You could be
beginning to dance
now

oh this living thing
is is is is i guess
my daily ism
with something tasty
and **** and comfy
schism shmism
i have a vision
about my ism
and this well this

scouring letters
for edges unseen
stacked unclean

oh but i am clean
except for
half of me
that half

living right
up against
the rest
of
what i think
of
as approximately
me

is something else
a pretense
i think
not even you

smoking while
gazing hard
being drama
in your
thoughts

or how
i imagine
your thoughts
in my phony
thoughts
pony
i ride
all day long
like this

So there's this
conversation
we have

Where you are
working
so hard

to learn how
that
happened to you

vexed *****
used
badly

and i
just try
not to sigh

whilst your ego
gits its
high

keeping you
away
from

here and now
as you're too busy
fixing then

which can't be
and isn't
to be fixed

I wonder about you
why you're here
"was it death
is it the beer"
or worse the death
of beer
these not ringing true
say nothing small
about you
poured out bits
poked about
evidence, oh, of what,
are you evidence
and for how long
of what, time lists
us out a letter today

lerilu and kerilu
went humming
merilu merilu hu
hu-alu alu lu-lu

Did you get that
almost musicalness
tyin' ta crawl out a
my eye ear sockits

sock it just sock it
away nameste'
eh
'nucks gratit-rude uh u

The wine burned away the water's taste
though I was glad I drank it

I'm just a man
glaring at emptiness
gathered up
in these rooms
the gears of engagement
gnashed

Gluons abound in the eyes
with which you read this

Hanging on for dear life
clobbered by a photon
of verse

Wishing they were
phonons

Their grip is resolute
reinventive
of itself

Its wail a mostly wretched
song of I'm scared

of separation

The Island of Misfit
strings
entangles me

Grips are lost
time is misled
Thursday missing

Again

Inky bliss
surrounded me
drew out

the Elmer's

And I am unstuck
in time
and really
really
fine

Can I really tell you
I want to tell you
I just don't want you to go
I just want to icily say

go away, go away, go Away
over and over i hear myself say
to your face go away just go away
mayhap more than one isn't icily

this doesn't work this never works
i just sit all day and resist what i want to say
come back come back u effin ****
and always u make me while away

Reflections
     of the direction
as if each woman
     an intersection
of sunlight and starlight
     and dark earth

An opening glitters
     and pulls hard
pillows fly past
     my blind approach
I am know nothing
     light that is hunger

May I open you up
     brighten your infinite day

God the tears
wrenching themselves
from me
the past
dying
with all of its
appurtinances

wire pulled from
the gelatinous
stuff of my life
and it lets go
of form

see me nowwww...

grasp nothing
to your breast
while it runs
through your fingers
into your shoes
to squish
with every
step

a smear of time
with dry cereal
a schmear of leftovers
in a brown
bag
of soggy right now

this permanent
pregnancy of doubt
a blade
turning the soil
of our hearts
borning lines
burning lines



Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

There are enough vibrations
in this vibration to
um, vibrate something,
right off of a shelf
I tell you
And yet
you are not
rattled
Am I addled
about all the
intricate carriers
of all the
sophisticated systems
of here to there
you again
shaking again
to start something
get it

Poetry is laughably
serious
If it gets you

Have you ever gone home
with chicken soup and wine?

After a mighty fine time

this could be a sign

Have you ever danced home
with chicken soup and wine

and noticed the stars have aligned

and everything is fine

I've scraped together
parts of things
added aspects
I'm hoping are subtle

"and Rosario is SAFE!!!"

given contexts
contrived to help
"sunshine and roses"
volunteered

"Emmanuel is innocent!!!"

I let it run to page
smile and frown
that balance
bits have flown

"Cabrera not so much so"

this, another overreach
a cautious feeding
trying to feel that thing
you want to feel

I have good days now
Even good weeks
This wasn't possible
under your regime

If I wanted to be
one with everything
I'd accept knowing
you
another nucleus
in this medium
trying to hear
the signal
when we all
act as
one
and I just don't
have confidence
in you
doing that
as you might
be filled
with foolish
vibrations
rather than
good
let that play
interplay
if you hear
a song
there is hope

See the human
Be the human
Move your ***
They need you

I wouldn't say
that broke me
just
another me
left behind
un
voluntarily

Let it slip
Oh I
Oh did I

Slip back a section
at the revolving door

Slip back as they
push ahead

Slip back as they
banter closer

Let the gear turn ahead
slip forward

If I didn't
If I went ahead
I duh-know
Just let it slip

I can breathe
Letting it slip
Past

Breaking further
Stop these gears
digging in
narrowing night

Unsmooth strain
twists
a housing context
shrapnel potential up

Oh I
Am letting
it slip
Now a lot

Grab
One
A day
Better?

What gives me
these women
to whole
with my
half

What gives me
these moments
to have
with my
laugh

Thank you

The crushing I permit
the crushing I admit
the crushing crushed
I have a shirt I say do you

I'm traveling in this acceleration
towards you and something else
that encompasses this interval

it squeezes the frame until
the film speeds up
and meanings are reversed

I un understand racing my heart
these flowers of pressed minutes
paste themselves in my album aorta

Gravitic tomfoolery bleeds over
and weights everything out
that isn't really fast enough

And I shot out the penguins
from under the dusk
where they held back the day
and the night
so they could get gray

I can't ask
for that

I'm always ready to
She said

You know
I'm not going to use them words

She
Did

I'm always ready to
Picture your hottest fantasy girl

Sitting next to you
Half-dressed

Putting her clothes
Back on

Smiling
Deeply

Swollen
Lips

My eyes have never
Eaten so well




Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

I have to have time
to grind

myself into
poetry

where everything
is beautiful

even a
raven


Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

Where are these
I wonder
Holding my cheeks

And I'm a cherub
I realize
And I've found a way

To know
Even less
'Bout myself

I am getting
a

I am *******
myself

Letting go
my vowel

Proud
to line your screen

with
what the **** this is

at me
stares at me

stares
into the

staring
we are

staring
choosing

fuckit
you should

choose fuckit
have fun

it's your
limited bubble
in time

ddn't you
ever want
to be


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

So I must not care
The grip is tight
the might wanders
along a river
as if hunting
only wanting
to be seen
as if hunting
don't i look like
i'm hunting
say yes please
say yes

Packages of sleep
full of unopened dreams
in streams of vans
are rushing to you

Orders of delay
arrive timely
and constant
no pouncing here

On gifts of today
no bouncing here
just flouncing
away

Just sitting here
crying
drinking dry bold

channel surfing
commercials
setting me off

the end of
school of rock
has me "blubbered"

and it's you
it's always
you

find your way
in
un wanted

this thumping
thing
thumping

"you can't
let the man
get you down"

ah this life
ahm a baby
with a guitar


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

I just want to be with yuh t
ee-he with yuh
Not be me with ya

a little death oui with yuh

scattering all in the wake of ya

Huh

I had a line
and lost it

on the way
to here

Can I be in love with you
for a little while
I don't want
your whole life
that's too much
for anyone
but you

Can I recognize
Can I surrender
Can I stick my tongue
where I believe
it will do you
the most good

it is a fine finger of value
i extend
yes to  you
as representative
of this 'verse

are you not the voice
of the universe
arisen through
whatever agent
you believe
employed

whatever magic
you require

shazaam
your *** is here

explained

so there

okay i accept
whatever story
brings you to the brink
of this line

hah

nice to meet you
i am certain you are dee
lightful

hah

there is a pumping of blood
we seek
to be turgid

engorged

i have passport
to devine

it is thine

The universe is a machine
built for flinging stuff
against the wall

A membrany surface
somewhere around here
holding now

With a wierd refresh rate
and a color temperature
of everything

Agin' a cosmic background
of poets and politicians
pasting up pfffft all

only existing in
your mind
I break out in song

steerage
set to runaway

by way of
can't be here

and oh
gotta go

and then
after clampdown

muted and
dimmed away

it passes
for now

somehow
news penetrates

there is air
here still

i realize
start using

Half burnt Sunday
flickers out
The damnation of loneliness
tapering off the weekend
nicely

Many things to wonder
Many options to block
wondering
This page does not wait
impatiently
Does not sieve my day
Does not lay in wait
to ambush me
with crafty censure
or celebration
though I tell it to care
timelessly
knocking away the ash
is captivating
not attractive
it's the disappearance
of days
sank quietly
in borrowed trouble

Do you know that edge
when you cross
inebriation
a rising that tis a falling

and asks for happy reminders
as it falls
to say
isn't that pretty

while sinking
in tv quicksand
wailing for a branch
or a loop of rope

The rate
at which you
are unraveling
your beauty
into my life

I shot my pencils
and I shot my erasers
and stabbed the hell
out of my pad

Is there a crack
in your wind
shield
I often ask
of fellow
motorists
tooling down
my time
to the beach
where its fixed
by sand
sun hot
have to dance
hot

and the melt
pulling
like beauty
has you

go ahead
rub your face

trace yourself
here quiet

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

We all want to be safe
We are not
Because of men who want things
And behave like bears

In this episode
of our incredibly long-running
**** show

Our intrepid hero
is at it again
hoping

And we need him
to be
moping

Please contribute
to our sponsors
and tune-in to

All the things
that can go wrong
starting with

look behind you now
with some
didn't see that coming

now on with the show
slow pan
he is at the keyboard

alone
given time to bang
grievances

against deaf dumb
sumbitches counting
syllables and seconds

missing meaning
and lives
oh my

i declare i shant
go there
upside down in time

the scene twists away
from his
provocations

two as far apart
as two can be
on a bed

never more
never more
amusingly alone

he knows
the audience needs respite
needs a laugh

to not squirm turn
away to
you got 'em tv

I have 5:30 to 6pm
to get this down
and get back up

hating but
unbowed
that's a wrap

how are the ratings
we're up? let's
party

Have I grown weak
in this
time

Can I write as well
from angst's
absence

Sandwiched 'tween
you an' me
these lines

Mine read backwards
upstream
yours spill freely

down
in my imagination
runny

Outside the lines
lashes on my ears
flutter

The top
of a new layer
is revealed

and we
are deeper
than ever

wherever
there are
depths

this is
broad spectrum
poetry here


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

in the mirror
the maker
moves
making
dearer come
nearer
unto me
searer
to me
now
the sizzling
i am deaf to
as i burn up
on reentry

incoming and
rocking flame

seconds burning
against skin

skint by
tomorrow

arriving early
in my mind

time is unkind
this way

i have borrowed
from you

a closing down
an
elimination

I will pour some more
wine i will slice some more
cheese i will drift off into more
dreams i will elaborate some more
lies i will laugh at some more
forays i will reach some more
notes i will who am i kidding i will some
more wine more lines more stretching of time some more
late night movies and this typing away at time some more
baskets and drawers and shelves and closets of stuff some more
things to write home oh where is that about some more
Thursday night still to use some more denouement
unfinished kisses unattempted  caresses
kindnesses crashing onto pillows
sorry i am not wait
maybe i am

Snarksologists agree
to this positioning
higher

we get high on falsehoods
blooming on dissipation
of every moment
being had
having none