the Tom Swift
of bedded roses
the thyme smell that wakes you
in the backyard as the
neighbor gets evicted
    good bye neighbor who threw slugs into
our yard
 take the screaming children too
   and chop their little heads off
 are you smoking
   again
    hahaha
        see i wore overalls

and drove a sunbeam alpine
 and listened to british blues
    a sorry lot really
                 I'll take Howlin Wolf
ANYDAY
    he lost his mind
 and his memory
just fucking erased
   a shell with personality
  and photos
I smoked a lot of weed
  back then
     did it make me crazy
         maybe it did
   or was it something else
         all three of us are crazy
         was it something else
      YES IT WAS SOMETHING ELSE

Down by the Murdoch
  Burdock root
    Tea cups
Asymptomatic inflammation
 Relief is a quandary
STARE
 At us why don't you
Sleeveless
  or Slevless (as the bar sign barred
    us)
And bored us
   Grammatic quandary
 Now and
Never more

concattenance
purveyor,
 dream on the stairs
   back stairs please
no bodies here
not seemly
     clean up the broken pieces of splintery wood
white paint is chipped
 the moss is dipped
she was a stripped
a striped polka dot
she stunned
  like for fun
 somehow my back hurt
somehow
  the seemly  somehow
 the scenery
   somehow now
i have my comb
   my purse
 my mound
 somehow the light is on
  somehow I remember her
 somehow there's a
 a thought
    some ways we may have been
  some times
  concattenance purveyor
    the screed of the story minded
 somehow we strayed
from the story
somehow the sight 
 the scenery
the song
  how did it go?
 steady , steady  
on the shore
   steady steady rocky shore
steady steady
frightful and sore headed
 her socks were bad
that's sad!
   
 

the collaborationist's embryo
belief system
  star wanderer
    sleeper of soma dream
 embryo lemon biscuit
   purtenance gatherer
      seed stopper
          slinky symptomatic slayer
 of cylindrical sentences
 beverage monger
    makes hay
 haymaker
 says you
  says why says fuck
 oh says we
 oh why says we
  oh well says we
   fuck off says we
     fuck toff
      top of the toff
         why talk like you're british
 sleepy embryo slayer
   cup of the morning to you
toffer
   cup of the boring
 stupid
   symptomatic slayer
of steady nerves
  see? saw?
  slink to the link
slay the pay
  steady as they pay
we sly the sturdy
  steadfast hurdy gurdy
wise the wherefores
whizz and whizz-key
  whys key
    wet ski
     whatski
smutski?
fuckski
muckski
  oh and puttski
buh bye
  

Move 

pretty thistle 

 MOVE 

The Earth

   Move like Job

                        this pillar of salt 

        destined 

                     and perturbed 

 move the stairs 

the stones 

      the sighs 

                     the bloody whistles 

                                                move this upward belief system

                                     this mottled flesh 

 move the window 

 by the street 

move the street 

 move the antlers 

              and the stoney stares 

                    the bullet casings  

the whys and wherefores

 move the brilliant sad light 

          move the furniture 

                          and the books 

move to tears 

                            and move your rear  

move away 

   somewhere
     somewhere
         somewhere

 

 

White

Album

 

secret sales
were a form of victimization
  outside the purview of parental control
somehow I got back -
 I have the Marx SuperBall™ with your initials scratched in it
tough love
 I mean tough luck!
 Once I found a gumball in a box of marbles
I remember hitting that superball with a bat at Almond Avenue.
I hit it over "the hill" from the diamond near the entrance.
 the almonds were these giant green fuzzy things
 until the green part dried up and fell off in the fall
we used sit in the trees and eat almonds
  
 

Time travel
in the form
of bubble plastic
what was that stuff you had to keep in the fridge
 some things you just don't want to see
 

  

aah the collaboratist's
 collaboration:
excuse the mess
 it's the maid's year off
 

the pleasure dome decreed

my spleen 

  would suffer 

               my back was against the shadow 

                              I rewrote the book of revelations 

  sooth sooth thy sayer 

        the Oracle's mouth 

             will take your hand 

                         If you should lie 

                                     but not a word was believed  

                                                                                         

                                                                "Sycorax was left on the isle, pregnant with 

                                                                          Caliban, and died before Prospero's arrival"

would eye?

 pray now by the horses feet 

 "but they have hooves!"

        two roads diverged 

             oh ye of zero lies 

                              look into my eyes 

                       steady now 

                                                              all of Southern Pennsylvania looks to you

and the shadows are blacker today 

 with fingers readied

   "Ariel fly now"

                            the ships are to be sunk
 Go

                                 store the books now

                              Algiers awaits
steady the task at hand
                           a fortnight and still less to see
                               you wanted you waited 

                                              some clear eyed connivers
                                            selling theirs souls
 the mark was upon them;
    the sally forth
                                              the simple degrees of salesmanship
                                                warring with thoughtful hands
                                               and cotton from Africa
                                                             they spent the afternoon
                                                           but Sycorax was not to be found
oh, forget the afternoon
forget the morning
we fly by night
proverbially
 and literally
flying high like a kite?
yes- exactly
    read it now
            it was written
                               "the wurm has turned"
               
Steady now
                                     Algiers is not what it once was 
                                       giant lions selling yogurt
                                               camels in the parking lot
                                                                         Hercules' cave is a tourist attraction
                        where is the casbah
 he stole my wallet
 American cars parked on the sidewalk
Bill Burroughs
           lived in Tangier
        Again Sycorax was either dead or in hiding
She left a note for you
       but we missplaced it
                       you can sleep on the roof
                        there's a bed up there
 the morning fajr prayer
       will wake you
                              it's tom waits on bad acid
The curious are left to fly                                                
         we braced in bad weather                                  
 and jumped the shark
                                                  there were no morning or afternoon guides
                   down the stairs
                    you'll see 
at night we stared at the stars
 



  



 

      

 

  

 

Judas Escargot spilled salt on a snail.
he threw it over his left shoulder. "to get that devil"

John Crow Batty broke a stick and
  stirred the fire
   "Don't use rotten or green wood, too much smoke."
it was a hazy hot day 
 flies were buzzing around
  a goat bleated pathetically
he passed me a bottle
"Here drink this, but not too much."
His laughter was like a rock slide
 "Have you ever been to Morrocco?" He asked.
"I went there many years ago. The men wear full length skirts that have hoods covering their heads. They look like some freaky movie. They got some good hashish over there though."
The rocks slid again
"And the caterwhauling before the sun came up!  Nearly scared the crap right out of me. I thought insane man had taken drugs and was howling for the universe. Crazy shit."
He went to take a piss and the goat followed him.

A sweet smile
  sometimes mischevious
   on film though
    but still
    everywhere he went
 he brought it with him
 his Dad got out of the service
his mom had given him to friends to look after
(she liked the party life)
 he got the boy
and they moved around the city

Across the Barometric Steppes
   Across the Rheumatoid Canyons
Steeped in bologna and cheese
into THE Oakland typewriter wars
battling the Halal provocation
with broken belts
 and artisan donut holes
 the Sears of the MIND
you're swallowed and spit out
the Great Beast Leviathan adult life
 in a hapless and confused
money for white people
pile on
good to see there's positive change
in the air
today

I was so tired
and keyed up
drinking wine beer
whiskey & soda
 on ice
I threw a dart
but no luck
it was a poor shot
I felt so old
it was making me uncomfortable
people looked at me strangely
I should be in a museum
 "to your left is the ancient young man, careful as you pass,
his bitterness is contagious"
haha
 I 'm trying here, I'm really trying
I'm not gifted
  I have no voice
 except this nasally passage of time
 like a bad western
   or a song by Neil Diamond
Cracklin' Rosie get on board
  swweet dixie from pike
with her lover Ike
and a one spotted hog
  where's this going?
to a muffler shop in LA
with consideration

bandied argot
  the wise and the wherefor
studied rock formations on hallucinogens
 there's writing in the dirt
 just the rain
writing rose words
   as the sound echoes
again and again
another heads north
but I can't even see you
where are you?
right here
next to the dog
   sleepy salamanders
guard the lake shore
 we peer under rocks
an evil creature with a hundred legs
crawls out
 the buck stomped on your shorts and pissed on them
at least we found your glasses after the dog freaked out \and knocked\all your stuff\
into the cold lake

the color
so deep
like an unknown yellow
 mottled misshapen
  covered in oil and ground pepper
wash a dish
and sit down
 there's no wine
 today
 we are staring at the sun
 until we go blind

avoidance is key
when
there is no choice
   sub stasis litter-rear-y
 beguine the beguine
on channel 37
vhf
 

ur 

not making sense

   burr

 it 's raymond

from a grey stationwagon
 the highway lights
    you sleep
      through your days
        anger and frustration
your lovers
  the diner chairs swivel
 and the coffee is bad
 you are not jack nicholson
  you will not hold the chicken between your legs
  

peruse thy
honor
  remedius, remedial
the twin echoes
of fortune
betray thee
intoxicated tongue
   in cheek
the grass is greener
on our side of the fence

the pyre
 was seen in shadow
 a locus of tv stasis
   the hub-krap king
  wore an entire marching band
and bandoliers
in the shadows the rubicon
was passed
 rubicon
rubicon
rubicon

  oh fuckstick wait
 violins playing in the distance
THE MONSTER!
  no just a garbage can
 the wind is snide-eyed and october
 the leaves are chasing and chaste
i'm so decayfully
 beautiful

tv dials
   turning
in the night
  shadows of the dials
in our tired eyes
 mouths full of dusty popcorn
salted and cheesed
 syrupy beverage at hand
the monster
  the monster
    the monster
oops I have to go pee

scratchety myrrh 

and pigment 

   sighs 

                 are symbols 

 the sader 

   strings words 

                          sutures the sound

                                    strong whiskey prevails

              and suffocates reason

         stones are thrown 

                              oaths shouted
               Cars are a blur
                                                 yellow and grey and charcoal brick
a hand holds a key
                         another slaps the face
  and holds the pen

 

the sparks 

were from the sidewalk

we watched 

and laid our heads down

there were no rose 

colored glasses