The scent of bread baking
and fresh coffee making
are tomorrow's lures
they are enough

to my empty headed
surprise

I better go start the loaf
I encourage my self
gently now
I don't know this taste

I'd like to give you
a token
of my appreciation

"Appreciation
is now
27 tokens"

Nonplussed
Flummoxed

Take those too
time

Carving away
whilst
space stuffs
us full

of darkness
wanting
out

where it isn"t
anymore

Three things
Blent
less blue
today


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

One of us
has to leave
misery



Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

(heat check)

Now I feel
happy

Bears repeating


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

To fly the unbalanced
nature of your mind
as a flag

is an inside move
of which you
are unaware

Beauty bannered red
a stupid display
of breathtaking power

How can
I
resist


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

I've caught a rash
of tomato lines
and plum accents

an itching
from teeth grinning
i can't trust

an elaboration
of swelling certainty
set aside mumbling

bubbling thoughts
in a light tea
no straw

gulping it down
pushing cubes
aside

I confronted my own smile
cursed in magenta
and alum
dysregulating away
from hitting its mark

It had been cheating again
wayward and wanton
thinking I was not watching
its curved tinctures imagining
them twitching

this is what I came to see
with its feet up captaining
coffee and papers, strewn,
of course, about, about that
time you came

Oh the piece of *** i can't have
this ******* of time
this prolonging of longing
what does the universe teach
when it deletes these lines

it teaches that it doesn't
it holds it all in abeyance
of final learning of crescendo
of knowing anything
of scent maybe

it riles me to know
as keys click and snap
tonight up
this equilibrium
of carmel and chocolate

it will read
author of cute lines
while people died
of serious poetry
*****

I will sleep
and wake up
on Christmas day

this space for rent

You know
You are out
Of control

You know
You are out
Of your mind

On ***
Fine fine
***

you know you
a fine
overblown

Assss
And a force

this boys
on fire

I will not
be found here

Forlorn hope
slips handholds
falls in

Guts cave
pull shoulders
down
with them

Is there something
someone else
again
where I
might be found

livin' thru
all elbows and knees


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

I am alone here
I don't need to resist
anyone
I don't need to f e a r
any reprisal

and i am in fear
and what word
describes the muscles
in my arms
feeling reluctant

clenching has a source
carpals constricting
from this poor effort

In this envelope
with a smattering
of nothing more
and curious

there is nothing
on the cam
or on radar
or in earshot

this noisome
absent sound
or reason
cacophony

smatters to be
so why do i
need a poem
to prove it

as if elbows
solved all
of life's ills
as intended

my bag your bag
in the bag
i'm killing it
here

one giant
connectionless
construct for you
to smatter on

oh me and me
don't forget me
say somethings
'bout me

whom you know not
and are too lazy
to imagine
very deftly

so I'm elbows
on a keyboard
rhymes on ****
oof i love that

sealed with
imagine it
you getting
to taste it too

Wierd performing before an audience
so hungry to be read

It pursues me to here
this force
hiking me off the ground
i dangle then just let myself hang down
in release
i shall sleep through being eaten
is the plan and i lock on

Then i awaken in my bed
late in the afternoon
softly confused
at what i dodged
doing
with razor blades
on Thursday
after noon

Gotten quiet in my life
this night of lies unraveled
by cool quiet air and soup
as you have to eat somethin'

lined up buttercups signal
yesterday's rain was good and filling
and that face that face that launches
this emptiness hovers outside contact

i've got the genre wrong again
i'm dressed for a different role
it's a comedy of manners
no killing called for

they work me out of their story
in this version of the industry of me
in the pressure cooker soup thickens
into tonight's repast of too much

garlic, onion, fresh basil, garden tomatoes
put together with a little salt
cannot be wrong in any verse
this scripted and re-scripted acceptance

and patience for ships on the horizon
the bleeding edges finding of a cure
for how small your acceptance orifice
passes syllables and synonyms north

so eye could find coherence with something
that isn't alcohol and nerveless solitude
as denouements play every hour in the background
before credits roll up the screen

I've listened too long to
I've prolonged this too effortless
I've longed and longed

You've been lovely
You've been taking my breath
You've been almost almost mine

The version of me
that panics
and requires balm
of choco choco chip
cannot be left in charge
after tonight

I am a quantum
a large quantum
i have an effect
a large effect
don't be jealous
it isn't funny
when there are
entanglements
that just go on

I've lent
myself out
and, later
drank

Delving
like never before
into my inner
spasms

   Panic now

   Run to the woods

   Disappear into
   obfuscation

Wait what why

The sense I rush by
in
Likity split mindless getaway
Fly mode

My very cells know better
than to be here now
each one contracts
to toughness

Trying to be
too hard
to chew

Hardly worth it

I am lessened
by this whole
voluntary help
in my day to day

by my fears
made spears

piercing for years

Really lie mode

all only between
my ears

As here now is wondrous
to play

To be the very fire
of promise

to be why our eyes
snap

to offer it all
over and over

a taste
out of band

black and white
then suddenly
color

to promise
this fire

and always show up
quenched

U really love
To worry

Most

Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

in all the pretense
in all the justification
you are alright

i don't have your sensibility
I don't have your judgment
it is so refined

i **** what i revered
certainly part of aging
to revolt

become revolting
full of knowledge
drained of life

thinning alive
i detest
the design of time

how it lands in your lap
on a cold morning
when you are alone

hoping a keyboard
and some coffee
will reconcile the sunset


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

I get to say enuf
and this knife
is at my throat

How did you get
so **** important
to me

I don't know
the exact portion
of distress

as your desultory
hands and smile
tears my face

To see such joy on your face
that was a good purchase

There was this moment
I had her on such an edge
I could feel her rising
I held her there a moment
it has been so long since
I was this much of a man
and then I pushed her over
and she rang out high notes

That would
down vote
an up vote

negate
and
position

and you
smile
down upon

the victims
of your
imposition

talent-less
fools
i name you

that fashion
yourselves
"right"

its a
chicken
of an opinion

accompanied
by a self-satisfied smirk
of a ****

Not to worry

No worries

Imagine terrible things in your mind
They could happen

Oh no

This is all you should use your brain for apparently

To keep yourself Frozen in fear
and paint yourself
still Dead life

The death cycle of living in your fear
is your high art

Oh your need is great
You make sure of that

The act of worry
is self indulgence

Your great need is a lie
used to cheat

Arm-twisting sympathy from those around you
Leaves you surrounded by people you hurt

You are farming resistance
To giving a **** about you at all

Congratulations on using all of your given talents

To become someone to be avoided


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

Why would you help me
when I am trying to beat you

I am confused you don't
compete to eliminate me

I don't understand
what is wrong with you

You need fixed
so you don't lay down

when I arrive to fight
your horrible self

I don't understand
why that is a surprise

I'm going to slow down in this one
Reach deep into my smelly lunch box
Where things are slowly
almost imperceptibly
turning

this rotates
faces up at me
in slow denunciation
of now and even
tomorrow
and by degree
turns away

Something to look forward to
Or a wayward Nuance of image
As I ***** for feeling
It's language
And it's ensueing wake
or caper trail

Some physics governs
all this fearsome
theatre
this skittering of logic
before I knew you
after i do

I have found
nothing
sorting time's socks
into neat
piles

to say about that
which terrifies me
line after line
of risk
has me slidin'
down my chair

flight is crawling
my skin
nauseating
stop
stop
stop
I argue

Isn't this

This isn't

what I want

this attention
this attention?
Do I even
Know you

What has connected
this to here
and I need to calm down
this could be the
whole ride


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

We live for the thread
that connects us
to something
with hope

Thirsty tonight for therapy
and getting plan b
again


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

A lot of what I write
Is Tripe
Whatever that is

I seem to find it
Must know that smell
Or is it a sound

I've been around
That's Become invisible
Background

My baseline throbs
at this way
beating forward

shallow fetid strokes
Of opprobrium
reign

And nowhere is where
We're going
To be dissapative

As if we were there
and here tonight
for you

let us not lead anyone
to believe
they are anything
less than
an infinite
thought
being
thoughtlessly

So you feel you have to be acid
and all else must be dissolved

I don't know how to write
this sound
this intertwining

chords pulled
from strings
over the play by play

as I key a scent
wafting on a wave
saying I'm a knave

I don't know
this sound
I always love

anyone plucks
with their voice
sounding

plucked like
the g string
happy

I am offended
so offended
unable to
believe
how
offended
I really am
offended
offended
by this world
and you in it

That is not you
anymore
That is not
what you are
You never were
really
whatever
you thought
you wanted
to be
even if
you succeeded
doing it so well
you looked
exactly like it
and everyone
believed it even you

you know
you're still in there
pulling those levers
maybe even
frantically

swamped in whys
with inundating whats
and to be all those who's
keeping zoos of yous
behooves (it must)
too

an incomprehensible
self-reflection
to be laid down
in favor of another
equally wuh
and thuh
an' fuh
imaginality

full stop
could this myriad
of made up things
be abandoned
head long
running down
a grassy hill
with your arms out
making bird sounds

What are you watching for
what do you hope to catch
and respond to
Here?

The poetic sentence
The Searchers sentence
Not the Finders
Not the fulfilled

They aren't here
tortured
By whatever feels your need
to be tortured

Set points are careless
Of you and me
And the other broken hearted
Suicidal
Gender confused
Aging out
Numb in the middle
******* ******* who bought into the paradigm
Made up by confused primates
Who demand an explanation
For wetness
For gladness

And I smile
P a little more on tomorrow
Slink towards my demise
Primp for your eyes

Another line
Not a final
line

Not yet time
You delightful swine


Copyright@2019 Dennis Willis

I am pandering to who
Or is it whom?

To whom am I pandering?

Is just **** silly. You can't pander
grammatically hah

Which three misguided
individuals

Am I
Trying to delight?
And ...
yesss
that too

R u here to chuckle
moisten or
small chance
be impressed

I'm here to undress
publicly
my well endowed self

you'll have to
take my word

preen
like nobody's business
is going out
on the town

aren't you smitten
with these *****
underhanded
norms
we flower up
or smash

On our windscreen
of twist an' rhyme
and twice burnt
nite time

This bubble
of us cats
moving
some universe
's old thoughts
construing things
a certain way
as if to say
that will cost
you two cats
not as if

Check this story out
Two imaginary poets
walked into a bar
went up to the bartender
and ordered
a ****** mary
and a shirly temple

The Bartender
took out his gun
and shot them
in their imaginary
poetic name tag
leaving a period
unexclaimed

***** in a water bottle with iced tea
and her black tank top were accidentally
left behind

She and her friend had to come back
I inhaled deeply and still have that scent
on my skin

Rub it in rub it in oh the delight i am in

I have discovered so much that we have
royally is an understatement in the degree of
how ******* up

******* inserted by others between us and our
nerves and skin and ridges and edges and
delight is not light

On Wednesday I did this
and for that I'm grateful and happy

I bought two pens
online
I'd add a pic here
If I could

They arrived in one pack
shrink wrapped together
for their entire
journey

Bookends I'd say
perfectly matched
pulled from under
cellophane pillows

this is something
of an arrival
understanding things
once thought senile

I have the evil chuckle
of a cantankerous man
I once knew
who loved silly

censored by HP

He did a gnarly no
and a gnarly yes
and yet there were things
he could not profess

S he could S he couldn't
S he sees and
S he has no redress

As a you as a shoe
all these things are
seemingly up to you
coming down on you

I was counting on you
coming through  thru
grading papers & chins
all is if they all was
capers and fins

I have been havoc
made of mad dark
snot and liquor
*** and ichor
lemon and oil
floated above

a stabbing sound
sudden and sharp
flinching, must do
less flinching, must ****
what makes me
i flinch away

making true all of the things
they say in your head when
you imagine them
and imagine what
they imagine
is true about you
flinching away

Don't talk to me
I'm done
You're wasting your time

This bit of hate
is for you
and your act

Your words
of caring
hollow

I feel
less alone
with you gone