listed

waterlines followed the incline
stop signs over white stripes
cracked tar filled cracks
acceleration pushed back into vinyl
bright sight in tinted glass
radio ads chattered
pacified strip malls
pasteurized marquis titles
simple leaves decayed in the gutter side

child sized hips and chipped strollers
car dents and mint paint jobs
black stone roads prone to ripple
no sidewalks, only light curbs
curved with organic limitation
withholding dirt and leafy intrusions
tires rolled on undecided
holding to steering wheels
power lines crisscrossed against gray cotton

mold dust swirled by driveway push brooms
moved to booming sky explosions
cars clustered at the red line
zoomed by the rv monolith
a scuffed Arby's neon missing the 'y'
food wrappers, styrofoam bushes
title pawns flashing dollar signs
magnification revealed green faults
designed to crumple under impact

shoulder clicks and bobbing necks
near wrecks by flares and flashing blue
life-sized blow up dolls selling used cars
trips to the far hill on saddles and bar stools
cool breezes after numb winters
telling me why to think when to think it
set pieces, turning points
alarm clocks struck dumb
dioramas divided by ropes and slow drinks

personal vectors intersected fender benders
snapshots cut into inconsequential sequences
words typed in endless parallels
as patterns fell from the sky.

I have a nothing box

You cleared out your things
Anonymous cardboard
Permanent reminders
Labeled black letters
Your last will
Washed dishes stacked in the rack
Drying shiny flowers

Dust motes float by the lamp
Sub-freezing frost clouds outside
My arrival blows condensation
Carpets rolled aside
Tied with twine
Tidy dry tongues

Daylight stumbles
As dark hues stick and slide
Bare walls, hardwood footsteps
You sweep the last of your memory
Kitchen cleaning
Pine oil, plastic buckets

Silence is a cracked vase
Placed in the bin
With book titles
Perfume bottles
Down feathers
Holed socks
Q-tips
Dust

The rusted gate speaks one last time
And freezes shut
Perfect outlines
Preserved in the empty album

hungry

dry fried chicken devoured in foil
incisors tear, molars grind
sounds of crunching smacking
a ritual by hours salivating
oily fingers, old thirsts

our first kiss, the hallway watched,
your mom's berkeley bungalow
sniffed old joints and plaster
hollow signs of parenthood
on the three light projection tv

you punched i kicked
sibling struggles before breakfast
mothers, whores, sisters
all spectators
hoarse cheering

hardened edges of fingers, feet
now cut to the chase
chopping motions walk
the corner liquor store
destined to be numb

i chew
i swallow

time warp

brick monochrome make-outs
70s thighs, drumstick beats
fumbles in the back of Vauxhalls
fine times rolling fags, smoking crowns
stolen highs in the upper downs
highballs, pints, cheap wine
time to spend collared years waiting
to evolve beyond wife-beaters and clotheslines
pretzel sticks and savouries
smeared with sleepless nights
worn corridors blighted
smoldering days to their butt ends
red eyes hotwired
seaside salts and croaking gulls
sand and endless cold sea
horizons like dotted lines
perforated
torn by love
and spray
and the daydream of sky.

drive by

bang
the poem is shot
magazine ink spots
dykes with spoons
ragtime ice cream
carbon dust
barnacles
hairpins
lists
endless lists

the end of poetry

my head is a blue plastic bucket
stuck in space on a spinning rock
it catches what it can in a downpour
and in dry times it gapes
a patient exclamation
"O"

An American Stain

This noose is hanging from a lamppost
An open mouth in the sweaty green tree rows
White shirt sleeves perspiring
Midnight smiles divided in columns
Doric, Ionic lines, brick facades
Willows drag branches at the riverbank
Birch and Aspen strangled by faceless ivy
Rusted dirt like a scab in the undergrowth

Who knows what seed has grown
Sown behind picket fences
Beer bottles, brown telescopes
Sport teams wrapped in red and black
Fried cookouts and firearms
Trapped and covered in graphs and gaffing tape
Country crooners twang and refrain
Hiding the depth of this American stain.

Hightower's Last Meal

four fried pork chops
collard greens with boiled okra
fried corn
fried fatback
fried green tomatoes
cornbread
lemonade
one pint of strawberry ice cream
three glazed donuts

it starts with snorted coke which gives me the edge
the snub nose i already loaded and slipped in our bed
then two whiskeys, the cheapest i could get,
four beers, a wine, and a tequila chaser
my guilt is already drunk when i leave the bar

the bitch and her little bitches exchange looks
but keep quiet like they do after dinner
Sandy watches Cosby and Eve has her Harelquin
i hold the paper up and reread the comics
while Dot washes dishes and then puts the squeaker to bed

i'm gonna end it for them
it'll be tonight, the bitching will be done.
then i'll drive east through Augusta
and maybe see the coast
maybe put my feet in the sea at Kiwah Island

i'm gonna end it tonight
their lights are going out
and i'll spend summer evenings
swimming like i did when i was 12
diving into the arms of dark ocean waves
until the last of the sunlight dies.

