh)


When ink can choke an open mouth
when nothing is left to be said
when the forest is ablaze
and the eyes are blackened
and the bullet is hot
and the spine is breaking
when nothing is left to be said
you say these words, “We shall
leave our bones upon them…”

Monday, October 12, 2009


LISTEN FOR ANNOUNCEMENT


The ears are peeled, the mind is blank,
the night is full of the digital
approximation of silence.
We are attending a ceremony
in our honor, but the invites
have been wiped clean.
Come to think of it,
all the labels from my clothing
were neatly snipped out
while I slept, and my driver’s license
now shows a picture of me
missing on a milk carton.
Come to think of it,
I can’t think of it,
and such forward-thinking
leaves me way behind the curve.
I count loose change, and try
to make small talk with strangers,
but then realize I’m not sure
of the language that’s supposed
to leave my lips…

Sunday, October 4, 2009


BLACK BOX


The first turned coins of dawn
gleam, a bird song flitters,
and the black box out my window
is slowly opening…

I am less than myself
and more than I want to be
as the edges spread,
and words fall in between…

Monsters