Get your claws out of my heart
The pain's too much, can't take no more

It's like swallowing peanut butter
Five pounds
All at once
Without chewing
You do strange things to my throat
Not to mention my mind

You make me want to give you things
Things I ain't got
Things I got to steal

You make me ***** up rotten poetry

Slipping through the veil of night
Beneath the far-flung skies,
She flutters like a sail in flight---
She feeds her frail heart’s delight---
She turns to hail the morning light
Beneath the star-hung skies

Aurora, in Her cloak of grey
Sweeps back the shifting dark---
As dawn reveals the stroke of day
And nighttime goes it's smokey way---
The sky's deep blue now broken, frayed,
Sweeps back the lifting dark

She roams through El Dorado’s ancient golden ways,
She gazes from black spires of Xanadu,
She walks through green Lothlorien’s unclouded days,
She muses long on Ilium’s deep blue...

I’ve seen her in the chamber of the silver’d doors,
I’ve heard her when the loon in moonlight screams,
I’ve felt her walking silent over marbled floors...
I’ve been with her in echo-haunted dreams...

Burger and fries
At a roadside stand
Constant buzzing of the flies
Under an angry yellow sun

The mustard dripped down from the hamburger
Onto her brand new dress

She stared down at it

When she looked up,
There was a tear in her eye
The single glistening salt tear
Of her frustration, her anger

Harold, she said
He didn't hear her, continued to eat
Harold, she said again louder,
Choking back a plaintive sob,
I didn't think it would be like this
He looked up, uncomprehending
Like what, he mumbled
Like this, she cried, our honeymoon,
At a ******* hamburger stand
He blinked and swallowed
I want a divorce, she screamed
This is a nightmare

His mind plodded through grease
He found an answer
But we haven't had *** yet, he said
Oh, she said quietly
She thought about that for a second
And then started eating her burger again

I feel your eyes,
Heavy as cold lead,
Resting on my chest---
Great dauntless weights
Pushing me through the couch,
Crushing me through the ground
Through depths of Hell.
Naturally enough, I begin to panic
And jabber
Aka zuzu non biz fo metacomf
Sternly, I tell myself,
This Will Not Do.
But it is too late.
I have made a fool of myself,
And you cannot love me.

Betray your friends
Turn your back on them
For in your eyes
Glows shining and faultless
A glorious prize
Valued far above compassion
Of which the size alone
Is compensation

But in the end you'll find
The bag of gold
For which you sold your soul
Has turned to stone
You'll have nothing left
But your gilt

Silver light splashed through the town,
It's greatest spires seeming drowned
Beneath the welling, leaping tide
Of luminescence---
And those who stood amidst the light,
Receiving gifts of sound and sight
To penetrate the deepest night,
Their arms, accepting, outstretched wide,
In Human Presence
Glorying,
Found true transcendence---
Peace they found, that would abide
Within the heart, safe from the blight
Of mankind's seeming need to fight
To prove the truth of might makes right---
And new in essence
Were the bonds that hold the bride
Unto her mate securely bound---
And Love, no longer lost but found
Decided to kick off Her shoes and stay.

At 10,000 feet we rose through soft, voluminous canyons---
Dark billows whose slow swell was undisturbed by our passage.
At 20,000 feet, the first few glimpses---
Three short days, and the promise of Her full beauty is fulfilled,
And yet She is shy---
Below, patches of dull silver offer glances, graces---
A lake, a river, a pond, a stream---
Slyly She slides, slips from one silken scarf to the next---
She teases with hints---
Then, for three breathless seconds,
She swims boldly before me,
Her bright beauty bared---
All this time, with feet planted on Earth,
I have watched Her rule the heavens
And longed to embrace Her---
And now that I approach Her home,
I find Her down there, where I was---
Still laughing gently---
Still delicate, my deliciously desirable Diana---

I saw you again last night, real and near and true---
And knew that, if I found The Right Word
(not good words, or convincing words;
only The Right Word would do),
You would turn and see me,
And know, clean and clear,
Like the ringing of a bell,
That though the years have blurred
My face and mind and touch,
Still there within my heart,
I hold you near and well,
More tenderly, I swear,
Than I have words to tell.

Then I woke, and found I was alone,
And The Right Word slipping back,
Away from daylight mind,
Back into the midnight of my soul---

I will find it yet, this I vow---
And if the Universe has truth or heart,
I will be allowed to speak it to you.

At the time of night that men call 10:30,
I sit in a corner bar by myself,
Watching two tables---
Clusters of life and sound---
A softball team and their wives/girlfriends/lovers
Drinking softly into the evening

A child's face, released from mother's side,
Floats around the tables,
Serene and white in tavern dusk,
Asking a quarter from each adult
Until finally someone gives him one
To make him gone

And for the millionth time
I look into the mirrored tile behind the bar
And see you there beside me

You're looking down---
Digging through your purse---

And the wound that never heals
Opens just a little more---
A quarter's worth---

Turn your eyes inward,
Follow the flight of the soul.
Chase it down the corridors of self,
Watching where it flies
Trailing fear and electricity---
Until safe upon the inner trails,
It stops to rest,
Weary from shock.
Circle behind,
Catch it unaware,
Grill it over a low flame
For ten minutes.
Add potato salad.
Serves one.

I had a love, I swear I did;
I know it must be true,
Because my soul still bears the mark,
The imprint of her hand.
In desperation, before the mirror, wide I rip my shirt,
And search, with manic eyes, the reflection bared therein.
Surely there must be a trace, a mark, a sign,
An inscription, a signature, anything at all
Upon the space above my heart.
Maddened, I scan the breast endlessly.
Nothing.

I had a love, I swear I did;
I know it must be true,
We shared our selves, our life, our love,
One body, mind and spirit.
I know that she was mine, I know;
She told me it was so.
But here I am, where she is not,
Mumbling like a crazed and sorry fool;
And sooth, I know that she is better off without me,
So tell the truth now,
That at least you owe yourself;
At least that motley sum;
Look in the mirror once again, no flinching, hold it steady;
A prize I ain’t.
So at least pretend to be a man,
You sniveling little *******.

Graceless facades---
The tiring age old game
Of mindless testing
Grows heavy beneath the brow.
The charade is hard to sustain---
Sometimes impossible---
Yet we must bear it
Time after time after endless time.
The cold fire keeps rolling,
Pushing testing the old confines
Beneath the eyes---

How much longer.....

Clinging to the angry gnashing teeth of gods,
Cursing the thousand misfortunes there endured
Yet in mortal terror of letting go,
We suffer.

A dying multitude,
We listen to drizzling turbines
Muttering darkly in the earth,
Turning the seasons in mindless procession.
We listen for the word of affirmation,
Declaration of purpose.
The muttering continues.

Born to pain,
Raised on affliction,
Aged in despair,
We go...
Screaming kicking clawing
We make our way to the grave...
Afraid of the Reaper,
We deathgrip our agony,
Clutch it to our hearts
And pray
For one more day.

Forswearing mortality,
Some are driven to the sanctuary of a creator
While others ***** up bad poetry.

the zoo in winter
doesn't smell quite as bad as
the zoo in summer