For Days

The ex-lover of my ex-lover got me drunk.
Probably a subconscious/completely
conscious ploy by the bastard
to return her to her other,
to the rain-retreater, to the salt-miner,
to the terribly handsome stick,
to my toy piano fingers,
to the rock of my night, to me.
When truth entered the room,
barking and delirious,
people told me to let truth stay.
But the fucker was biting me
and that is not the way
I like to spend my Saturday.
So I shuffled off the stoop
of the room, pursued by a mood
killing diplomat, in full fanfare,
sweating and serious and
far too drunk for a night with me.
I threw my keys. Missed his knees.
And when when you came up,
and smudged my white shirt
with your eye-makeup,
I could not believe
that I, the stick,
had given you up.
The promise made its way
from the cup to our mouths,
and the seal was unbroken,
some of the bad undone.
In and out of my playground dreams,
washed with salt and the sun,
I just listened to your breathing:
light like the sleep of a baby.

Sandman

My mouth was stuffed with
cigarettes like sardines,
ashes pooling under my tongue,
filters lining my lilac gums.

Long Time Train

Long time train coming
through to the platform,
hissing among the kisses
of farewell's and it's been
so long's, screaming like
a bird shot down in the sky.
Long time train trucking
right on to the dawn,
where the cedars cry.
Last time we were
in this much debt,
I forget.
Long time lover's
singing wafer songs
while the locomotive
unloads its burden.
I brought a bar of
chocolate dipped
in salt.
Been saving it for today.
Welcome.
You aren't home.
You aren't alone.
The only scary
thing out there
are the children,
begging us to keep them.

What is calcium?

Who gives a shit, do you?
Let's talk about drugs.
Let's issue a new company motto.
Let's strip-search the human genome.
Let's write "DOG LOVES YOU"
in chalk on the kennel sidewalk.
How about them vandals?
They're pretty good with a skillet
and even better with some purpose.
Their bones are even made out of it.
Let's talk about sex this time.
It's important to be strong and good
at sex, or else you'll break.
This I learned from a book.
What they didn't put in books
they whispered to the vandal,

who left it tattered, dangling
off the chain-link fence, and
that was where I found calcium:
tough, condensed, collected,
sentenced to the bleak, bitter
and end-of-the-road
end of the poem that opens
a void blank as a glass of milk.

four me's

I am mendable
to my enemies,
expendable
to my country,
commendable
by those who don't
know me
and incredible
when I am alone
in a room with
you.

Kyle Died Twice When He Ate Peanut Butter On An Egg

He was allergic to both
and should have known better.

Look For You

When the children cry
with puddles in their arms,
I look for you.

When the dirty sweep
of leaves get trampled,
and form haughty maps
for me to follow,
I follow you.

When the barters
get bothered and
the clothes flake
off the scarecrow,
I flock to you.

When the weather
gets dumb and the
soaked bedsheets
get wetter,
I'm better to you.

Though now I'm undone,
my eyes crossed over
purple cheekbones,
with the magic receding,
and my logic fleeting,
still I look out for you.

Blessing

Holy is the lamb
soaked in gravy.

Heavy is the weight
of the carry.

Thoughts of you
still give me chills.

Thanks that I
can pay the bills.

exordium

I am Worst
for the job no one wants,
for the chlorophyll,
for the clean linens.

I am Worst
that dithers at the bat,
that dresses the weather
in blue and pink cozys.

I am Worst
at the mantle's lip-hair,
at the comfortable pivot,
leg-locked and overbooked.

I am Worst
teasing the embassies,
absolute ease in the hall,
significant armistice.

I am Worst
bar the home-cooking,
fearful of the bar,
drawn by a moth's shadow.

I am Worst
splayed against a train,
sand-drenched at the bay,
dripping with piss.

I am Worst
who sleeps entrenched,
who palms a wandering spider,
who awakens by the spring.