The Mercy

Tried

   No it didn't 

It bought a 2023 Honda

   And drove it to Trader Joe's 

Say what you will

Who is it for you to judge 

Hah!  

Gotcha!

    What?

 Jumpin

Jehosaphat

Time is time

     Cracks in the mirror

     Can you save your face?

     Potato bring eyes

     So what

The streets know your name

The stars know your dreams

The whales know you're stupid

The Māori don't know you at all

   Potato claims

    Mashed or boiled

     Friend or foe

      The French are stupid

        Whales know that

 I parked my irresolute soul

And walked back

Times had changed 

Bob Dylan was wrong

     Early one morning the sun was shining

I had a peaked hat

  And my footprints were like a three toed sloth

I carried a broken guitar

  My brother had smashed it

   Cuz he's a speed freak

I could have blamed it on the Santa Cruz mall rats

Antifa can suck it!

Oh wait never mind

Let's get some buckwheat crepes at the Crepery

 With mom and Jane

But I was stoned 

And didn't say a word the whole meal.

Mexico (2 trips) 2024

 

 Agreements 

   Per the 

perusal

  a parasol

in Paraguay

Teutonic gasps

   a bottle of Ouzo

and forty pairs of shoes

  stand up straight!

her brown eyes flamed

framed by Masunaga

  spectacles

 The Saugus Esplanade 

   via uncles old white VW bus

the drivers side window wouldn't roll up

My fingers nearly froze

  Brakes didn't work on black ice approaching

a busy intersection 

so I drove into a snow drift

 made it to work on time

printing 8x10's of a bridal couple

vignetted in a song sheet

'We've Only Just Begun'

 

 Splat

Splackendorfer

   Slipped on the Spanish Steps

 Sobriety he said was not a promise to be kept 

OUCH!

"My ankle"

"Are you okay?"

"No."

 My sister and her husband 

are bringing three dogs to Thanksgiving. 

Joey (of Joey and Sammy, Sammy passed away last year, he was the tough guy), Small Dog, who belongs to her son Cole who will be in Tahiti with his dads new family, and Astor Paiuzollo, also known as New Dog. They had to get a trainer for New Dog cuz he barks, chews the couch, poos on the floor when they're not there, and nips people. 

He bit New Mom (Alec's gf) right on her butt. Not cool. 

New Mom is named Nancy and the baby is Isabella. Nancy, Alec, and Isabella will be at Thanksgiving. I hope New Dog doesn't nip anyone.

 Three thirty three

for a bottle of wine

  at Lucky

Cabernet Sauvignon 

   California 

$3.33

I don't think you can buy a bottle of water for that price

  Lady in front of me with a walker 

Was just buying a thing of bacon

Mm yum bacon

Lesbian couple next aisle over had huge cart filled with stuff

 They were both blonde and very tall.

 

 What do I know

Nothing

Nobody gives a shit 

   so why worry?

Fer reals

   Everyone has their own 

Shit

  To deal with

Okay you got drunk

You did some kooky shit

God bless you!

 Verlaine Green Tea

at 70 degrees

You stood on the 

door

    step

And thought about an electric water kettle

Named Esther

And bacon

     Slightly crisp

But a little bubbly

  splattering hot oil

Ouch! A splatter hit your cheek!

Goddamn!

   You laughed

And tripped over Arthur's dead body

figuratively

   The horses head reared up

    times emptiness

    Was nothing now

In the embrace of Tunisian alleys

Tosha sat in the corner

Asleep on Bedouin time 

"I'll kill that shithead."

But he was nowhere to be found.

 I lapsed

Into

The space 

Between emotional grasping

And black and blue Jay Leno-

Mobsters!

  Grip the guard rail

He never...

Well fuck that

   I'm no vintage corvette

But I have eyes and ears

   We'll see how things turn out America

  Traipse thru the crap

 Stay at home 

And eat potato chips

and pet the kitty 

 Jack 

   bewildered Mexico

Of thy dreams

Of speed and cerveza

And saints and tacos

And dirty lessons

  And little money

    And writing

     writing

writing 

   and more writing

And booze

   booze 

      booze

    and

   sex/love

 The 

Green Cheer

      Willys 

      shaking the cakes

           To put on the brakes

        mountains to Filbert

  Greenwich 

       Union streets

          shopping for an Irish cable 

    sweater

         or an Irish setter

  there's no parking

    too many construction guy trucks

        I'll park illegally 

  and walk to Taco Bell

  It's gonna be one of those days

 Plead

   With the forces of nature

Rain 

    Rain

        rain

My feet are wet

Oops

   Time to dry out

literally

  and figuratively

I am alive?!

  but wet

The rocky cliffs don't care

    They yawn

  snooze

    another wet foot

another blanket!

