Tomorrow is the day that I can return homeAt long last, the time has come I will return to my family, my land, my lakeBut I leave many precious things in my wake I have friends here, too, and one is a girlIt is so hard to move between worlds Each couple of months I … Continue reading Rendezvous
Category: Poems
Poems new and old
Arachnid
He did it he had the guts to pull it off I chased him up a wall and back down it and then he had the audacity to get in my shorts. Circa Fall 1996
Into Eden
IWarlocks sip on potent teasand wipe their hands across their knees.As Grandpa fixes whirled peas,a moustached man decries, decrees. Wait a sec, I’ve gotta sneeze—these god-forsaken allergies—might you grab a kleenex please?It’s something in this desert breeze. Outside, it’s just about to freeze.The needle sticks on thirty-three degrees.Afresh, afresh, the budding treeswill, like peaches, die … Continue reading Into Eden
My Pet Computer
My humanity begins whenI treat this computer like a person. I restart it when it needs a boost.Just like using ECT to scrape gunkfrom the gutters of our brains. Or, I put it to sleep when it needs a rest,taking care to let it lieneither too long nor too often. Because, like everyone else,it needs … Continue reading My Pet Computer
Complaint at Age 26
I won’t liebut I’ll come closeto comitting a crime.Which do you prefer? Your happiness?Or, me honest but behind bars? A downfall is thatno one ever explainedwhy I should put your happiness before mine. Because you got me here?I said, “Thanks.”I send Christmas cards. Y’all tell meto enjoy lifeto have a nice weekendto do what I … Continue reading Complaint at Age 26
Triage
Put down your forcefield, sugar.
I grew my hair this way for you.
Do you see the skin of which I dreamt?
Torn to and fro, it reveals pools of co-habitation.
Supplies like bread, and soda, and diapers.
I can get these things for you — free-like.
We’ll have a hot time in the old city tonight, sugar.
For which do you care more — bourbon or gin?
Don’t spin your way out of here, not just yet.
I’ve got ways to free us from this island of dark sweat.
The canoe of opportunity, carved for me and you.
This town has never been a finer sculpture of mud and chemicals.
The skies have charmed it free of its alcoholic businessmen.
Let them comb hotel-room carpets looking for lost contact lenses.
We shall take our moldy crown in the throes of lineage, having outlasted
plaided Acadians, discombobulated Americans, and fur-trading French.
Dredge this lake, and you'll know the ways of a queen.
The Feds, the governors, the mayors:
they hold no quarter for us now.
We don't stand in line for them.
They stand in lines for us.
Restless Leg Syndrome
There really is such a thing. I have it, and tonightI can’t sleep becausemy legs are all astir. Running things through my mind—a phone call I will make tomorrow. What I’m turning downis an easy answerto hated questions:What do you do?What will you do when you graduate?Then why’d you go to law school? My legs … Continue reading Restless Leg Syndrome
Plane Over Clouds
Because of the clouds, I like flying.Plains of clouds, mountains.This plane rose until it wasjust above the cover.You can’t do that in a Cessna. The clouds dune, eddy.They make a quilt, one that’s gottentoo much use, so thatfinest soft cotton purges through. I see x’s and o’s out there,the signs of love at the end … Continue reading Plane Over Clouds
America Under Attack
This is jihad, know it?Call them bastards, Mr. Senator. Run it as a headline.It’s an assault on our lifestyle. Metal is scattered in Somerset County.Flight 11, that left Boston for Los Angeles?Only went so far as New York.Flight 77, from Washington to LA?No further than the Pentagon. Divert things to Canada.Take care not to inhale … Continue reading America Under Attack
Deflation
Hope is thefeathery, leatherydollar. Floating,dropping,slowly on the breeze. Down from Heaven,to purchase the soul.
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