This lantern I've been given
doesn't light up for ****
maybe next time it
sputters alight
that glimpse
will make all things clear

I think I will be whole
when it shines a circle
not these angular draws
where I seem to be shadow
with light in my eyes
thru water prisms

The panic part of light
just out of reach
hands full round
what I cannot see
sometimes a keyboard
retching dark chars

Cagey stuff
recirculating itself
as if I am a theatre
and absurd lights
that lead to the stage
in case of fire

This lead, green, unusual, in color
connects to
what swims below


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

This list
to the side
over
ex
tending
this un
named sharing
Cross cross
Crost

Adding 2 it
as I'm of it

and the mic
should be on

wavering is
an illusion

over portion

This listening this listening to
not at all happy with...

I am not deaf I am not hearing
what I am hearing

this wave this wave is coming back
its not the wave its the shore

listening to the sea its the shore
listening to the tongues of waves

its the moment the wave recedes
leapt upon by gleaming light

dissolving by receding this light fades
into sand into glass into

this is not sound this is not an act of sound
i am reverberating from beauty

i am littering space between with this
guessing about you

this apprehension of you this anticipation
of your hunger and whether it exceeds the lies you were born into

this listening to the lies making up the heart
of our us oh how fear ***** us in

unbelieve  your skin and snot and drool
as impediments to beauty

I am running your intent to ground
where sound grinds down

did i stutter did i drift did I miss
where you live and cry in small check

this crumb this dry crumb that is my heart
would listen really it would if only you

if only you were my beloved if only you
listening meant satisfaction

this sound coming from this sound
cries twice for the cool night without sound

i am not able to able to carry this carry this
self boarding self recrimination self sailing

feet of rope encircle our necking our passion
aching against all this listening this bath of alive

this hearing of angst and animosity and rutting anger
wishing to be fully pressured

and heard I am listening as you detonate
your threat to cause tears

i don't know what you are saying
I am pulled to corners by forces

then cool night air moves through
and i feel heard

Has
a category

Not
of it's own

Borrowed
from a *****

Swinging
Past back then

When men
weren't

Yet

This morning with poetry
is saving me
gently


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

This morning
I cried
reading my own

Not really
Well yes
Just well


Over her


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

This week
in court
laughing
Sure it does

This bit of time
I occupy
a running edge
a spill spreading
onto dry
the change
sudden

i am running
maybe surfing
somedays
tumbling against
the rasp
there is always a rasp
against

depends on which way
you run
doesn't it
agin it
or wit it

in your bubble spreading
we should surf
this day
more
this now
flowing

This bit
this nth note
of a star
in a galaxy
a little one
lost
in the sea
of galaxies

and i want to rumble
rhyme louder
stanzas of screaming
and singing
oh the singing
look out
ahma a gonna
sing at ya
duck

a miniseries
on scribblers
mercifully
short

and i ring
in the ringing
on now
on glass
gorilla glass

this under glass
spelling out
in radiance
a new radiant
instant

hello


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

This one
you won't like
This one
isn't even

I sip from the wine
I sip from the water
and then the wine
again
what does that
tell you

Seconds and I
raise my hand

as if I am part
of something now

whilst typing
in this quiet room

is there sand
where you are

is there danger
there to you

I pull up on my comfort
consider

doing my very best
carrier wave listening

i am ignorant
and innocent

of your muscular
knowing scalds

and that part
of you waiting
to read ahh

I left a sandwich
out for you

Through white
nesses

pressed into dark
nesses

Concentrated timeless
nesses

tattooed

Onto nothing
nesses

hot skin
She writes

She writhes
She rises

Her time

Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

This pattern
good enuf
for a
true believer

that pattern
a true anti
handedness
gazelle to hang

find yourself
a walking copper
cookie cutter
fearful of dough

whose waves dissonate
with star shapes
and my tin
nutcracker

squeezes us faster
a de-shellacking
downgrade
to simpler shapes

not sure if
in time



Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

It marinates in it's own would be vibe
bounces off things it has collected
on its constitutional walk
across its living page
written in literal light
salt-ily stored in silica angst
another glowing miracle
aetherically transported
naked as the nano 'twas born
appearing on random pages
of hopeful wisps all wishing
clumsily

Sings
and has a rash and
monta somebodies revenge

Got a shot
in the ***
to set me right

And I'm not right yet
healing
and reeling

subscribing
to a Margarita
seems sensible

Doesn't it?
or two now
that we're goin'

it alone here
sadly at
an empty bar

want
is a funny
thing

want want want
brought me here
an' I don' wanna

be here
no more
maybe

minds
not made
up

spin
in some gravy
filling

of expectations
and anxieties
and leftouts

this is a
leftover
day

from a past
I've lost
showing up

who knew
the dream
would come true

when it
no longer
mattered

This **** is ecstatic
And of course by ****
I mean life



Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

Or is poured
It's a late smile
an 11:59 PM smile
or it was
when I started

Smiling while
(well lets
leave that out)

While

I strain for new
or is it novelty

another
uninteresting land

I am from novelty
isn't this frsh

Hehe

Ok ya got me
I'm havin'
ya on

white bread
mayo
pepper

makes one
thirsty
and there's
a refill

stop

Rub your face
is it numb?

so much is



Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

This thought
flung your way
poets
flinging poo
still
wanting applause
aping for it
and I'm okay
with my
stinking
throw

Big letters then small letters
Big letters then small
Keep this rule clear
And I follow down
this system
to this end
Oh how it explains
everything oh how
I am seen underneath
the smoothness
and roundness
Looking up through
these assemblages
seeing you there
Breathing skylines
unraveling cities
you hope
are packages opening
I have this for yoU

Is too much
can you turn it down

just a little
please

I know life jus' runs
at this pace

but, quiet, now, please
so I can breathe

This white box
is the most
powerful thing
I reel now
in it's sway

The fluidity of being
my new darling

We choose beings
to be

Don't get stuck
as one you

or as version
one of you

that leads to thinking
that is you

which leads to fear
not you

choose this you
and that you

depends on what you
they need you to be

a baby needs one you
a mate an other you

The you I need
is this you thank you

I thought about you
all night
I pictured you
on and off

Taking it
as a good idea
we should
finally make time

I've penned this
opening volley
hoping you
feel a rush

And now I wait
languorously
for your
repartee

Let's take alone apart
and remake it
without me

I keep thinking about you
I believe I love you

All of these
capitalizations
No nuances
Just slights
of hand
Major league
swings
no hits
Air stepping
aside
Scenes often
repeated
Gunning again
shocks and after
falter and flail
today's distance
has been run

I get thrown away
by people
lovers
wives
kids

One of my best skills
generating
antipathy
resistance
an'
rejection

The coarseness of time
abrades the soft tissue
barely holding me
up

I am wrung like a belle
In L.A.
milked beauty
under summer smog
swooning

Take me and my
cash
the greater of your
desires
slip in no splash

I am open to some web
some web of energy
and being
that scares me
I think it will
swamp me

Yada yada
Blah blah
Oh dat hurts
Beautifully


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

We are all lying to you
this isn't ink

these aren't rhymes
or (you know) reason

parenthetical poetry
antithetical blow at me

any line taken deep
i grab the pole

what bites this
syllable raw

embarrassed sound
ducks from frilly

meaning expands
to fill the space

i afford fear
and tighten

I am in danger
the  danger of
the danger of
clambering out
of this thing
seeing this thing
that isn't grand
that is a chain
I would clamber
I would climb
I would rest here
Really I would

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

Nothing you run into
is as deep as me
and I can only
be stumbled upon

in ignorance
you fall upon me
like a devil
on an innocent

feast if you can
on this crumble
on this crack
in a wall of next

this is the hunger
propping you up
to see
to see that that me

fully scratched
open and bleeding
giving up
my life to you

don't
******
squander
it

Poem
that reaches all through
some, to me, mysterious mechanism
of slain hope

of lying
snot raging

lack

of sense
of

spars e letters
singing

horror at

crossing

at heads down

romance dies
ignominiously

some fool
believing

and this pity is not
to that fool

instead to you
who needs the fool




Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

You're a rockstar
rising up blah
blah-blah blah
Hyphenated blah

I am aware
Of a sore
That's hurts
stings even

this ingrown hair
outstrips your
carefully outfitted
kit of desperation

I am aware
of this descending
crescendo of no
I am not that

anymore rises
to strike truly
this sentiment
of lemonade and *****

testifies to the merit
of these blackened pixels
restaurant engineering
I come back for

And you're here
timeless tan lines
burned so deeply
I cannot see

Today wins

This fashion
of telling
instead of
waving my hands
and yelling

and it comes
to me
that this is so
all about you
the limit of what
you can rue

and what was lost
that is all and nothing
at all and once you know
falling in arms out
will you land this
time laughing

I could catch
covid or I could
catch monkeypox
or  I could catch
a bullet when
times are good

Sneering at the eyeballs of time
with Hard Lemonade
Pierce this belch time
you little *****
Headlines today
You've been reversed
in quantum and
in human age
Thought you were
all that did ya

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

I keep resisting the idea
that I'm cornflakes
Oh I know
all the thinking
that disproves this
ludicrous notion
but crunchy in milk
is sooo sultry
and satisfying

This is the feeling this balance
between inebriation and insentience
nice and fleetingly lucid in bent ways
I damage a <things list themselves here deploringly>

Must I feel all these nuances of inked settling ends
mends meant  rends rent sends unsent vein spent
when's the reasoning coming to rescue this humming
I imagine <all of these rescue scenarios imploringly>

Rescue me and  I'll rescue you I'll rescue you if I see
rending some ending some sending some aheming
awkward or awake and scrambling across away
I resonate with the scramble amongst the consonance

it gets crunchy here when it all lands thud thud thud
fallen comrades past careful passed help me past
I learned a valuable lesson and the blameless
perhaps you getting away is this envelope of tire

Every line wavers
shadow shuttering
the shade envelope
on off on off on off
something signaled
and forgotten and
pumped out heaps
of it and grounding
and searing magma
tunneling undersea
crusting into more
or less cooly nothing
still faintly hoping

You would not say
late things
to an early bird
the idea is absurd

this might be empty
tho
of well you know
but look no

don't look
at me
whilst i whittle
away to almost far enuf

I remember
being loved hard
I'm crying alone

watching lovers
desperate
for each other

hungrily touch
I sear empty, want
such fire and desperation

I've had
that
sandwich
with everything
and came back
to write about
the taste
of all of it
sequentially
sweet then
salty
then a little
bitter
but
you
like it
and then

i'd make
a joke
you'd laugh
we'd

nothing
lands hard
on everything
sometimes
we'd

shake off
that feeling
some dizzying
height
clench
back
into my
crevice

make up
my mind
about
life's
lack of
safety
no
under
writers
at all

i should
write
to my
paper thin
ancestors
in obeisance
for a hook

tho
i know
there's
nothin
to catch
upon

Legs of iron rode men of nonsense
and bullets flew by squealing
and swearing 'bout the target's
low value
Of re-entry and skidding to a halt
i'm certain
i will be thrown out here
for some purpose

Fuzzy little humans fitting themselves
into the machine they built
that they no longer want.

Scruffy sticky motherfukers thought
it would be oh so cool to be
a machine

always on time and productive

Now we realize we prefer to be
scruffy sticky little motherfukers

The transition point
of fight for
to
build

entangling Lives
sweet
messy lives



Copyright@2018 Dennis Willis

No redemption none
no one redeemed nothing
pulled back to here or here

Distance is unobtainable
if I keep you engaging
realizing yer wrong
in my imagination

That is the one
I'd be close to
Am close to
must end
now
~

I am running
into realization

of meat walking
in high style

calories of alcohol
uncounted

guilts singing
in paint jobs

I am singing
into realization

this song
this song of

fraying threads
abandoned tomorrow

carefree days
are piling up

waiting for our
insistence

to fade


Copyright@2019  Dennis Willis

I am exhausted
with your
silences

The chattering muons
rain upon my
magnetosphere

this crushing
undetectable
force

of everything
failing
to fill




Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis