I'm a Mexican street dog

I have no owners 

No one regularly feeds me 

Or even really gives a hoot

I have complete freedom

Covered in "fleas"

Scratching 

Me and my type wander the cobbled streets

Sniffing for fallen leftovers

Sometimes we get in fights

But not often 

Mostly 

we could care less

Why bother?

It's a beautiful day

My tummy is full of an old sausage

and this cool sidewalk in the shade

Is a perfect place for a nap

Thank god I'm not one of those

yappy leashed pet dogs

getting called poopoo by a rich old lady

 The Mexican Sun

Beat on my head 

like a bad rap song 

I steered clear of it

Wherever I could

sidewalks with shade

Various shadows of palm trees

Or street lights

Dark churches I avoided though

Hell will be even hotter!

I should have gotten down on my red knees

and prayed for help

but instead

I went with 50+ lotion

Two times a day

Jesus, they said, could walk on water!

But only because no running at the pool?

I got a margarita and sat smoking a cig watching the street dogs

Sleep in a shady spot

On the sidewalk

 I had a reservation at a hotel in Puerto Vallarta 

Showed up

and I realized whoa totally gay hotel

The receptionist dude touched my hand

and asked if SF is still a gay town

I was like yeah the Castro it's SF

Then my card got declined

Twice

I was WTF 

IVE GOT TONS OF MONEY IN THAT ACCOUNT

I called my bank and was told my card had been cancelled  

because they'd sent me a new card.

I was WTF. 

The card is good until OCTOBER!

His Pakistani accent said

I'm sorry there's nothing we can do who would you like to speak to now 

Umm your SUPERVISOR!

AFTER WAITING TEN MINUTES ON HOLD

THINKING IM IN FUCKING MEXICO

WITH NO MONEY

the supervisor said no your card is good

The other guy told you the wrong thing

The hotels system keeps kicking the charges back

I went to the ATM in the hotels lobby

and took out 5000 pesos

and then I told the receptionist

I'm not staying here

There was another guy at the counter who said 

He was being declined too

Same bank

I got a taxi and got the hell out of there

 In a bar in Cruz de Huanacaxtle 

Pretty good bar- lots of loud live music-

They had a rockin salsa band one night- so good- I heard the trumpet and had to go-

Usually rock cover bands- good musicians but kinda blah 

White boomers singing along

Met a guy named Hector who runs an ocean sightseeing tour- nice smart guy 

Who lives in Bucerias

He was cool

I told him hector is also a verb

Wali said you mean heckle. No!

Es un verbo! I was a little drunk

Smoking cigarettes by the open wall 

hec·tor

verb

1. talk to (someone) in a bullying way.

   "she doesn't hector us about giving up things"

   
   

 the ladies run the town

For less than 100 pesos you can get a full meal

With a giant green plastic cup

Of ice cold horchata

'Comida Economica de Dona Vero'

You go thru the kitchen to the back patio

The menu is an old chalk board

Everything is cooked

Bistec rice bean tortillas 

She serves it less than dos minutos 

She sits at another table with her old mother

And young daughter

Where are the men?

No one knows

Quien sabe?

Wali's been there but she won't let him bring the dog

Into the back patio

He sits at a table out front

On the sidewalk

 people with money

  

    but little sense

   fingering 

   America

       all they have 

   " I was all fuck that

she wouldn't fucking shut up"

   while they smoke crack

  on the the sidewalk 

 And Dream of North Vietnam

  And dirty dishes 

In Moscow 

 from dry dusty Mexico

  my old huaraches had

   stretched and don't hold my feet

  the man in the Huaracheria said

  these weren't made here! (Same town though)

  I asked if I could buy a leather cord to use

as a shoelace 

  to hold the heels on my feet

I'll give you a new product

Huarache Sneakers

  you'll make a fortune

 He said it won't work

and was very dismissive 

finally he said okay two dollars

  He took a yard long piece of leather and

cut in half and cut a piece to fit

As a shoelace

I tied it through the shoe and tied it up 

It worked fine

I gave him three dollars

 and thanked him 

He said this is for you 

 And handed me the rest of the strip

It's in my suitcase

I love leather

 a practicality 

  A foremost resplendent 

configuring pesos to the dollar

   on dusty streets

  of cement brick houses

  with dusty Nissans blaring audio

  about Mongo

I have no idea what they're talking about

   just looking for shade to walk in

 Sleeping

    Big Max

   With Large Beverage

   Liter 

Of Root Beer

   (No Caffeine)

   Rows and rows

Of mildewed burgers

  Thousands waiting 

To be devoured

  et tu 

  Ides of Wendy's?

  the Rubicon SUV

  just smashed an

idea of 

 freedom 

One if by land 

 Dream

a

potent 

   miasma

   of succubus 

 Shithead

    threatens  

 lasagna

    In north

    Jersey

     While 

  fingering

   his diapered

       Gob

Hole

 the rocks were

     Attuned

    to the rain of impermanence 

(Rain of impermanence?)

    Rain of impertinence!

Also rocks aren't attuned to anything

People like rocks are attuned to some things

I am a rock

 I am an Archie comic

Yo Jughead!

  Let's go the malt shoppe

 See if Veronica and Betty are there

 Celestial

prevac

    mimed the origin

     of the fellatio

       driven

It wasn't pretty

  Afterwards he stopped at Wendy's

    but was confused by

the "Surge Pricing"

  So he went across Frontier Road

  to a Taco Bell/KFC

 Creature

    of the dream machine

       In a white ambrosia something or other

         studying stenography

          in the Santa Ynez mountains

           with a copy of Dharma Bums

             under her pillow

               watching Treasure of Sierra Madre

                  with Walter Huston

                      and HB

 I'm no

genius

   But 

    JFC

   Help me 

Jeebus

 the mooment 

of 

   Persipascity?

   perscipacity?

What is that word?

Perspicacity!

the quality of having a ready insight into things; shrewdness.

"the perspicacity of her remarks"

Then Zingers!

Ba boom

  Her perspicacity 

   Was second

     To her bosom. 

 If Rabelais

  were here

  What would I do?

Who is Rabelais?

   Why do I know his name?

  What did he do?

  Writer?

Philosopher?

I honestly do not know.

That's all for this poem.

 Thank you for attending. 

News at 11

"His book is a riddle which may be considered inexplicable. Where it is bad, it is beyond the worst; it has the charm of the rabble; where it is good it is excellent and exquisite; it may be the daintiest of dishes." 

 I used to go to bars

and hang out for hours

I'd talk to anyone who wanted to talk

I'd play pool- sometimes I was pretty good

sometimes I felt guilty about beating people

But sometimes they deserved a good ass whomping

There was one kid 

I forget his name 

He was tall and looked kind of screw loose

I could tell he REALLY wanted to beat me

You can tell , guys seems wound up 

their body language is all

FUCK THIS GUY!

usually at that point I could care less about winning

so I'd win more

But this guy

Well I didn't really care but

the more we played the more I wanted to shut him down

I can be kind of an asshole at times

but not all the time

As I was going to do a long shot for the eight ball to win

he leaned over and whispered in my ear

"You're an asshole"

Totally a dick move

I turned and looked at him. I was still set up to shoot and

I said  "You're just figuring that out now?" 

and I slammed the eight ball in.

"NEXT!"

 The Hunan Pork

     I love that lady

that works there

    she is so nice!

   the way she smiles

   is so real she's happy

lights up my day

I love her

 the Hunan Pork though

was only pretty good

  the veggies were practically raw

which sometimes is fine

  but eggplant?!

Eggplant should be mushy!

Just sayin

 the hangover wars

     were ongoing

          battle lines drawn

         in imaginary

       trenches

          hundreds of cans 

     of air freshener

    reaching for the sky

       the troops are permanent

        

 Please

   counter-centric

       effusional

      bio-rhythm 

     interpreted

         In Spanish

     like a heater on

               or a window opened

      a stack of torn 

"Evidence" 

 8.5 x 11's

   with poorly executed

       b&w photos

      of toothpaste tubes

    and empty toilet rolls

 there weren't no Rommels

     in my grade school

       just snow 

    and bricks

    I had a bunch of kids

    in school with me

    some were nice, some were, well-

 one kid would pinch your neck

   But mostly nice

Oyster River Elementary 

  1966

    

 The binary reputation

    was not a walrus

in Svalbard

   What is ice?