holy rolled

the praise the praise the praise
faces full of God-bound hyperbole
displaced from rice thin pages
padded tube steel seating
painted wall panels reverberate
music, spun cloth, ejaculations,
tongues motivated by electricity

the J man gospel megaphone waver
preaches in all the kingly ways
the songs the verses the melody
flush ambivalence from full ears
round orifices resonate with echoes
multiplied amplified verities
focused to animate the dull and grave

glory gold, whole word holy
verbal blessings, aggressive grace
addressing dynamic congregation holds
pressing hands into joins, clapping palms
plates transform into tambourines
and silence is waived by dancing legs and arms
where once the charms of a quiet God were praised.

demotibilized

olive green linoleum squares
laid in miles like government blankets
tiles of fluorescent days
seamless pinesol footsteps
clock arms signal slow-motion warnings
monotone communication
servants as civil as metronomes
measured paper molehills
grown in folders into stone homes
licensing leashes and tags
sand bags and hedgerows
slowly rolled on the conveyor belt
silt feet and sweat mix
affixed to number B1056.

the common communion

bells do not ring here
as time genuflects sweating skin
swearing simian genes symbolize
invitational thighs flexing
the riot of civilization

chemicality sparks the nipple twist
lists of causation down the potassium gates
blood makes heat, the blush flows
friction sweat wetting nerve wires
electrical dendrite trees shiver delight

there are horny toads thrusting legs
pinned by eyes in ether bliss
hearts pulsed to latino rhythms
the misms of mystical brain stem seduction
pant legs drop mesmerizing memory

immaculate breaths caress necklines
cracks to suggest progenation
succulent curvatures bend the horizon
mountains valleys lactate rivers
testosterone flash flood angry divinities

make me please, knees bending
dark nods to the god of oblation
velvet pews, lips pursed
makeshift slow immolation, redemption
victimized impaling climax catechism

armor calcinates into holy weakness
invitations to enter, penetrate
entrails digesting enzymes
divine failures, soft holds
as unearthed we negotiate

the face on the stairs

there is a face that rests on the stairs
balanced on the oak banister
it observes and watches the tv i watch
it is waiting for me to see

i close the blinds to keep out the heat
even though summer is ending
even though the foliage is thick and the branches have grown
i close the blinds to keep out the heat

hours dwindle into minutes seconds
the days into hours
the months into days
and again again time is a sink of water emptying

taken twice daily, swallowed
suffering can give life meaning
just as ground glass from light, heat, eaten twice
only some sand burnt into clarity

a hate lives close to this jar
close to the bus rides with mother
close to the car rides with the ex
close to my hands clenched

smells of burning signal the end
smoldering self sorrow
puffs of hot air, smoke rings signal
stay away stay away stay away

there is a reason to turn the lights off
night lies like a dark line
wormed in iron red soil
rolled in perpetual prayer crying,
"i want to die
i want to live
i want to emerge
i want to disappear"

there is a face that watches from the stairs
it waits for me to go up.

your new proportion will keep her happy

low self esteem from a small weenie,
wiener, little Vienna sausage?
erase all the memories of your greatest defeats
graduate in style with a new shaft
and impress her with your manly manhood

put a huge sausage in her bun
have fun all night long with your big shlong
celebrate a victory in love
your performance and mastery will satisfy
transform into a sex god
start today and you’ll be on top.. and behind …and in front

bewitch her with your thick love snake
make her ride your rigid rod
a rocket dong pleases girls
mega-size your johnson today
why wait? rake in the girlfriends

you don’t have to be resigned to your short pete
get longer, harder and more robust pole meat
women crave a larger tool so they can feel satisfied
be bigger, be greater than ever before
cram your man spam in to her clam
and make her come to you forever

the crane pose

planets are aligned today.
gravity balances force
directly in proportion
and inversely proportional
to distances between them
measured in arm lengths.
dynamic equilibrium
seizes the order of things

commitments, counter-commitments,
millstones, gallstones, the moon,
holding patterns pulling limbs,
pinpricks and cold space
place equations
imaginary numbers
opposing me in the hallway mirror
like divisions into infinitesimals

i observe the order of things
desires equalized into stasis
stillness, two opposite pulls,
magnetic poles of earth
stabilized by lunar-spin:
tidal motions, hemispherical seasons,
reasons to close the windows
or mow the lawn shirtless

and once order is found and held
couches perch at an angle
facing digital reasoning,
directives to consume or imbibe
wavered by whim and suggestion,
balance sways flexing muscles,
sinews stretch and pull aside
waiting for worlds to collide.