Monday, November 18, 2024



 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.

Sunday, November 17, 2024

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.

Saturday, November 16, 2024

 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

Friday, November 15, 2024

 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

Thursday, November 14, 2024

 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

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

 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!

Tuesday, November 12, 2024

 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