Illusions

or Allusions 

Brooks Brothers 

button down cotton dress shirts

with Army pants 

And 

Nike

Adidas 

Puma

Strange 

Pot smoker

White boy

With a Takamine guitar

that is copied from Martin

-even the logo-

walking the redwoods 

concrete buildings

Never heard of Brutalism

except comic books

Spider-Man

Captain Marvel

The Punisher 

Swamp Thing

 

 

 I don't know about the world

Leave it!

Somewhere 

Sometime 

Soon

Or 

Who 

Knows 

Or 

Who

Gives 

A 

Petunia 

To 

You

Sometime

Somewhere

Soon

 I measured 

my stupid boredom by old weathered hardware store yardsticks

I read books

about writers going to other writers

homes and getting drunk

and arguing and then going 

to funerals in Malibu

and not buying strawberries

 A poem entwines 

your bloody self

reeking of long skirts 

and big books

You have no redemption

drinking cappuccino 

and crocodiles in AI videos 

sitting in the back room

a black lady with her phone out

No pizza 

No antelope

Handwritten signs 

Kerouac was drunk

So how are you

 

 I caught the miasma bug

It was spreading

Housewives and househusbands

Read about it in the times

"I hope we don't have to wear those stupid N95 masks"

Rays father, Bill, had been intubated but died at Mercy on Oak street. 

"Probably the Chinese"

 

 Twill praise be 

and soothesayers 

Blackened and gristle eyed witches

in scarlet silks and whatnot 

 

 The Captain

had lost his watch

"Where the fuck did it go?"

He wondered if the ensign had stolen it

"Shifty eyed little fuck."

He'd have him transferred. Some shitty place.

Life goes on 

 It's easy

to be forgetful

To let it all fucking go

Neither here 

Nor there

Drunk

Or sober

Doesn't matter

Just less puking sober

 

 I moved

like a battered brain

No one paid attention

(from stationary 

To Thai restaurants)

It was starting to get cold

No more fall beautiful days 

Hell it was November 

I think I'd been pretty damn lucky

all things considered

but when the Congolese attacked 

There was nothing to be done

I blasted them back to 34th st

Then ran out of short ordnance

My basements sofa is pretty comfy

For right now anyway 

 

 I was 25

My first job in the big city. Corporate headquarters called me. 

I think they were in Kansas or somewhere.

"Umm, you've put Wavy Gravy as your third beneficiary. Is this some kind of joke?"