  It's a blade

  with no one's name

    the sky knows you though

Oh you again?

    but the wind 

works at 

   a Southern Fried Chicken 

stand

   near Gators Bend 

Alabama 

  (special today- okra and red beans)

Your hair is blonde

   and you have two black eyes

   from the looks of you

 you blah blah blah

too much

     I'm

Just sayin

   You've got a 

path forward

   it's no great 

 something or other

   But you're doing it again

  let it go

Easier done than said

 too many

    too manys 

the man who disparaged soundly the ex wife of a multi -billionaire

who is giving away a billion dollars to charities

(To help people) 

is suing a former co- worker because blah blah blah

He is a Marvel villain

  Doc Ock

 Or a Bond villain 

   SMERSH

even his name sounds 

like a Bond villain

 He has his own space company

Has hundreds of satellites

providing internet linkage 

   and he does psycho-active drugs

which worry his corporations 

  

 Something 

so lost 

It looks for Doobie Bros

   t shirts online

  

 Sleep 

 

   the Kerouac

     train

       of days

     slide

        like a fly

                                in the screen 

      outside 

    Mr. 

     play

      the stoned

      wash 

      of 

       the City

   Bye the bay

           you're washed up 

         even your ma

      won't talk to you

                    but you don't care

         the words are 

      in your back pocket

                         next to twelve cents

 I got drunk

      drunk as a white night

    In a black scene

   of Jean Genet

     "Oh jail is no home "

     the pigeons are not without

     the sidewalk 

   Keep your eyes 

    on the next scene

   but France could give 

  a shit

   (mirror)

  Cendrars wrote

    to himself

   a thousand miles

and thousand train tracks-

  try living in Napoli 

   during the war

    He said

    You'll get robbed

    after riding a hovercraft ferry

    from Anacapri

But it doesn't matter- Tiberius

 Mattered 

or Tycho Brahe

  

 Sleepy

    head 

    drug 

     brain

     Ptsd 

       from 

     Bs 

     trauma

     bs

   " I'm too sensitive"

"I need a change"

"What's wrong with me"

       Rain drops say

       let it go

      into the 

Far far 

 away

     giant drain

  that is 

               existence 

or something

        let it go

 Ominous roiling in the Crater Lake atop the Volcano:

When meeting an impasse, the Superior Person turns his gaze within, and views the obstacle from a new perspective

 It's 

     a lazy

       sunny

     cool 

     day 

     in

                         A 

coastal 

     city

    near the moon 

                                I ate leftover Kung Pao Chicken

       for lunch

     it was good

but a little spicy 

 

Zoinks

I'm roly 

    poly

    moondrops 

        in a 

         square 

         existence 

      Placated

       By 

                  Chow mein

                          and Camel filters

 I'm 

   old

  older than 

     the rocks 

       in my brain

   the leaves of grass

    By Walt Whitman 

   I think I read that

  supposedly he changed the poem

every time they reprinted it

Nah -don't do that 

It is what it is 

- you made it

   - make something else

  - quit fussing

 Chim 

    Chiminey 

  Time

       doesn't exist except with clocks?

     Sorry no

   if time didn't exist without clocks

   Why have I aged? 

    Blame the clocks! 

Maybe he meant without cocks?

No cocks, no time?

   Possibly

 Rainy

    rain

    stay Saint Rainy

       rams

    and ruckus

    dreams of housemates 

    in paper bag

    saying life is so good

    150 people

    Then changing his mind

     Rainy

     rainy

     rain 

 suck 

On that

      Vincent Van Go!

        How's my drawing?

           Call 

1-800-Van Gogh

 a most 

peculiar 

      place like 

         your mom's house

and no one gives 

     A hoot

  but what's for dinner?

Frozen chicken 

Frozen peas

Froze. Potatoes

 Moms getting old

 some

       crazy

       headache

days 

like 

dull 

      pain

like a dusty

  dry road 

inside my head

 

 sometimes

        Ya gotta be 

The Antwerp 

          Playing with tv knobs

  VHF uhf

      Wtf 

   Make a root beer float 

     After school

And settle in with 

    Gilligan's Island

    The TV chair 

   downstairs 

     Outside it's 104

In the morning 

    It's 46

     This is California?

        Dad worked at the Radiation Lab

         We live on (Nikola) Tesla road 

       Across the street they have 

   the Wells Fargo

    stagecoaches

    driven by a salty

 Old gal

    Virginia Fellingham

 The News

 

    is always shitty

     every day

         kids get shot

         women & children

          get blown up

                     buildings get leveled

                            madmen run governments 

       and kill who they

          think they can get away 

       with killing

         every day

           people flock to fascists

     "They are strong

       and follow their morals!"

       they talk gibberish 

               It's unbelievable 

      but it's real

meanwhile we look

at our phones 

   at videos of bear cubs

         and mountain goats

     And funny waddling penguins

 We used to go 

To the Yin Yin

Chinese restaurant

on First street

                         my dad loved the sweet and sour pork

   but I didn't 

   So at age 11 I asked if 

   I could go across the 

     street to the diner

for dinner 

Dad said sure

I went and

       I sat down at the counter

        And ordered 

 a cheeseburger fries and a coke

           the waitress looked at me 

          and said

"Do you have any money?!"

    I was like what?

so I showed her my money

       Fucking bitch

 I probably didn't tip her

 Lol

  

 some 

   unruly

   hippety hop

      Benointed 

      Arthurian

          Times Square

       Hofbrau

     roast beef 

        With 

 mashed potatoes 

      And gravy

    And over cooked carrots

        Outside it's cold

    and snowy

       and James Dean-esque

      screaming 

     To 

        Magoo

         Dad

       "Why don't 

you LISTEN?!!!"

 I had a regular something

Or other 

   We used to take the BART bus

  to BAYFAIR in hayward 

      We were young and had some money

   We'd go to Berkeley 

Cuz they had cool stores

    Used records 

   Used books (comics)

    we'd shop!

    like suburban teens 

     From the burbs

    Once we went and watched

    three Jimi Hendrix movies 

    We weren't even that big of Hendrix fans

    But we sat through all three

     Moe would smoke cigars in his bookstore

    Street vendors sold stuff on tables

    On the sidewalk 

    We'd eat shawarma 

     And drink cokes

     And then get on BART

      and go home

 

 Her love was like a frozen pizza

      Not expensive

Readily available

  Very cold 

but could be heated

  Covered in pepperoni

Cheesy

Highly caloric 

  tasty and filling

But could leave you feeling bloated

  And somewhat gastric

Antacids were recommended 

 Creamsicle 

entities confined

      to unrequited conniption fit-like

    embraces- oops never mind

It's very rainy out 

It's March 

   March showers

   bring out something

   not sure what?

   codgers?

   bowers?

   mowers? 

Oh well

  April has a nice sound to it

It's April! 

Open your heart!

Abrelo 

Las verandas son cerrado!

Abrelos!

 I paid the rent

   and the utilities but

  Sometimes I feel like

just saying fuck it and leave it all behind

   

     

 The Flouridation

    Of the electorate imbued

 a certain restraint

     toward the ambiguous 

   The steps were passed

   with timid gestures

      and a side order of onion rings

     The car was comfortable 

    Pleather seats-

       No one wore seat belts

   There was just no reason 

   The barber was named Norm

     And there were playboy magazines 

       and lollipops 

    

 

 I had 

 a brethren tooth (some time ago

in a short story world with Washington Irving...)

       made up like an Amish wagon

                       In Pennsylvania 

I'm sorry 

    Where were we?

        Oh yeah 

     Pins and ale

       In the mountains

         Near Nepal

       A Yeti

   spoke with Elven folk

       But they couldn't decide

                         On percentages of royalties 

       So without any ado

        Yak butter

      On pancakes

        How's yer mom?

 I wouldn't 

tell you anything

    about myself

     but I have blue eyes

     so fuck it

         I'll eat when I'm hungry

            I'm not impossible 

     Just barely 

       though

    the lefty loosey 

   kind of screw loose 

Eyes akimbo 

Lazy eye like grandma

     She wore dark glasses

In the house 

    cuz she thought it looked weird

   And played the Ouija

Till she got called a witch

She lived fifteen miles 

To Salem, MA

 Creature's

X

    of Japanese movies

      Sssslippin

   In a Sand dune

     Of Nuclear Fire

 Z

play a

    Right go on

A

Is too

 B

The rights of human beings

          

Vellum 

      

     rain like

   a hoo hah

     blasphemer

         entwined in

           rain like

                rain

             are you the wind?

                     Nor'easter

                bragged to his friends 

              I knocked down the man of the mountain!

       in a Wendy's on Rye Beach

              with Rico Petrocelli

          poor guy

       got hit in the eye

         by a fastball 

         Red Sox

       baseball 

       1967

            Mobsters in Lynn, MA

       near Saugus

     Near Melrose 

        near Tufts University

             near New England Color Lab

       near Rte 1

    And the Ship Restaurant 

       Hero sandwich

    W oil & vinegar 

   At lunch break