Either I
Or the day
Came crinkle cut

More
Surface

Area
Than
Smooth
Cut

I digress
Into those
Crispy crevices

Catchers
Of salt
And seasoning

Do you mix
Well
Do you

A crunchy
Verticy
Submits

Masticating
To great
Satisfaction

This
Fryn'
Day



Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

What are all these stories for
I gather here

Don't give me your
historical
hysterical
hey maybe's

answers that have been
weaponized
are not good
Unlove us backwards

to gravity
and stones

take me forward
without
cutting off parts
of us

thinking knowing
is complete
the final why
a final lie

Un lie
your great story
that only explained
now
for a moment
then

no matter how
apparently
deeply

Miners of truth
laugh at yesterday's
depth

including your flying chariot
you deadly fool
for then's strongest
lie

Maybe the past is alive
and winging us like shoes
at its sister tomorrow
with glee

we but
accidental
soles awakened
by flight


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

Do you want me to be impressed with your lying?
Tell me about outlandish things
Plaster yourself against the Event Horizon
Lyricize your friction with now
**** the **** of please help me
Wishing

I am wishing
outbound
powering
pulsation

this is at attention
this is a momentary
daily trance
of lift

Sweep your hand
along the surface
is there sharpness
or wetness

I am wishing
in that direction
you can't hear
'thout crossing your legs

Wishing for hardness
bangingingly loud
conscription of
******* of

that *******
rain, an hour before dawn
your choosing not me
all the way home

its insightful your pique
it's precondition
my bad intent
your justified

and this is solid
all the way up
a wave off
of words

I am NOT going to tell you
Another ******* ending
They are all lies on the inside
of our tumble

of our lyrical stumble
to serialize pulling away
leaving to get
elsewhere familiar

Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

I have fried chicken coming
and then these things
and then these things
say it with me
these things
hap
hap
n
reductionist has
too many letters
sublime has that
onerous bluh
i know you agree
disagreeable know
a catechism undone
and saints abandon
are won against nods
of I project knowing
sowing not **-ing
syllables of see-me
give me a break

Accept this sunny morning
This soft sweet air
This quiet rustling
of leaves

This unkempt stallion
of dawn rising
my hands rubbing
my beard awake

I've held still so long
I am unseen
as the Robins land
to commence hunting

I am one of a trillion lives
in my back yard
for the grand opening
of this singular day

I think we are all cheering
for the lightness
come to touch our skin
as one

I'd take something seriously
'cept I know better
since I learned
to make stuff up
so I'd be taken
seriously

almost everything
I was taught to believe
someone made up
so they'd be taken
seriously
seriously

and now we're stuck
with their creative
inventions
and a stupidly
serious nature
we all hate

And if  I wrote a poem
after death would I be
laughing laughing
over you

I am restrained
from saying
what you really mean
by what I can't admit

this smooth part lies
accepting its ambiguity
under certain meaty fingers
searching I am searching

torque as a reason
for a stanza
a shortening of a cap
stop digging they say

I open this
opening
to you

every night
sneezing and
expostulating

verbs I often think
and sounds
for which

I can't find
any meaning
for you

I just have them
in my hand
right now

and don't know
what to do
with them

I said there isn't any more space
And space said I am more
I didn't know what to say
At that time

Later I found this
out

So I put it away
Back away
time hissed
disapproval

flying by
So I'm late
as a gouge
I'm sorry as a gauge

On like like

Hang on
Slow down
Let me get
My finer sensibility

I have this fondness
to which
I won't admit
about a day

I think
Everyone
Knows
Its Thursday has my heart

You should sleep with me

and lines move
Redistrict reality

this is now
Used to be land

On your left
A sandwich

of understanding

those teeth, robed
In those lips

in that smile
under that

sorry readers
crinkley nose

'neeth
starry eyes

pretty geek
sublime

time is not
our friend

just
the collector

Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

All agreeing
597999
are wrong
bless me
oh ****
there's
one more

I'm having feelings
again
don't know what to do
with them
hence poetry an'
rhythm
drinking cabernet
amen

I am offended
so offended
unable to
believe
how
offended
I really am
offended
offended
by this world
and you in it

So I'm seeking the good stuff
skip swipe skip swipe

Quick sheets and
     threads of tomorrow
     under my fingers
          some smooth and soft
          some coarse and cutting

I'm stumbling on surprises
     of sudden silence

     yesterday is always underfoot
     and too slippery to stand upon

So I sit
     myself down here

To wander in small spaces
To wonder in inky bits
To one day in a series
     of discontinuities
     of land receding
     of time curling up
     of days
     with crispy burned edges
     and quickly cooling tea
     for one



Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

Love and life are transient
damaged
by fasteners of fear



Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

these ramifications
are farcical
I abjure effable
subterfuge
when that kiss
the one you
live on
pulls on
its gloves
and glares

inhale some carbon
**** a brick
men with guns
starving
women with knives
carving
and there's some
raving
under a wave
caving
we held tomorrow
up
robbed it
the evidence
will drown

skin reaching
for a grip
some purchase
can't sleep
'thout touching
some keys
saying
some things
'bout

For you
Just realized
how much you are in my mind
when I'm writing

I am
writing to you

Or is it for you?

Catching myself
Displaying

you are my muse
I hope the ****

You are paying
attention

*******
call me


Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

The slip
into poetic mode
the discourage
meant
of not
being read
the time
scouring by
scalding all
I connected to
cool water
imagined

I am trying to find you
always trying to find
you I am always trying
If I do what will I do
with  you what will I
with you will I be with
you I don't think I can be
with you now that I see
you where you are where
I see you are I cannot be
and yet here I am here I
appeal yes that's it I appeal
to your to your new found
friend that's me your new
foundering finding you while
being here some part of the
whole time I've been somewhat
here looking never thinking
I don't want to find you ever
finding you finding you ever

these losings
the taken
away

these longings
the hoping
they'd stay

these evenings
the keyboard
with me

these efforts
the spilling
of time

these moments
the laughing
of stars

A lot of what I write
Is Tripe
Whatever that is

I seem to find it
Must know that smell
Or is it a sound

I've been around
That's Become invisible
Background

My baseline throbs
at this way
beating forward

shallow fetid strokes
Of opprobrium
reign

And nowhere is where
We're going
To be dissapative

As if we were there
and here tonight
for you

I've listened too long to
I've prolonged this too effortless
I've longed and longed

You've been lovely
You've been taking my breath
You've been almost almost mine

This morning
is different
this one
  I decided
is mine

My birdsong
My dawn
My cool morning
air

My pen
cries to you
so quietly
from this little perch
of hope and choosing

Don't soften existence
to the dissonant
by being it

All of us
making our waves
carefully or not
need to be felt
welcomed
or stopped clearly
with ought

In Poetic News Today'
Nothing rhymed
with anything
alliteration and consonance
got confused counting
and accenting this and that
and decided a nice cup of tea
with brandy and a nap
among dusty books I imagine
in a square of sun from a high window
like a lesson in perspective
you find interesting and turn past
would be nice this afternoon
and tonight and even well we'll see
about a poet's tomorrow
when you're more somber
and know better so you can

Is this a poem
if I just leave it
be
and not alone

Ought to happen
to enliven life

Ah somethin
wreck me tonight

I learned something
I forgot

About attraction
gaining traction

I remember
being hot

I just never
really knew

at the time
I was shy

Now
Ah now
Always the game breaker
Always the wrecker

Undone unlettered
Facing the next

Blank
Line

Ah somethin
Wrecks

Up against me
A she

I am quiet
in the can

while she sleeps
swathed

Ah somethin
can I hold yer hand





Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

I hit him
in the head
in the  broken
spaces
of knowing
I know
I did

Answer my own question
swallow my own lie
lay here and die

Get up to pie
and toast
and coffee

Heave a great sigh
settle around
death's discomfort

Riddle me why
we husband these lies
paint 'em so high

they are nigh
to the wind
on scuppers of rye

all out
we cry
lay here don't cry

These crawling things
these thoughts
engraved in nerve
throbbing wanting
to be bigger
to run me

oh you all want
to run me
don't you
this way this way
this way
whisperers all

help me copy myself
help me grow myself
in your head please
i want to live
forever so carry me
forever i won't take up
more than your life
and any others you
introduce me to

i am a lesson wanting
to be learned
and the lesson
is don't learn me
don't grow me
so strong
in your head
and miss all

Everything always
falls thru
with you

'mi unfair
or unreasonable
here

Alone
considering the odds
from new angles

and realizing
with a cold clarity
it's unnecessary

As
Are
We

And the soul's
So what
Rings

I answer
I dunno
Lines form at the rear

Hands up
me
pick me

I'm the one
right
about this

Cheeks to be turned
Beds attended
Growling fed

Time is uncertain
In the tale
It tells of you

I am listening
sometimes flipped
feeling certain

'Bout
what was thought
Crazy




Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

I saw a thing
and had a thought
that was kind
Or not

And I am
that thought

For good
Or naught


Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

Will you take me
from here
I think at you

Please don't **** me
I grit at you
My fear

Let's take alone apart
and remake it
without me

Doesn't always respond
when called

Often laughs at odd times
when talking

Stops says hang on a sec
starts scribbling

Cries at joy, smiles at misery
Amused at anger

You think they are right there
with you

Lying beautifully
with hidden rhythms reddening

Usually displaying angst
heartache, loneliness or self loathing

Sometimes joy from the delicious
ache of love

Always always lost in some other now
when now needs scrubbing
not scrutiny

Often trying to fit things
on a page

Black and white flowers
describing non existent colors
on an infinite canvas
fed to eyes in hiding

Usually easy to spot discomfort
in a crowd

Inundated by all the words
When sober or not

If you find them in this lost shape in the wild of syllables and sound

Run
Or hose them down
Before they infect you
They are the carriers
of humanity


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

There's something about hatred
so ****
so seductive
so satisfying
so simple
easy peasy
I hate you

Are you feeling me
judgemental you
evaluating these lines with wine
I hope

Red is the thing here
to capture you
your feel on this
offended?

Feeling nothing more than feelings
hooked on red, aren't we?
easy now
let's not be *****

this death you wish upon me
gripped
clenched
life needs death
don't be ashamed
you want mine

exhort yourself

past me
past my
strings of things
past my body

rotting on hello poetry
stinking to high rhythm
filled with glee
or is that anger

******* seems to rise
unbidden -oh what a word
you tsk-tsk
a line

and death is your friend
not me
I ******' hate you
nothin' personal

just that you breathe
and think
to angst
every syllable

I am smitten
with you
your reading
and these electrons flowing between us



Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

I sink beneath waves
knees exclaiming kicks
I do not execute or
anything I just look

I am
one dragon away
from catching fire

I put myself back together
with Choco-Choco Chip
and Caramel Pretzel Klondike bars

and did I mention
Cabernet Sauvignon

another Death yep
this one a stunner
leaving gaping holes in hearts

and did I mention this young goddess

I put myself back together
with sugar
and intimacy

I broke
from the loss
of my nephew
my godson

I'm putting myself back together
with misspelling and wine

I broke, am breaking
I'm putting am back
togethering

i miss you already
i wonder why you had to do
such a ******* thing

and i'm crying again
and this is high
and this is low
and this is    
you know
******
too well


Copyright#2018 Dennis Willis

I keep curving
against the side
that is turning
maybe I'm spinning
like a turtle
upside down girl
"you spin me round"
or some such words
catching up with blood
going somewhere
with purpose
unknown to vehicle
swurving

I'm full of inkles
and spitz
and the neighborhood
zinkles
are having ruzberry
fitz

They teng
and they weng
on the bridge
of oh-seng
and just past the cardon
we all go ba
zeng

it bangs
and it clangs
when your zing
rangs a zang
an' oh uh lo
blankling
and crankling
we go

I am looking forward
to everything
anything
something
oh that thing
yeah yeah yeah

I'm not sure how to stop you
from reading further

This shattering light
showering through
the tips of our fingers
spraying out of diodes
off the backs of skulls
onto the backs of hands
with enough pressure

I would like the world to change
to suit me

I would like you to change
to please me

I would like me to change
to accept this

Don't fight the change