You make yourself
impossible to love

you find yourself
impossible to love

this gets in the way
as i love you impossibly

impossibly lovely
impossibly ricocheting

careening calamitously
stop and be silent you say

incessantly again serving
this cloud coalescing

Women
I have things to say
about women

First off
I want
to scream

Second off
I understand
rending

Third off
<a war in my head over
the proposed lines
for this stanza continues -
being unable to agree upon
using the phrase "I deserve"
it just doesn't feel right
or I am too afraid 2 b honest>

Fourth off
I'm getting clearer
On what I want
though a bit outlandish
I know other people have it
Why can't i?

fifth off
has a ring to it
maybe I'm
pifth off

At how poorly we do teaching ourselves
to have great lives

It's ok where
you're at
I just want to meet someone
where I'm at

Fifth off
heart hurts
no mas no mas
teed up by lucy
No

Instead
I draw a new
strip
my way
pencil myself in
deliciously


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

I lost the fight
not a fight
the fight

it's been replaced

with the "oh ****
you too?" approach

If no we might be back
to fighting

so say yaa me too please
and i'll smile
and we'll vibe

stand out today
in a 3 verse
2022 prosaic
find your heart
in a moving poem
on its way hoem
really ikr bloem
and comb it back
soem I'm sought
cuz I'm nought
and wish I was
nougat

I know that I'm operating
egregiously
uh we must flea
eh, free just me
in effect of lee
and am off the rails
that's not where they go
I just can't see that's me
nice off the rails softly
chumbling everything up
but listen sorry don't why
circulating between sips
behind the curtain quips
looky at that me and you
guffaw, you...<Rorschach test>
did you see your you there

the listen
at the end
of the aisle
is on sale

I am finding
finding
my my
finding my
I am
My
Finding
Way
My I am finding
Way way my way
Am I finding
My way


Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

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

you are just
a place to type
things

things that
make me squirm
and shudder

and rock
back and forth
in my chair

on the way
out of me
typed

into you
my neck
twists

Fishing around inside
for a poem tonight
looking for some something
that hotly wants it's write

It is dimmer as if
my inner basement light
and galloping goblins
after that two day fight

Are just plain ol' tuckered
Muscles cramped 'n tight
Does hitting a brick wall
Mean the end is in site




Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

The ones
we've given up on
minus
the one
that've give up on
us
equals all
of my tearing

Careening way up sides against the edges
that's how I fly
trying to through soup

tunneling through
reaching
balloon space
and I fit

Gitting in
to my skin
today
I had a thought
about you
while you
were reading this

I thought
How could
You know
This

Realized you
must also
have a secret

Spillway
of early morning
life rewriting

of last night
yesterday
and tomorrow

from their
classical
inhuman arrangement

Into
Spy vs spy
Intrigue

in leaping
Mad
panels

with satisfyingly
explosive
endings

Crave sense here
these unnumbered
fetchings

shaped
as a grayly rouged
visage

Wry wrenchings
Into
Place


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

the sentencing
of these words
to these lines
seems unfair
at first and
we look away
and in loss
concretize
some more
mercilessly

The fix all
wonder drug
and greatest
mental poison
of all time
which constantly
turns them
upside down
Not yours
of course
Menelaus

i have a flagship
full of your thoughts
sailing to

less ness

which constitutes
***** ***** *****
you

I have sound
left-ing and righting
itself

as if you're a whim
aura slim
sim sim sim

i always make you up
to argue with you
about me

I always wake you up
I have to convince you
to believe

you exist
when's so obvious
you don't

what are the feelings
of the made up
people

perhaps you can tell
us who made you
what what

How was that sandwich
was it everything
you hoped
How was that <your adjustment>
was it everything
you hoped
How was that <what was that>
was it <complete as pictured>
How was that
was it
are you
everything
of course
you are everything
think about it
everything

between your ears
everything imaginable
flails

must you wail
in this eloquence

read out 'tween sips
an' considered

naught, agreed

Dressing from the dryer
Forcing the drum around
so needed socks tumble out
left rolled up and a bit damp
I pull them on

Plating from the dishwasher
if I plate at all

Paying from the shutoff notice
glad they texted that
or it'd be dark dark

Showing up from memory
and not

I cant write
there aren't any words here
I can't inhale enuf
I'm about to twitch
Calm comes on cool air
Gathering cricket calls
embedded in the dough of tonight
pressed thru my window screen

threads of night air extend and withdraw
a lure to my skin a sink to my heat

Breathing into bags of verse
Is it this end of the continuum
or the other I want

There are cornflakes
smarter than me
about poetry
so crunchy
see

In every man a tempest
and a worm
turning
to the sun

In every tick a forever
and a now
rising
on the wind

Scream this high note
into your pencil
douse the follow
as if life went out

Your bubble
Your bubble
How do I
Bring this freedom
Home



Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

I am involved in the
deconstruction

I am pulling lines
snags are breaking

do you now flop
on a warm beach

regret or enjoy
the warm sand

Smashing rain
is numbing
the squirming soil

Drowning time
heaves its discordant
sandwich

I am nummy
numbed this tastes
good like more

time and drool
will hold
you here

go you fool

Arriving at careless
Where I've let go
even

Filling that space

Rolling over
throwing a leg
out easing my back

sleep comes e  a s ily
in stutters i know
are pallid

shuddering away
to sleep off
whatever

this flavor of a day
the floor is lava
in this story

Please don't be real people
with itches
and angsts

or that fucin thing
lus
ting

'*** then singing
makes
sense

and poesy-ets
should
be

Open my legs
for your barnacle
i am fodder and fertilizer
darting about
'til you're asleep lotioned

I may fold
this way
usually
as  indicated
by my creases

it doesn't
mean
I will fold
this way
for you

If the folds of space
are as complicated
as my sheet and blanket
entanglement

wherein I am kicking
desperate for coolness
or pulling for
its opposite

bunched
when I need
unbunched
scrunching

Then it makes sense
the red shirt guy
always getting it
in scene one

Later comes
the remake
Folds hiding out
until dark

partners
in the cottony cool
slipping between
so many things

flow crackling
delight
and they have me
made unmade


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

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

I reconfigured
the pulse emitters
and that did it

a trillion poets agree
meter *****
rhythmically

Don't soften existence
to the dissonant
by being it

Pounding out my time
Jumping in my hand
Wanging side to side
in my head
Where has this lead

you have read
yourself into something new
that no longer fits
inside the accepted you
along with this line

i don't have the lyrical
beauty you seek here
I have sawing lines
hewing rhymes
sharpened tines

The freezer
is my friend
I can put
my margarita there

I have pulled out of battle
I have stopped punching
they are still at it though
those certainties fighting

The lesser view the diminishment of you
so I can be big so I can be the artist
I am the artist I am the source I am
Groveling in capital letters for love

"I got so **** depressed"
a single person
too busy

Steaming on Wednesday
Waft off
**** day
**** gap filled day
come night
come flight
unadmitted fright

I can romanticize that
for 50 Alex

Spinning faster
than slow fukin auditors
can engage
isn't
Don't know why

Out guessing whatever
reads us
like results
of theirs

Unadorned selves
stroll past
not interested enuf
to laugh
or even nod

You fill this
opening
and flee
fear the imagined
showing up

While the other
unimagined
waits unpenciled
aren't we all
vacuum formed

This small life
unadorned
by fame
or money
or even
friends
still longs

Smaller
than intended
alone
with words
abundant

To describe what
whilst nothing
becomes anything
like something
that doesn't ring
or sing

On this side
I emit nothing
fibers of wannabe
criss-crossing sight
so many
they mat up

There is a line
inside my mind
climbing higher
trying to get to you

Intent to unwind
inside the lines
already in your mind
trying to get to you

an Ah wanna be a soun'
at keeps going roun'
and roun' **** tryin'
jus' can' put me down

oh once I hear a song
bout crying over you
can't put that down
that I can't for very long

would you be part
of some sing song
right being wronged
just because I long

The joining of forces
two cookies
and a glass of milk
An agglomeration
even now
talking on my tongue
saying things
meltingly  
coercing further
examination more
dissolution in service
of licking my chops
over and over until
all traces have been
successfully removed
except my vigilance

I think I reach
for you

this conceit
my lever

of ascent
satisfying

ly
high

above you
all

to distill it
clenched

un
rewarding

ly

so, i thought
this is a contrived
effort
as is
your reading
of it

not a thing
of beauty kneeling
before you
seeking
anything
at'll

then what
do i show up here
for
if not
to be beauty
loved

smile
forlornly
at me
and i
will do
the same

Light upon your day
there is no other
than this

around me swirls nothing
of which I am certain

in me swirls everything
shaken and stirred
mr bond

maelstroms unite
get organized
blow harder
start blogs

pensive i am
'bout that

ache in my *******
as if they
have
an opinion
on this

this

this easement
of a wedge

of a sense
you can feel coming
something is

"That's not how any of this works."
-some commercial

As I am running my life
I expect someone to come up to me
and say that

well, again

I am laughing
at the inside of my head

it is thinking
of lines that are funny

only to it


Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

"He left behind a harpist
which was a particular surprise"

Landing this tomatoe
of a life
like a bush-man
whacking away
at the imaginary
at the statuary
at the contrary

This this avocado
is happening
with lemon and onion
your tongue's saliva
disolving these words
like wedges
like edges
of salt and lime

I have time now
as always
awakening
lands you here now
going wow


Then now and
you drift on words
floating in cerebellum
um um um
grid neurons and place neurons
chatter you here
and you
you believe you

Landing
then steps
then steppes
then schweppes
all accessible
this distance and discomfort
from unnatural connection

just fillin' in here
found these lines
blank

didn't seem right