this *****
inspiration
this look it up
fenestration
with a flashlight
and a crowbar

after openings
invariably
come closings

this stops me
except for
more openings

aren't we
distracted
by now

and the needle
has been
slipped in

and that's ok
in numbness say
I found a way

Men are crushing our bodies
so they can feel important
so they can feel powerful
I'll show you bullets
I'll show you how strong
I am stronger than you
You'll see egos scream
armed up and angry
righteousness
living in their heads
living in your head
a smug prelude

On a nap
I realize

The justification parade
Ensues

Out late
Up early
Hurley burly


I'm sneaking up
On a bag of potato chips

I realize

I've eaten well
Leads the big parade
Just a few chips
Close behind

Thinking
thinking again
trapped in slow time
of imagining all these arrows
inbound

imagining them landing
with that movie sound
points arriving in muscle
shocking
to your sense of life

No reaction no clench
as we are numb to sharpness
and its friend hardness
as they are only words
vacationing

People passing up
opportunities
for playfulness

*******
I say

've
had it

with
serious you

with
fearful you

with
stuck in you

you

Oh and
Broken ******' hearted u

too

So if
any of thems
U?

Unpack your funny bone
and slap the universe

in the ***
with it

Nothing changes
Of course

Except
You're laughing

Making
you

Okay even
fun

tha's way better
an' more tractive

Fun Now

Getting you
to listen

to me
talking to myself

and thinkin'
's 'bout you

when
's not

From you

This rudimentary
*** mail system works

Sniff sniff
Sniff sniff sniff

Ah

I have to pull myself away these days
By the collar

Snort


Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

I'm still

I'm running
still

I'm still running

I'm still
running

Still running
Still running
here just here
running

I am here
i would run
i should run
i ran
holding
still as if
it would spill

and it would
it would spill
it would still
everything

censored

I'm thinking about a place to be
That is very near here

Well to be accurate
It is here

I'm thinking about a place to be
Here, I'm thinking about here

My here
Your here

Are we
here?

Not now
of course

then realize
Yes now

Like I've frozen
a Now

And a Here
In ink

Not
Ink

Electrons
I'm writing in ******* electrons

I realize

Saved some
******* place

Via
my phone

And photons
Wait

Photons were involved
with ink

thank God
for photons

they're
just like home

Light snacking
In a new 'verse


Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

the kind of rhythm you seek
not that loving that's weak

let's you run
let's you stand
let's you dance
let's you writhe
in a trance

The incisive wit
chopped down

lain out sad
upon the ground

you know
that earth

that wet but not
sticky but easily

brushed off
you feel *****

and natural
in no hurry

to clean up
and looking where

to take this
incisive energy

Let's chip away
At the reason
I am alone

Again

First
Let me deflect

Its them
You and me
Were the same

A toast then
to what is wrong
with all of them

What is this crumb
floating near
my heart

I taste
Nearness to you
Closeness to comfort

What wiring
fires
so memories can fry

I am sinking
into this
I'm not sure

So what

Pasture of grass
blades
So many weeks

Of this now
this particular
Now

Editing away
at my meal
of sparrows

Proving
I should be followed
and loved

To whom
To the desperation
Cooking dinner for one


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

I have a fold
of space time
I'm causing
it to open
Exposing its
sticky lines
strung
to humming
a 40 yr old song
"...has broken,
blackbird has
spoken..."
To continue
this has lately
become
restringing
lost notes
some stinging
if you hear it
and have a go
increasing the fold
say so

May I sell you your death
in a modern well engineered
and beautifully packaged
with extraordinary attention
product

That takes advantage of some
physiological need wired in
your puny mind can't resist
like sugar like salt like derriere

and then i will call myself
a successful man, a hero
and build monuments of ***
to myself just so  you know
pride

Do you inflate
your pain?

For attention
or art?