   See that road?

  Yawn

     another blinker

    Another bison

 1. 

Done 

I'm done

  are you number one?

Woohoo

 Nmnm 

The prize is in

  Are you a shellfish 

     Sweet dreams!

 2. 

The forgotten times

Of your days

Reel past with each arrow

Pointed by the smell

As you wander 

In Wisconsin summer

A large bowl of raspberries 

In your grandmothers refrigerator 

You stand and slowly eat them 

With the door open

Years later you visit in winter

You bring two albums 

In your suitcase 

John Lennon's Imagine

And Elvis Costello

My Aim Is True

You go out into the snowy field

To smoke pot

Once you smoke out the window

In grandpas old room

Grandma says she smelled smoke

And you blame your cousin Larry for smoking cigarettes

No she says it's not cigarettes 

It's clear you've lost your status 

As favorite grandchild

Grandma doesn't like the albums

Or the fact that you made fun of her beloved Lawrence Welk show.

Life goes on.

3.

 The Miser plays his games

like dominoes in linen 

Unlike the Atlantic

  

You smile but don't know

What you are smiling about

The lemon or the Mac & cheese

Your heartbreak is just a little too close

You sweat and smell bad unlike you

You say it's the worry

And order a Gin & tonic

Beefeater's and the band 

Plays another samba tune 

Cha cha cha it sounds great

It's why you came in

And it's better than you expected

Hector doesn't know his name 

Is also a verb

You mean heckle?!

Nope. 

He complains he can't make any money 

With his boat

You listen sympathetically 

Life is not so bad

In Cruz De Huanacaxtle

 4 cont.

seems vague

Sounds like - you could move if you get help from trusted followers 

- maybe a cop out! Thanks I Ching (for nuttin!)

Like water wears down stone

 But it takes a long ass time bitch

   Be active and patient

And hope for flash floods

  And long periods of "dismal rainy weather "

Look to the skies for clouds

Do not, as the elder man on the Simpsons does, curse them

Maintain a superior attitude as the superior man does

 4. 

Are you one of the four?

    never mind it's not important

What does elegiac mean?

  I guess I'll look it up.

Sometimes I do the I Ching. 

You can ask a question and throw the tiles

And a get a prophetic answer.

I'll t ry one 

Should I move?

Deep Water beneath the Earth's surface:
Untapped resources are available.
The Superior Person nourishes and instructs the people, building a loyal, disciplined following.
Good fortune.
No mistakes if you follow a course led by experience.

 5. 

I saw a second tier

Of throbbing flakes

Burned by 6th period

4a 4b

Out by 1:30

Wednesdays were the best

Blow dryer and acne days

We took drugs at Sunol park

I could hear insane laughter of Derek Wilson

But we never did find him

It was a pretty big park

The drugs were bunk though

A little speedy and then squat

   Cha zam 

Cha zooey 

  California dreamin' 

65 Chevy in

  Niles Canyon Road

  The lady ghost

Bare hill country

  Dry past the old nuclear power plant

Giant kittens

Where's all the subdivisions?

The Veterans hospital 

And TB Sanatorium

Took horse back riding out there one summer

They taught us to knee the horses in the gut hard

When you cinched the saddle

Cuz they bloat their stomachs

Seems kind of fucked up

Gals had pegged pants

And boots

Dad worked at the Radiation Lab

I kid you not

LSD

Livermore School District

Stenciled on the back of all the fold up chairs

Reading Heinlein and Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451

Sartre Les Mouches and No Exit

Hell is other people

 666.

Mmm

Hah 

don't worry about it

It is etc

  Lace the corn flakes

With testosterone hgh steroids Xanax and vitamin D

   Take the llamas out for a walk

Follow the power lines to 

   Althea's Mt Excedrin

On Corral Holler

   Over the ridge

    Where the Hoovers used to live

   They had a swimming pool

Go get a teen burger at A&W

   John's Char-Broil

Or Dairy Queen

After the motorcycle races

At Carnegie Park

 7. 

The creatures of the day and of the night 

They're out there

  Or rather in here

Rearing their ugly heads all the time

  They me

I'm sorry

   I'm fucked up

I try but a caged animal

Has anger issues

   So yeah  

    Fucking deal with it

I mean me 

I built this cage

 8. 

I ain't got no

No rope

     No stop the stop

Prime the plastic pump

  With a thumbs up

How do ya do

I'm eating grits w broccoli and cheese

Not bad

 9.

I saw a sordid star 

Enveloped by a night 

A breach birth of the fantastic 

Captain of the Caspian

A rambling tale 

Encumbered by Armenian tales

Of horses in a field 

By a Christian church

He carried a knife

He stole from his uncle

His name was Olav

But that's not important 

They sat for dinner

Octopus and squash

Potatoes and arugula 

Red cheap wine and biscuits 

His daughter looked good

Eyes aflame

And hiding

Her dress a shaded chrysanthemum 

The night passed slowly

The fire burned

Tales were told 

The old man fell asleep

 10. x 2

I'm a mixed up cadaver on borrowed time.

I've seen you walking the streets

A metaphor

A simile 

A crow 

Talking EA Poe and Rimbaud

The boat is in the river at night

I'm Henry Miller with no money

Broke on the streets of Paris

The 9th Arrondisement

Montmartre

Talking a mile a minute

To keep the cold out

We never got along 

We went to Death Valley

In separate tents

Even the dog didn't know what was going on

We saw geological formations 

For which there were no names

At least we didn't know them

Saw funnels of clouds 

Rising up from the dry mountain cold

Rose campground 

Junked cars with bullet holes 

Mines with grates covering them

We drove on

Camping wherever we could

We argued about how to cook Italian sausages 

It was fun.

 10.

I'm waiting for this to end

So I can move on

   To another place

     Another dimension 

The horizons are too edgy

   Too frozen in thoughts

      Like looking back at the past

   It all happened and can't be changed

The oceans don't need us

     We piss on them 

         And blah blah blah

      Frozen tears are icebergs 

   With our names

The sky shines on us daily

   "You're going 647,000 miles per minute

  Following a burning Sun 

And yet you think you know

  Say let's go into K-Mart

Candy bars are good

   Life is good 

     Get a ride to Burbank

       Eat Korean bbq

    You stoners

The children act like it's all new

    Maybe it is 

  Maybe it's me that's old

And fucked up

  Let it go

Let bygones be bygones

  Give it a break

 11.

I dreamt of a breakfast but I had no baseballs

The words were not important

But the feeling was everything

Unfortunately that's where I failed

I have no feeling for things or actually people

I have stacks of books

Some multiple copies

I'm not sure why

A bunch I have yet to read if I ever will

That's the way things go sometimes 

Sometimes it seems you don't get to chose

Or you think you do but nah you don't

Shit just happens

 12.

St. Stephen walked the narrow divide.

Of broken telephone tynes 

Grated and prolorn 

Dark green and purple skies

A 5/8 rhythm was unfolding

The bass was spastic and under renown

The strings were snapping like old sea turtles

The moccasin clad Paiute woman, Light Cloud,

Clambered up the cliff

Singing the song of the crow

Bob Dylan was in face make up

And wore a hat taken from the Napa Valley theatre company

He tried to sing but only squelches of a prairie cat came out

A book written in an ancient language

Was stood on by St. Stephen

Dark red misty eyes 

And sullen star lit night skies

Embraced the baby's cries

A triad of harmonies

Echoed in deep Las Vegas casinos

Herbert Hoover bent over and cried

Before he puked

Up a spaghetti and meatballs lunch

 13.

In 2021 I drove cross country. I was going to fly but they changed my flight three times without even asking so I said fuck it obviously they're having problems I don't need it. I drove East from Reno on an empty highway. Highway 50 through Nevada. Nothing. Miles and miles of nothing. I loved it. I'd be in an empty valley with grey scrub bushes for as far as I could see. I'd get to the end of the valley and get to another valley slightly different the color of the bushes changed and the rock was slightly different. Another valley of nothing. It was beautiful. On I drove.

 14. 

Something stole my soul away

I'm not sure what it was. Getting old? Booze? Smoking?

Who knows but I know it's gone. It's depressing. Life without a soul? What does that even mean? Maybe I still have a soul it's just older and a little cagier. Life can do that. You stop reading Herman Hesse at some point. But that was decades ago. Music is still good but it doesn't have the power it once had. Just looking at record albums and trying glean info was vastly entertaining. Streaming? There's no album covers. Ah well

Life goes on 

The search for meaning is kinda done.

Thanks Jesus!

 15.

