HARD PALATE ©1999

the ambitious ambiguity
        amphibious
           and amplified
                appealed
                   like an apple
                       apprehended
                           with aplomb

Cendrars NGFF

serial monotony
like a toad
      like  a road
    serial thoughts
         seemingly original
        serial thinking
 our thoughts
think us
 stuck on the road of thought
        the pattern
               repeats
                   in endless decay
simplicity and complexity
   so hard to see
we're the white lines or the dead armadillos
    'the middle of the road'
     stuck in the headlights
         danger
               bison crossing
                   the train derails
                   if it comes off the track
                   be a headlight
cool Colorado range
 head out
light out
   get off the road
         of decay
                               
 

$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$


$


$$$


$

$
$
$
$

stone faced allegories
  I'm sleepy
 I hear noises
  boom
ka-boom
   oh, no, that was last week
  now, just the wind rattling the blinds
and the door
  sleepy
  sleepy
sleepy
 
  

Life in Sunset Magazine

a stone of a thought
dropped on my foot
   I swerve and
think about the town of Mendocino
 how we used to go there for quaint california weekends
we'd bring sweaters
and eat some kind of clam chowder maybe
or did I make that up
   you couldn't really get to the ocean
because of the cliffs
so we'd walk around the town looking at houses with little fences
festooned with shells and old buoys
  and other sea related junk

cancel the stars
     send out a letter
          shore up the mountain
               write on the road
      there's a wave
    coming
      i see it
in my eye
  dots
 and speckles of blood
     you lay on your back
  staring at the pitch black night
     it's dark
   it's very fucking dark
  still you can hear people throwing bottles
    and yelling
     something is burning
      put another log on
        you think
before the fire goes out

the cause of the
curse
 stern and bubble eyed
     like a rabbit
disembowelled
   - staring at the reeds
          watching birds fly
      no one is watching
    a steady stream of tourists
   taking photos
 a lady is selling embroidered blue jeans
       $150
  the smell of pine trees
and dust
     mixed with the diesel exhaust
EAT
 we get back in the car
     and head to Tucson

trojans
too small
       stick a bird on it
    stuck in the craw
  I'm not trying!
it's too hot
and i'm itchy
    spores
and a black cat
  at 4 am
people wandering
randomly
in the bright moonlight
     yeah just
some baking soda
  old boy
   there was a third man
     stop acting like a fool
 a parrott bit my finger
   go sleep in the van
   smoke a cig
  drink some
iced tea

Santa Cruz College V  ©1978