Horse Mask

When I'm sleepy

I see the ghost horse

A dream reaction

To comic self mastery

A reminder

That I am the poverty

When I refuse

To drink from his mouth

This evening

I sat with three hunched men

In a bunker

Below the house

Of a clairvoyant

Longing for open spaces

Modern Man (for S. C.)

It's the final day of shooting

Sitting in your trailer

Doing the last of the drugs

Scored from one of the grips

How does it feel

To play beggars, outcasts

Moguls, clerics

And philosophers

Weeping in the dust?

Have you found out

Who is sleeping

With your wife?

In one hundred years

Will all lights be solar powered?

Will the law be on your side?

Will commercials

Be narrated

By the posthumous voice

Of a long dead

Jeff Bridges?

Outside it's raining

Your face is numb

Fingers shake

Fumbling with an iPhone

Texting an x girlfriend

Late for lunch

It's a take

Animals (for C.R & P.T.)

Thank you

For ringing the bells

That summoned the people

Who pulled me out

Of the swamp

I cursed their arrival

And signaled with water birds

Who witnessed my boozy bathos

They didn't believe me

When I told them

I was fern hunting

Among these picturesque mountains

With no intention of returning

Emily,

I'm lost

My golden chariot is toppled

in a drainage ditch littered with

victorian syringes

bloody straws

glassine bags

severed heads

and moth eaten sweaters

Get straight for this world?

I'll get straight for two reasons

For you to be a subject

in the empire of my mind

and for that lone pelican

stuck in the muck

of the once glorious

Gulf Coast

The Hex

Take your fugitive lovers

saurian undertakers

stencils and targets

epic quantities of drink

the will to occasionally put out

and go away

You are a frog

banded to a wheel

at the bottom of a dry well

Burning bits of wood just to smell their scent

The Slattern

Impatiens

Draw black and yellow swallowtails

To her father's garden

Which she dutifully waters

Through lucid dreams

Of coke scores and

Well hung men

Don't confuse her dreams

With your common image of her

In a red skirt

And yellow blouse

Dancing

In after hours bars

Unknown by gringos

And the overextended

She will come to you

A white cat in heat

Sensate your mortal thoughts

Through her

Use well water only

On drunken afternoons

MOTIVATION

The ever cycling sound in his head

Could be described

As the roar of a leopard

Slowed down five hundred times

He was a secret Christian

Slurping in the filth of New Rome

Certain about who sent

This swarm of tattooed

Strung out, steroid teens

To keep him company

On this Coney Island bound train

Insults

Sprung from the misidentification

Of an old man

Whose entry into this world

Was as exquisite

As a chest of fine Chinese gunpowder

Or the discovery

Of the last acre

Of arable land on earth

Or the roar of a leopard

Slowed down five hundred times

Repro Vintage Schwinn

I met a witch

On a dirt road today

She was walking

A blind black dog

They halted before me

Before me

And that ridiculous bike

The basket

Full of beef jerky and warm beer

She pointed at my heart and shrieked

The dog lifted its leg

And shot a stream of hot piss

Across the front white wall tire

"You must lead yourself away!"

* * *

No consolation in poetry

Or sex

Or pills

Or sound

Or friendship

Just the same dirt road

Confronted this time

By a young white tailed stag

Its antlers

Covered in vascular, spongy velvet

I slowly let my hands drop

Off the handle bars

My arms relaxed

My eyes fixed on his eyes

He crossed the path twice

And disappeared into the brush

Summertime

Something stung me yesterday

As I rowed across the lake

Indeed I felt the pain

but was so taken

by the clustered pines

That I forgot to wince

Radiography Redux

It began with plagiarism & parroting

Springing obscure quotes

On the simplest of people

Then came the dancing horses

Your Father

Wants you to die

Before he does

Because perfection

Is a joke

& all who strive for it

Are jokers

Not wild

Just christened

In turpentine

& mortar

Trying to survive

Their own demise

Enjoy your friends

Miss them

An old one

Pulled his brush

Out of a jar of Testers paint

& through a vapor

Of modeling glue

Told you

Pragmatism

Always

Beats

Principles

That is just the way it is

In exile

An artist of words

Is scripting

This dour comedy

& accepting gratitude

THE RUB

Thought I'd reread Hamlet for kicks

& get off on my sweet smart self

& smirk at my familiar fandom

Not so

The Dane kicked my ass

Down the stairs to the sidewalk

Rolled me across the macadam

& left me unconscious

Against a wall of

Thick

Red

Brick

"I could be bounded in a nutshell,

and count myself a king of infinite space,

were it not that I have bad dreams."

When I awoke

I saw fear

Womb-like

As in a dream

TNT (for Sam)

the ducks are in order

natural distractions

provide the narrative

& apostles need a narrative

this bridge

is going to blow

volatile charges

of the pen

with the blast power

of a truck

of TNT

i was in a state of grace

passing a census taker

interviewing empty bottles

a woman asked me

if my garden went untended

while i composted

pitiful scrapings

i threw up on her shoes

& stared at the bottles

their utility ignored

only numbers mattered

dead soldiers

intoxicating guests

to be bagged

& redeemed

Joe

Your Fascination

With Reality

Makes You

A Horrible Comic

Joe

I can't help You

Because

Life

Is just a Tumble

& a Real Man

Could never be

So Humble

* * *

Lady Macbeth

I saw You

Lexington & 43rd

Broken

With vaulting Ambition

The Serpent

Beneath

The Innocent Flower

I'll Beat You

With Bloody Hands

& Drag You

Through Our empty Tower

Archimedes Screw

1.

Gather Your Corn

Brought forth by Pure Thought

In Magic Goat Skin

Thirsty as Hell

The Dried Shell

Of an Imago

Pollen Drunk Bees

Waking in the Raking Light

2.

Thousands of Dragonflies

Over a Fresh Cut Field

By the Waterfront

At High Tide

Fisherman

Catch & Release

Not Really

Depends on how hungry you are

You

In the Shade

With Your Dope

Syringe

& Spoon

Deep Sea Fishing

Waiting

For the Striped Marlin

3.

Once

You Hung

From the Edge

Of a Deep Dark Ditch

Your Cousin Peter

That Pious Bastard

Wouldn't Take Your Hand

You Cried, "Please Help Me!"

He Recoiled & Smiled

Knowing the Atheist @ 10

At Bottom

What could Draw You Up?

Archimedes Screw

Square One

A Burst of downy Feathers

Below the Kitchen Window

In early Evening

Figured it was the feral Cat

I've been feeding since last Summer

Not quite

A Peregrine Falcon

Was lifting off

With a Starling

Locked in It's Talons

Resumed Reading

To find I'd lost My PLace

Anima

She discovered Poetry in Prison

On Visitation Day

Her Husband

Slid Her Volumes

Under Tempered Glass

Always arriving early & sleepless

Having spent the night

In a state of panic

Struggling

With what to write

In the blank spaces

Of Title Pages

"To the Woman who killed Her Brother"

"To the Woman who took Revenge"

"To the Woman who refused to live in Fear"

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF W.H. AUDEN

Golden

This Age

Of Indiscriminate

Intimacy

& Rigged Delights

Holds My Focus

On Sinkholes

Filled with drained Bottles

By raging Fools

xo

Dorothy

Get the Hell

Out of Munchkin Land

& Forget about Kansas

It's been bought out

By Eminent Domain

Don't turn to look

As Oz burns

It's Citizens

Were cursed

With blessings

Run

& never stop

We'll be together

On the Other Side

At the Corner

Of Hollywood & Vine

Two Blackbirds

Picking off Worms

That surfaced

After the Flood

Nemo Dat

She

Smelled of Onion

& Slaughter Houses

Soot & Ash

In Her greasy Hair

Aware

& incensed

Secure

But bearing

Crippling Thoughts

Too Close

For the Good

Of Anyone

She turned the Corner

Passing Pawn Shops, Hawkers & Hustlers

Cutting a Wake of Sheer Humanity

An Explosion

Fit for a Hillside

Fit for a Train

Return

Excuse Me

I didn't eat and drink so much

In My former Incarnations

So be gracious

& forget

What You think

It means

To be slighted

Manipulated

Lied to

Screwed over

Taken advantage of

& lulled into a Fear Coma

Because You can't take

A foul Beast

With You

& continue

To explain

In Languages

Only the Beast understands

The Beast will not endure translation

Aden Martin Eden

The Angel asked Her

Why do You drink with Strangers?

Because I love the Common People

Liar!

He folded His Wings around Her

& She turned to Dust

Atheists & God fearing Folk

Suffer the Burden of Doubt

One--Piety

One--Worldly Clout

Sodomy

Clay Pipes

Sugar

Opium

Suffering

From Gunrunning

Spices Sweat from the Skin

Far from the Sea of Philistines

That's All Folks!

I mean

What else

Are You going to do

In the Desert?

Can't go Fishing

Collect Butterflies

Or seek Comfort

In an air-conditioned Bar

You look at the Sky

& make Shit up

Make Shit up

& force Other People

To believe It

Stage the killing of Your Son

Chop off a few Heads

Warn of a miserable

Sulfurous Eternity

If I were to create a God

That God

Would very much resemble

Porky Pig

Who wouldn't worship Porky Pig?

He's Cute

He's Funny

& He Stutters

A Stuttering God

I would create a Stuttering God

Work

Listening

To Marvin Gaye

& Tammi Terrell

You see Yourself at 15

Happily Hauling Wood

In a funky Lumber Yard

In the Deepest South

On the Sunniest Day

Of Spring

Inhaling the Sweetest Air

Ever taken in

Sunday

Those first few Hours

Tea & Cigarettes

Nerve Pills & Vitamin C

& that Goddamn White Christ

White Christ

Put the Blackness

Back in My Soul

This Season of Benefits

& Gala Events

Is getting Me down

Tonight

I'll enter through the Kitchen

& rip off your Gown

Me & White Christ

Gonna make You feel the Heat

Make You strain to keep the Beat

Gonna write that Song & press Delete

You're gonna make a Deal with White Christ

Mistaken But Relieved, Maybe

Can't be Swifts

It's much too soon

Must be Starlings

Circling above this Bus

Don't force Spring into Your Life

Only the hearty

Hard working & addled

Are out Today

One of These

Sits behind Me

Singing out loud

Straight through

My crappy Headphones

& into the Head

Of the Woman

In front of Me

Wonder how it sounds

Mix of Psycho & Satie

If the Coffee

He's shaking to his stinky Beat

Opens & dowses Me

There's gonna be

A hellish three part Harmony

Psycho, Satie & Me

Pater Noster Blue Ribbon

Our Father

Who art in Heaven

Meet Me at the 7-Eleven

I need a Drug

Undetectable

In Urine Samples

Or Locks of Hair

While I still have Hair

Take Me there. . .

Among the Energy Drinks

Petrified Cakes

& Packs of KOOLS

Guide Me

Protect Me

Provide for ME

A Drug

That won't kill ME

Some Elixir

Of Life

From another Time

That won't make ME

Loose My Mind

Or

Fall Behind

But

Just far enough

To remain a Danger

To an unwitting

Stranger

Amen

Baba Yaga

Plato was a Fascist

& a Prude

I'll take Aristotle

In Costume Jewelry

Any Day

He'll lisp the Night away

& protect Me

From Nervous, Splenetic Men

& that Firebird Bitch

Who's walking off

With My Buy Backs

At this Dive Bar

In the Shadow

Of the Acropolis