This spindly outreach
trembling for connection
bleeding all the hope
of every lyricist
I really don't know
if I have anything else
than this sing along
than this wring along

What if I trusted you
I asked myself
and not my fear
or my idea
of you

Can you be
trusted
if I tell you
my truth?

Or will you
snigger or
opine
on mine

Wher e is
that line
I can never
fine
I'll return

Having never seen
the next line

What kind of poetry turns you on?
What kind of rhythm brings you on?
What kind of structure holds you on?
all scant purchase for a soul
that isn't buying on
i make no claims on sense
and contain lost sensibility
amidst this fumbling hillbility
i'm just behind this curtain
with a broom wondering

I looked Death in the eye
quizzically, and asked,
sincerely surprised
Why are you here?
Death seemed surprised
too
That's not what
I usually
get asked
it said, kinda measured out
listening to itself and thinking
obviously as it went on
Why am I here
doing this
anyway
While I wondered
where else would Death be
or go?
if not on the job
is there a hangout
ghouls after work?
and now Death
was glaring at me
well even more really
and well even quieter than
and I wondered why I
had even asked
as if it weren't my end yet
Why are you here?

I keep writing
stop me
at least
for tonight

I keep wanting to describe a sound
its this big and this wide and it
makes me go oh drawn out
does this convey that to you

Look my way, yes that's right
how did you know to look here
you think you can't see me
its as if your eyes are knives

When were you here before
was i here too did we talk
i can never remember almost
I can hear you whisper to come

solipsist popsicle in time
cool as james bond stirred
not shaken by this revelation
oh do turn that volume down

When I am out in here
and think of things
I can say to you there
I'm not here nor there
I am nowhere
and talking about
being there
as if it were
somewhere
and its always
too hot there

These self actuated
"bags of mostly salt water"
imagine some really
astonishing things
you, for example
imagine me, writing
and I'm not anymore
imagine me, writhing

and I am anymore
'gainst what I imagine
plays these daily tricks
wherein I keep finding
its still me here 'gain
sayin' the same crazy
discolored things
to not be crazy
the same again

I've slept now
and drank
I've wrung my hands
and fretted
I've cooked
and eaten
I've pasted
and copied

Gotten back up
as far as really
down

ikr

and then snow
covered it all
Monday

again

to sleep now
this 'demic an' a
blizzard an' a

panic an' a
another
thing to light

This is imaginary
is always true
everything else
turns out

I went to say
I've drunk myself
calm and creative
when the side of my head
caved in
I drank a glass of water
to re-inflate it
does it seem

Ode to the crumbled
chips
I'm up to my wrist
to get my fingers
on you
and your broken friends

and the little ones
you are protecting
have me
up to my elbow
in no mercy

I tilt back
denouement
poured down
my gullet
sleeve roughly
dragged 'cross
mouth belch
their salty
stink
look away





Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

Yada dada
yada yada
yada yada yada
yaba
yaba?

There is something bubbling
Up in the universe
Pushing me hard
Out of the light
To find
To find more

I don't understand any of you
as the front runner does not
understand what is behind

And I am you in your pocket
or on your edge balancing
an admission you resist

Fenceposts aren't
your thing to go by
are they

Smaller now
we lunge
past

Methinks and then rinks
just to be unwrinkinkable

Tears are loud
come with
appropriate sounds

in a panic
my fears and imagined pain
rush the stage
convulse

You get the vibe


Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

Just tell me
how much
i have to pay you
to love
my poetry

please

It appears
i've decided

2 b btr
'n this





Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

I can't write
I can lie
I can pay attention
in the wrong direction
and raise questions
that do not care at all

because you
are safe aren't you
I can't ring your phone
or rap on your door
to ask about your hate
hidden smirk appears

There is a poem
arising on this page
hesitantly

It doesn't know you
or what to festoon itself with
to get your attention

which is worth more
than diamonds

In what direction
do I pursue you
when I am certain
of how it will feel

where am i when
i don't see you and
you don't see me
only later we

and oh I wish
I'd known
I'd noticed then
I'd been noticed

Look this is empty
you are thinking
and continue on

On my way here
waiting for the box
I forgot the line
that I thought of

I am erased
happily
thereafter
non
anydamnthing
a vapor
a mist
several molecules
amiss
won't even
be noticed
what are you
doing here

Unsurprisingly
I got a super power

like in the
media an' all







Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

Evlu olenis Durham
Evlu olenus

Compterel Tersa soronis
Nerse

Onsut esr tinagra
Estara

I am laughing
at the inside of my head

it is thinking
of lines that are funny

only to it


Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

I have questions
about poetry
and whether
it causes
loneliness
or not

Nah Zactly
that
No

You'd be close
if you
broke

Again while
breathing
time

And retching
lookatme's
smile

Si me
and tell me
love

The clatter
of a cup
in a saucer
put down on
a table
scrape clunk
slip click
i close my eyes
to hear the
stirring inside
and i smell
my mother's
awful instant
coffee tang
I will make
a cup of coffee
and set it on          
my table
the eyes
that see me
that saw me last
were uncertain
and still we had
a cup and both
rattled

"Bang a gong,
Get up and dance"

Now why didn't
I write that

If you could nail a 2 by 4 of pure light
across the hole of your heart
I could cross back to you

I've never
written anything
I don't think
I've never
thought anything
I don't feel
I've never
felt anything
I don't believe
I've never
believed anything
I don't know
I've never
known anything
I know

this is time
bleeding out
i've a certificate
of please continue
i resist all of your
entreaties to abjure
some or any
tomorrow
row row row
some any boat
and if i could be
dry any dry and
warm and dry
any warm any dry
i would be high so
high just to be
not so thirsty

Why is time
producing
and refining
me
What part
of this
this bigger
not visible to me
thing
i'm part of
is the fruit
and what
is the husk
and what
is the detritus
of time's work
if not this

Let's carefully examine
this knee ****

You weren't ready
you explain

and so your knee
creasingly leant

and then it went
bent didn't ent

I'm so proud
of that rent

I yearn 50 dollars a day
I burn a little less
There is upturn
and there is down
turning around again
fate being a clown
reckensee around
and I don't get sound

I don't know
why I left here
or even how
When is
under
investigation
no stone
will be
unturned
certain
one of them
knows why
and will
rock

It's an opening
breathless
I try to inhale
This is not enough

Lungs can't fill
I need my inhaler
to **** this in
a *******

Margarita
Golden Toasted Molecules
'n two puffs

Or double that
What it takes
In gritted teeth
To tell you

Where I should be
Lying lying lying
Oh this ******* thing
breathing

I can breathe well now
I can live well now
It's just breathing
To do

The rest is some *******
Rhyming in your head
Until you can't
******* breathe

I cannot believe
What ******* idiots we are
****** are us
Flushing in time

Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

I'm carrying intent
in a relay

Thru serpentine
now

Curvilinear
answers

to The Daily
Question

Lean away
                from hold still

Branch out
                from stay here

Dash away
                from so what

Advise you
                don't listen

Especially
                 common

Hands press keys
                 useless

Lee
                  rest easily

I spelled distasteful with my life
So I sit alone
And right




Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

According to uncertainty
If I find myself
I can't know
where I'm going

If I know
where I'm going
I don't know
where I am

No wonder
knowing
where I was
feels solid

delimited by
delusions
other then
now here

hooks into
this moment
is endless

I expect and become
lost

These imaginings hide
cost

The discrepancy seeds
frost

Once again my heart is
tossed

Just thinking this I ex-
haust

I have a clear place
I drove past it recently
at high speed
and I saw
myself there
driving by
I was going
really really fast
and writing
lines of poetry
at the same time

I've glommed on
to the skin's erie plahn
grow bones and brains
to carry me around and
rub me up aghainst
everiedamnthingahh

Wrestle a day down I say
wrestle a day down
and let it go

The speaker hams it up
laughs it up
lets it flow

The inside turns out
turns in
days all a spin

Lies and rhymes
callous lines
this is fine

Coughing up slime
finding the time
this is mine

Something uncertainly beautiful
melts you into it




Copyright@2019 Dennis

I need to sink
into

sinking into

sinking

I need to drain

I nuh nuh
need to draw in

i need
to be less

of a target
i need to be less

less than is coming
tomorrow to
to
to

raise
this
time

and you read your life
from guesses upon guesess
upon nothing we understand
upon

is it time
for lunch

stop me
if you've

heard

this sound
na na nah nah

imagine
hearing it

when you
r




Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

Fewer reads
is good right?