There was a reminder
to open the screen door
Let the cat out
but it was ignored
the cat meowed
so I fed it

we had leftover fish sticks
the cat was not
interested
he took a dump on
the persian rug
in the study instead

My dad would find it later
or not
he wasn't very aware of
his surroundings
unless he was staring at something
it didn't exist
a roving band
of zombies could stumble
right up to him
until their drooping fleshy
hands were on him
he wouldn't even notice

his hearing wasn't so good either
or maybe that was a big part of it
he said what a lot
so I got to say it backing to him
"What?"
not very nice
he's old
but he would laugh
and then get some ice cream

they took his license away
but he kept driving
to the library
in town
and the to the all you can eat
chinese buffet
on Fenton St.
he called it Fen-Tone
If I was driving
which I do now
he would say
take Fen-Tone
one of the few things he remembers

They said he ignored the traffic lanes
and tried to make an illegal left on
Second St.
so they impounded his
vehicle
the van
he took a cab home
seven miles up into the hills

He thought the grass around the ranch house
was getting too long
maybe he thought he was a native american
and set fire to it
by a stroke of luck the
fire melted the main water hose
going into the house
and the gushing water
put the fire out
stroke of luck

on the morrow
of the felix ano
i spied
with my little eye
espadrilles
and
written
in Esperpento
j prufrocks sad story
of bitches comin and
goin
speaking of Michael Bolton
I lashed out
against
"the system"
fell up the escalator
and put mustard
on my fries
I was the seeker
the visionary
I KNEW
that my meds
were working
I had a universal remote
I could change channels
in ... another GALAXY
I wasn't the crazy one
I had a bank account
I didn't kill anyone
in Belize
time is my mistress

I is the saviour
lord god of small weaponry
I hath distilled from the fruits of
my labor
a chablis of kindness and
unforetold beauty

let he who is without a glass
buy the next round

1. If a course
of commercial Latitude
was insufficient to thoroughly
embrace
one's
true nature
listening to the ravens outside my window
will have to do

2. If I cannot make peace with all the
world I will make a piece of pie
and a cup of coffee

3. If nature has forgotten how to behave
and my stripes are backwards I will no longer drunk dial you.

4. As memory insists I am not to blame
I will act more kindly towards small animals
and larger game

5. To Time
I can only
say one thing:

6. The broken LP's in my sister's collection were
not my fault

7. If Love were an alien space ship it would leave alien take out food
at my door

8. Remembering is a lost art
and my memory is a broken tube of cadmium yellow
( this makes no sense)

9. I wish I had more
to say
but
I

10. don't.

I couldn't try any harder
so I tried softer

a cathartic irreverence
manifest in igloo like silences born
in a drive by shooting his name well thats up for speculation
something like cannabis or salt peter?
his motto was "Don't be the lookout"
the family crest was a mongoose eating a chicken
the backstairs led nowhere so that was where they
held their meetings sometimes they'd make someone
take their pants off but usually it was just baseball cards
and firecrackers

Times memorial was a baby ben clock
thrown through a window
see time flys
then he got punched in the eye by his dad

the gun was broken but they used it anyway it still
worked to scare the shit out of people including the cops
who gunned down his cousin Larry who
had only come along to get "data for his term paper".

after that he went to florida
and worked for awhile
on a fishing boat
outside of Delacroix

His parents knew he was responsible and
would send him money to hide their guilt
Larry's parents(his aunt and uncle)hired an old black man to
kill him but he and the old black man ended up smoking up all the hit money
on crack
eventually the black man wandered away and his name was forgotten

When he turned 22 he
decided to join the military
but was rejected due to Unsovereign Spinal Atrophy
he never found out what that was and
he never had any symptoms all he
knew was they called it USA
"You got the USA we can't use you."
It was the strangest thing he ever heard but he didn't even think about it

while he was hitching a ride
back to the coast the old man
who had picked him up said he wanted a blow job
he told him he'd give him a hand job for $40 and the old
fellow gave him the money and then immediately had a stroke and died

he put the old guy under a tree after
removing his wallet and his watch.

the apple is the tree it's not a matter of falling

drank and drunk

as far as the triumvirate of sorrows
played out like a five fiddle orchestra
festooned
in derivatives
and malapropisms
befuddled
and bent toward
nirvana
with toothsome
loathing
and double beehive mirrors
we are not without feeling
begat the begotten
begin the beguine
brag for all yer worth
and board the next train
if there is one

the stolen rivers
wet the weak
soured by lemons
and mangroves
arid in their distillery
perfunctorily resplendent in snakeskin leather and violet eyeshadow, amicably
turning the grinding mill
thinking of the temperature
and when to wait and when to go
"I am not the archer of your dream"
oh you, Sagittarius freak
go put on your nightie and your running shoes
I'll be here waiting with my drawing pad and
a spring loaded Deputy Dog
Oh, ever watchful
I wait, I am the waiter
not the one who serves
not the one whose fingers are snapped to
not the one who gets the order wrong
not the one who brings the bill
I am the waiter
ya know, like George Bush.
Mission Accomplished.

Bereaved
bereaved is bereaved like a
hydratic equation
death/loss over pain/suffering by time + (distance)
R= nothingness
B= Being
Rythmn and Blues
Lucille knows
so does Caledonia
and Annie
Charlie doesn't get it
I am not supposed to know
but we all know he's dead
and that's what fucking hurts