Saturday, February 9, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
A CAUTIONARY TALE
There was a bumper-crop of tall dark strangers that season.
You had a whole range to choose from.The vox populi sprang from every strangled chimney-top,
all of it a tournIquet of yearning. Nothing a needle and
thread couldn't solve. What was left marched downtown,
what was fiery was voluntarily doused. It might help
to claim radio interference at this point, out in some
far-flung province. Open mouths count as dark spots
in the integrated web. Their tracking system is like
infra-red, only a cruel inversion. So clear,
a bible could be written by it. My God, pain
was started for a purpose. It was made for you to look the other way.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
DREAMS OF EMPIRE
Like everyone else I know, I live in fear
of a receding hairline, roots like the last stands
of virgin forest being pushed back, until each follicle
is dazed and isolated, a drunken party-goer
alone on the sun-bleached plaza at dawn, counting loose change, wondering what
happened to his companions, if the concert
is still going on.
Oh, I still dream of slipping into the evening
in a black velvet suit. But once I wandered,
hopelessly delusional, and found my way back
by spotting a Rambo billboard, his sweating gun
leveled against his own townspeople.
I knew I was close to home.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
DREAMS OF EMPIRE #2
The 6 AM fish market stunk of guts, it glistened.
From a doorway, a leering stranger gathers his bones
long enough to ask for a light.
As I cup the sulfured tip for him, I see
I am speaking to my own ghost, spun
of clothes I am just beginning to wear,
flayed down to nothing,
to the merciful medicine,
to the buffalo bone.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
WEIGHT
I have come to feel the weight
of strangers who live as close
as the windows across the street. Although for me, they weigh
no more than a snatched breath,
a stuttering film clip, something
held in a lidless blue light,
in a grip so steady and determined
it must be a dance; one that is heavy,
twists under its own weight.
Her fingers by the sill,
a mute instrument ready
to draw the curtain, to forget all this,
to say, “the dance is closed.”
Sunday, February 3, 2008
LIKE LAZARUS
Like Lazarus, I make of myself what I pick and choose
A raiment on the battlefield
stripped clean from a very lost deal
Like Lazarus, I turn over a stone
find a new leaf that’s more like a loan
It’s obvious, I’m spread too thin
A name’s not a name if it can’t wear a skin
Like Lazarus, I begin at the end
My heart’s in my throat in a box that says, “Pretend”
Take it on faith, like oxygen
that the story, yeah, the story, starts again…
Saturday, February 2, 2008
IMPULSE PYRE
I am here, and yet I'm not
I'm in Japan, I'm an astronaut
I am Polyurethane
Witness Protection has changed my name
I'm in every time slot
A nouveau toxic forget-me-not
I split the cost with God's domain
Now line up to feel my pain
Like a lamb to the slaughterI have tasted Zeus' daughter
I'm the itchy fingered fevered
lust you wish could linger
Face it, I'm contagious!
I'm so wired, I'm on fire
an impulse buyers' funeral pyre
I'm the sum of all my parts
I feed the need, hit Restart
I am Megalopolis, spit out
from Heaven's dust
I'm so in, I'm out of frame
You do my work, but in your name
Friday, February 1, 2008
Thursday, January 31, 2008
CRANIUM NIGHT
There are only the smallest moments left, when branches twining up among
the last steeples of light can make me feel a weakening inside, a wonderful
and hollow cusp of nothing.
Let sway the rigid atrophies! Scatter the spores of old hair-cuts,
nail polish, sweaty vinyl back seats,
gasoline and mowed lawns-
devour the immaculate!
The cranium night is long.
I am awake.
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CIVILIZATION AND ITS’ DISCONNECTS Turn off your computer. I know, I know. I will cease to exist. I will return to my cave of shadows, ha...