Lips to the
plastic ******

blow
hard




Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

I may be
renting
a life

Slamming doors
as if
I care

and humans
do look
at me

wondering
about
danger

and i grip
nothing
and hope

not today
not this
slow way

I think
I talk
to you

I think
[panic]
[panic]

You  should
'nt stare
here

Gone ing
peek ing
ingout

So I went to the gods
and beseeched them
to give me more ink

they laughed mightily
and gave me a lifetime's
before going digital

There is ink spilled
on white worn linen
well scrubbed wood
railings smooth and worn
tremolo sounds across baseboards
and cabinetry of cypress

These grains in wood speak
as if they were twirled
on a song and open smile
and i wonder what isn't
twirled across time and faces
nothing

Something uncertainly beautiful
melts you into it




Copyright@2019 Dennis

In my car
In the garage
Bob Seger as loud
as I can stand
turn the page
Here I go again


What is the breath
you **** in hard here
Here I am
turn the page


It's under the influence
of a tale caught in telling
all your love
walking out the door


the interlude calms
angst in rhythm dissipates
beaten down by drums
I'll go along with this song


fortune and mistrust
fall behind blondie
and me
singing against you


And your construction
like trials of Distance
build time and presence
getting through now

I'll accept no false transit
as I stand up finger up
just do it to get it
moving on
as I stand up
remembering how
and then spasm
of unused
*******
pressed back

This gun I load
now

Explosive bullets
Hollow tips

One at a time
Snick into place

Snick, snick
Chank chank

One is in
the chamber

Poised
Waiting the go signal

Go go go
hissing

through cooled air
a hard line

ending in a cough
A nasty carriage return

A denouement
searing inward

Blood smattered verbs
Moving

In recoil
I laugh

It's a giant ha
DNA pruning DNA

the captain wants
the wave to come

So many things
to be undone

So many things
to be caressed

And itches
galore

The next day
Is poised in the chamber

I am listening
for steps

I know you're
coming for me

Over my shoulder
Glimpses

Smart
the way u fit n

I read you
tho

and your unholy
words

I can smell
burned soul

pierced thru
Oh
this place


Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

Intervening
Inserts
Itself
Insinuating

I know

I don't

Imagine
It

Irregular

Incrementally
Identifiable

Irksome
I think now

Insouciant
Instants

Incist

I'll shut up now
I won't shut up now
I'll shut up now
I won't shut up now
I'll be nice to myself
instead oh shut up

unlikelyhoods
of grey paper
trimmed to fit
carefully on
grayish don'tknows
all unwritten
excusably
late in the day
when too late you
starts realizing
just any feeling
in my pocket
i would rocket
but gave myself
slips of nothing
taped onto
uncertain wings

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

Censored

In the thin stuff
today

Wispy life
while doing

and
ducking
swings

Ah that's it
those blows
from that hand

And I am
skittering again

Held back by
holding back

And less connects me
today than yesterday

I need
More
of these lines

To lash this raft
back together



Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

What vies
to be our
blood stream

our signal
out of the
"that direction"

bits of dysfunction
speed to you
unhindered

like sandwhiches
oh i like
them

of meaningless
to celebrate
a dog's greeting

Vies is only because
numbness
arrived in time

I am unsettled
as this enables
that

and this
is miss
ing

and that
is a mess
ing

When no one is
available

We find a place
to put it

A place to
get it

Can get bent
for it

Belonging is the
weapon

we too often
wield

I've been in this fantasy with the rest of you
but i'm done with it
we've made raisins of our selves
with imaginary son light

we have now connected to the point
of coordination
the cinematic moment arrives now
shrug, off each others

caveman explanation of blood
without mercy
we've no time anymore for your
designs of ecstasy

to hold each other means
******* out
the crap we made up
to feel better

when we were terrified
last night
when we woke up
this morning

Something else
in some short wave
carrying now
finally

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

I wonder why
these words
seem
to fall into place
I wonder why
didn't
know
always ran the place

Did you feel it?