I'm tryna get drunk

But it ain't happenin 

Fight the power

But your moms innaway 

Get out

Get out 

Get out

Ohtheway 

I'm smoking reef

Ona long ass beach

My boards in your mind

Like my moneys in my

Mind

Oh wait no

This ain't right 

I got thirty reason to turn it down

Let's say hello

To all you  

And I ain't talkin to you

But let's say hello

And say good bye

Cuz the time has come

To say good bye

 16. 

Nights in Umbria

Your shoes were in tatters and you were sick

An angel took you home and you slept for three days 

She fed you chicken broth and toast 

The next day she wasn't there 

Not the next day 

You ate what you found in the cupboard 

And called your uncle from the phone 

He wired you money and you left a note and 

Twenty dollars

You left Umbria on a train and never went back

 17.

The Peanut Butter Man

working a regular job now

  sweeping the sidewalk 

With a black and yellow vest

 His Peanut days are done

  Not sure where his old Cadillac went

   Lost it in some peanut deal

 Near Los Mochos 

It was that fat guy

With the silver tooth

And the black cane

 Lucky he got out of there with his skin

End up bobbing beneath the pier

He hid in an empty warehouse 

and rode out of town 

In the back of a pickup under an old green tarp

  Fat guy's not around any more

Peanut Butter Man said

My brother fucked him up

 18.

Places

Along the drafty 

Blend in with rocks and stairs 

Seize your footsteps

Dust on your brain

Your mind is a disaster 

Too many bottles and drugs

Anger is your enemy

But everyone carries it like 

Smallpox 

The crazies yell and smoke 

You try to ignore them

A guy says I'll beat the shit out of you 

For no good reason

Maybe I'm too good looking

I get mad and yell shut your pie hole 

As I walk

I get a chili cheese dog and a glass of water

Then I go home and take a nap

 19. 

I drive myself along the narrow shore 

A stent in my head

 Drooling like an old idiot

I shouldn't be driving

They took my license away

But fuck it 

Life's too short

I pull into a Wendy's

Special orders don't upset them!

I'm barbed like a barbed wire

Torn up and fractally unlocatable 

Here's to the bees and birds

The chameleon police in turn

Here's to the Romper Room

Reunited blessed be those playground days.

I get back on the hiway

 20. 

SF blues

    hungry peanut butter

Jack

and Whistlers mom

   Streaming like chair news

Some crazies

On the sidewalk

   Drunk and pants down

Meth and fentanyl blues

Bent at the waist

Goin mountain climbing

With a bottle of Zen

DT Suzuki

And architect Mothra

No Morgan

   The sidewalks bark

  Like black crows and pigeons

Pecking at the garbage

Up the street 

  Kearney all night long

W egg rolls

And Chinese guys mopping out 

Smoking cigarettes and laughing

   at party boys drinking

 

 21.

Hyep don mattah 

  all ope is gonn

Some are going

    he got in in Croatia

    some are headed to Espana

but it don't matter

  URUGUAY

good water

   Healthcare is cheap

We got a problem

But we can ignore you

And that's what you hate the most

  Oh never mind...

Some are goin 

To...

We leave you behind

 22.

Sweet love

Oh sky and sea shore line

Mountains Road Highway 

   A goat on the road 

Bleats

   And climbs the dirt away

To some secret home

The rain has stopped and sun

   Is blasting thru clouds

   Of the ocean

The Essex is long gone

Books tales remain

    Of the violent whale 

Whose family was slaughtered

   He bashed the boards until it sank

    But there are crepes and bagels 

Hot coffee and ice cold orange juice

(Not from...)

The roads washed out again

300 miles around

   

 23.

I can hear the rain

   Hey ho

I'm rain

     Blood rain

       I'm drowning in my days

My veins

  Are filled with dry pain

Dry ice 

   And 7 up

It blows by

    And drips

I'm eating granola 

Laying in bed

    Should I close the window?

Nah

 24.

I collapsed 

      A birds shadow

On a too sunny day

          in November 

Dusty 

   Dusty 

  dead days 

The where with all

        Of 3rd and Market

Asphalt patches

   Old buildings

Standing outside the liquor store

    Wondering where

all that noise is coming from

We tried to go up the elevator

   But wouldn't let us in

Flashed lights 

    And siren

 25.

The nights

     Sweeping sturm 

And drang 

       Pinochle 

   Ghost Dog

The peppers

   Fly 

   Bye now 

 Buy

The masked crusader 

     A blue and yellow cape 

Masked marauders in sideshows 

      They catch them with drones

  And seize their cars 

 But what if they're stolen

Nah let's not go there

   We need a break

 26.

Remember the fries?

    Like cradles

And cans of old paint

    the street is filled with women

on their phones

    REMEMBER!

What?!

   Slide

   The 

  Tongue 

  Tippy

Rose

   letters on acid 

days 

    Sneaking a peek

   The right are marching

 Ka- ROOM!

    Bail the night

Eyes

   Braille the 

Night eyes 

Blind

The guitar strings 

  Are old and

Dirty sponges

 

 27. 

Angel of the dirt

        Wood boards

Moms in her chair

     "Did you see that guy?"

   The Rockefeller of Ferlinghettis!"

   Don't

pass out

   drinking

Soda pop

   manhattans

In a tiny bar

    "What do you do?!"

"Well, that's a problem."

   The cat watched 

  A cartoon

  With mice

 

 Gorped a 

 Caged cocaine head

Jeez loueez 

Charged with 

Concupiscent

   Third street blues

  The sweeper 

Tags the loud road

  Of path of good intents

Left to

   dry

In Manitou

    shoes 

The Gershbergs

  Of Miami

the grades 

    Of shine

 We left Mantua

And Padova

And made Verona 

With a window looking out

On northern Italian bricks and sunlight

And Rotting roofs 

The bed horrendous!

We sunk into the center laughing

I went to use the wc and walked into a family's apartment

Grandmother and daughter, cousins, and boys caught fighting, uncle holding a bottle grinning, their faces like a painting

 Pierro Della Francesca

They were surprised and they laughed.

My startled drunken expression 

"NEXT! Next ...door!"

 I saw a gal today

Thin with black hair

By herself in the restaurant 

She avoided my glances

There was every opportunity 

She spread her legs black pants

Black boots

White shirt

Black jacket

 You had a name

Boney Maroni

Legs like Italian pasta 

A green Volvo with broken windshield wipers

You stopped for directions

But no one knew what the fuck you were talking about

It started to rain and didn't stop for two weeks

Oh Sardinia

I should have listened to DH Lawrence

The hotel was soggy but the fried squid was hot and good with garlic and bottles of red wine.

 Egregious 

Remonstration enveloped

By the coal burners

Their eyes blackened

As their lungs

Hungry for bacon and eggs

Of their mamas apron strings

And daddy's lashings

Cheering on the smear the queer

Eying suspiciously the candelabra clad

Pinochet Pinocchio 

An apple for your thoughts

But lies are all you know

I was once a Stoney brine pickle

 'For Ezra Pound'

I'm going to passism 

on your Fascism

 A break in the kink

  The armor is gone

Tanks and jeeps like pine knots 

  Stewed tomatoes and wieners

    A raccoon hat and a sargeants stripes 

   A broken chipped arrowhead

   In the birches 

Near Big Sandy Opening

 You said let's watch TV

  So we woke the bear from his hibernation 

 You shot him from your hiding spot in the tree

"I ain't going back!"

No one asked.

 There's no mouse

Creeping around

While you try to sleep

You've warned him

But your threats can't compete 

With a warm house and piles of soft clothes 

"GET OUT!"

But nope

 

 ruthless caribou fortress

Embrace

A treetop sap hands

Old dryers in a forest 

Resting and rusting 

Miles from home 

A shoe in melted snow mud

Your sister's

 

 

 Sunday morning

W a headache 

Hi Dee Ho 

Eating eggs and leftover potatoes 

W salt and pepper and Mexican cheese

And a giant glass of ice cold milk

 I gambled all my money

On the Pistons

And I don't live anywhere near Detroit

I was born in Michigan but we all left soon after. 

We have a newspaper from the day I was born.

A three time loser was killed in an escape attempt at local hospital 

The same one I was born in 

I wonder if I'm the reincarnated three time loser?

Seems doubtful but who knows?

 I thought if could write lunch poems

I'd be a poet

A NYC poet on west 53rd st

Sitting in the back of a DeSoto

Hammering away at a typewriter

Clack clack clack

 I can't do it 

Write she said

About your feelings

About your life

About the sunshine when you wake up all groggy

She sounded like Bob Ross

But there's no happy trees by a happy lake

 The creature came from the dark

Purple eyes and nails like nails 

 "Sssssshhhhhhhhiiiusssssssss!"

It shiused!

"Say what?"

It ran back to dark and I went back to the tv.

 I'm

A mess mimmmmm

I ripped the cannonball mmmm

I tripped clementina 

On the banjos civil war blood

Stalemated and excised 

Like a Mike mmm

Mule named Mike 

Cornpone and greens

Yer mama said

Would do you okay

But gunshot blues

Blasted you from Pennsylvania 

And ummmmm you died

An honorable death