'Round about 11:37pm
Eastern

Last night

I was rebroadcasting
This enormous grin

This joyous
Guffaw

This hoot
And hollar

A small
Connection

Causing
And releasing

A death star sized
Blast of joy

You had to feel it

It was
Just after
She left

When I
Could think
Again

Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

Today
And got mostly nothing back
Crickets

Sat in the hospital
listened to dementia bable
Smiling and nodding along
crying laughing

Sitting home
Writing poetry

U know
What I'm doing really

Anchoring, grasping
Hooks of neurons
Reaching
Across the stage of embarrassment

Pull me off this stage

Unh

No

I'm past that




Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

I am made of fabric
to easily snagged

I resign
from yesterday
and
keeping things
at bay
imagining
today

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

I have exited my head
to, admittedly, another part
of my head, a better one
this time and here
is why

I see the confusion underneath all of these hanky-panky love poems

(Our characters: You, I, them)
(Our sets: love, want)

You want love and
I want you

On odd
numbered days

On even
numbered days

You want me
is interfering
my wanting
them

On odd numbered
weeks

We all pretend
we don't want
anything
ha

Or as needed

In the remainder
we are
a hot mess

Many do
sadly
leave the kitchen

Never leave the kitchen

It,
the kitchen,
will give you
that fine textured finish
we so admire

with its infinite recipes
for want and love
to satisfy need

What line would follow the previous, fellow poet, for you? All the things that fought in my heart for that space quailed.

Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

Having never seen
the next line

Is there
a deeper Darkness
Or
Is there
a deeper Lightness
waiting?

Abscesses of our minds
not withstanding

What hole
thing
R u?

Wavering in the light
pixelated weak

R u carried
or do you stand?

Is there
an edge
to be had

Or is it
just an occupation
from which
to distract us

and see
tear filled acts
of confusion
celebrated

clearly we are
winning
our game
to be righteous

Which is
to lose
and somehow
win over time

Unerasable blues
and salt
seeds of continuous
self-doubt

Potato chips
to dark fasting
Crayons to an
iron radiator

Socks to a nebulae
clenched in birth
is a song
radiating

We are the deeper
folds
respected by fabric
aficionados

Creases in everything
shape themselves
on our tongues
in our emanations

We are the shore
climbing for awhile
to the land
then back to the sea

We are the circle
almost back
skip that illusion
lean into the swing

Break into another
beaker of stinking next
pour it on yourself
suffer early and often

this continuity
a lie in a lie
in a genre
you choose

for breakfast
crunchy
is how
you prefer





Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

I zoomed my browser
so I could see your face
clearer

My heart is thin
and wanting
succor

Your face fills the place
of hunger
for beauty

I am lost on lips
over teeth
rivet

My flesh to the screen
my loneliness
sinks

Trembling arises
my bones
accept

I streak through your life
perhaps unnoticed
if you were looking into
their eyes

I shouldn't be
noticed

Unless
Your hungry
big brain has spare
cycles

you rent to
being unnerved

read your way
I'm a bit part

vaguely printed
on a look back

what was that

a bill for phony fun
with phony ponies

colorful characters
arise with detailed
arguements

convincing you
to look away
from this fullness

Remember it
after planting
before being eaten
or left to wraught in some field


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

The back towards me
wanting me to know
I am not any longer
here

the last swallow of me
a claim of ambivalence
on rectification
surrendering a wrong

math of mouthing words
cosigning acerbity
as if as if
i know you understand

my friend
this remaindering
when the game
is afoot

I need water and
a rub down
because I have
been thrashing
against you
or my imagined
you you you
every **** thing

And then I don't

After all
not mom's or daddy's
or, to politician's chagrin,
the state's

**** yourself now
would be more helpful
to us
than not understanding that
fundamental

Lost on the whole
when the whole
is not under threat
is the threat
of sleeping to death

Wake
a memoriam to the death
of ignorance

And you women
are being freed
to want

openly

be wanton
openly

It's ok
we love that
now



Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis