How I love your chicken thighs
So tender and juicy so my oh my
Your chicken wings by far the best
Licking good up to the breast
Your chicken fingers taste so good
I nibble on each one really good
Your necks are smacking food
Chicken lips so salty , wet , and ****
Your backs are something to squawk about
Your drum sticks make me want to shout
I'll pluck feathers with you any day
And you can satisfy again my stay

You are what you're not
You are what you haven't got

You're too short
You're too tall

You're not a green leaf in fall

You don't expect me
You don't respect me

You don't dare care at all
You pout and protest

But you failed my test

You're not a lover
No good undercover

You're a pretentious
know it all

due a total and complete fall

Pity !

I can't write poetry
   in the sun . . .

Give me darkest nights
     and undercover I will run

Let no light penetrate my eye
    lest it be by stars and comments going by


From hiding all my words
        come out

They hate the sun I know
       now without a doubt

They like to bask in glow
        of moon

Conversing amongst the
           punctuations . . .

is it now or when or way
             too soon

They start to shuffle before
           'say daylight

Anxious with intent ,
   hurried on now by their
        plight

First rays they soon all
        disappear
           . . . . . .

Well I will be waiting
          out the day
It's not like waiting
         for years and years

Soon the sun will be getting
                   tired

And deep inside I will be gettiing . . .
       
             so inspired

I used to date girls like you
that wake up beside me with their makeup still on

We used to exclaim "Oh ! how free" , and dance to our folly
In the snow on empty streets

I used to sit on the front porch swing with you and sing with the music . Then kiss you long and wet during the long guitar solos .

I used to lie with you on the golf course at night under the stars and quote poetry

I used to . . . but no more

looking down a gunbarrel of intent
did all the spiders went
the ground so shakes

i am the master of feet
no one comes compleat
out of step we fakes

take what we sleeve
no use to grieve
hardwired

opening up the closing door
follow cracks in hidden floor
expired

touch me but don't
love me I won't
the far nearly there

I gasp at the hold
no value in gold
fling your donkie in the air

every night
love the fight in fear of sight
all the times a wastin'

ole lizard lips is Baskin
sister is always fasting
snip snip . . . tin tim

I moved in the ways of water
Across the asphalt seas sublime
The sign said 'Seven Bark Road' and
the gears in my head started to grind

Visions of forocious canines
All kinds and sizes to boot
Then on to stately oaks and pines
Maybe a fig tree just for hoots

I'm sure it was writer block
When asked what was the name of the road
I'm glad there were no amphibians crossing
Or it could have been called 'Toad'

.
.
It's 3 A.M. and the air is
getting thin
and all the patrons have gone on to meet their daily end

Ken the bartender is stocking beer for the weekend now is near

You know it as a rite , you call it Saturday night

Ray comes in and unslings his axe
And goes through his numerous picks

Turns the amps on and
lights a *** with a yellow Bic

Then thumps the microphone
to see if on
before he hits a lick

He's getting ready for Saturday night when everyone gets on thick

There is cocktail Mary
coming in
she sits right down and
yells at Ken ,
"Make it a tonic and gin!"

Ken nods and fills a glass
cursing beneath his breath
"I swear gin will be her death."

He loves and hates Saturday night ,
but all good things
have there bite

Ray hits a hard chord
Makes it wail in pain
Then he turns to the amp and adjusts the gain

Then one more stroke
pops a string
he without a word
changes out the thing

Then he let's lose
Like an Ace on duce
and my how he does his thing

Staying steady ,
Getting ready ,
For the magic
known as Saturday night

I would hear you knocking on the door

I would open and you would fall out on the floor

How many tubs of ice water did you soak ?

How many hangovers
did you choke ?

I don't mind but you are really getting to me
No I don't care that you are lying all the time
Nor why you are such a disaster when it comes to being human
You are a gun ; loaded , cocked , and ready to ****
I only got the rest of my life and I find you really waste my time
If you don't understand well try again

You waste my time time

Warm and sweet as clover honey

Nighthawks in the sky

Cotton clouds silently fly

Moths do their Jubilee
under street lights

Blind Joe Death plays twelve string

Whip-poor-will calls
collect

But no one is home

Far off lightning clashes
without grumbles

As far off as Tennessee
I would say

Coyotes howl at the rising moon

No mosquitoes tonight . . .

Paradise . . .

I didn't really want to . . .
I didn't want to go back there . . .
I didn't want to test it
You see I still have
all of my fears

Still I couldn't help it . . .
I hit the button play . . .
And as the music started
Please God I prayed

The room turned to purple
As Prince began to play
I looked back upon the memories
Of a love I held once upon that day

As the purple rain fell in torrents
My purple tears began to fall
Now all I have to hold on to
Is the music between these walls

"I didn't want to hurt you
I didn't want to cause you any pain"

And as the tears turned into rivers
They overflow with purple pain

Hey ! I'm on top of the world
I dug your grave and now I'm
Going to have a burial

I dug it deep hoping it will keep
You from bothering me

One , two , three and heave **
Into eternity you must go

Who's laughing now ?
All your a-musing antics
Who's a-mused now
You alphabetical cow

You're shivering as I throw the dirt down
So you see you can't win
You ***** muse I've more than one way to pen


There! All covered and bound
Those binders will remain closed below the ground
Those Hell hounds will
howl no more

I sailed away from the
Bay of Dismay
Of my recent past

I left the land
of the midnight's voice
I buried the remains

Now I long to return
To dig up all
That could remain

But I would imagine
Not even worms
Would be in the remains

It's been
Way too long
To learn how to sing

Since cancer cut me down
I only hope I will fly
With my broken wings

No I will not return
For the truth died there
As the bell of life so tolls

Black nights of assassins
Never meaning to bend
Messages are pending
Left unopened in the end

The words are unfolding
Take shape as they fall
There is no more reason
Beyond mending walls

Beauty is always hidden
like sin
Just to be forgiven
If not for now then when

In the cold and the torment
That placated the night
The moon is no more
Than truth's reflection in
light

And I wonder about
Black nights of assassains
Hidden in dark corners
nursing their treasons

The conversation
         was way too long
Broken by only
         the the incessant
        cell phone calls
            she didn't answer

The bakery sign
          that said "closing"
had drooped when the tape
         had lost it's grip
adding insult to it's insinuations

In October's heat
    beside violated cotton fields striped of their virginity
     we once rode bicycles over legendary black belt reformations

       And as I sat on due
euphemism
at Ten **** Hall waiting
         on pending explanations
that never came . . .
    you emerged upon the path pending
          where all the Angels
were designed to walk

Your glass was hollow
    full of
       intriguing empty thoughts
    The glass shattered
         going the way
of a Hemingway novel
       Complete with the incompleteness that life
          pours salt into
the wounds of broken hearts
    and souls

The breaking shards
    created splinters of glass
           that hide forever in
the flesh of the moments

Yet we rub the emotions
    left on notice
as the addiction digs deeper
        into the psyche . . .
for pain is all that remains

and once again she emerged
     upon the path
within my "tick"
         the ghost
where Angels are left bound
         to walk

March has always been my bane
Tastes like steel and skin
The skies are just as cold
as the knife
twisting in my sin

I caught ahold of morning's sleet
You caught cold and died
Looking into the coffin's ward
You crossed
that great devide

The bottom of the red clay pit
gathered tears and falling rain
I never knew you long enough
to be dealt with so much pain

Bitter bites the chill when the ides of March arrive
Life felt cheap and nasty
under ***** dishwater skies

I kept hearing Eleanor Rigby
ricocheting off the wall
I just want to paint it black for those who had to run before they learned to crawl

No one was saved that day
No ! There was no one there at all
The old black men in yellow coats stood waiting for the call

I stood not far away
beneath the leafless tree
Watching the men with shovels in hand
Bury the last stop for memories

I found myself a muttering
Tinged and biter as the cold
It's good you died so young
before you died so old

Sharron had a "Cuda" and it
was hemi fast
We used to go out nights a "crusin" just to waste the gas

Jane was sweet before the song and always had a smile
I had for her a crush and hopes but we never walked that mile

Harold was crazy before his time and rode a Honda bike
He disappeared with the years and has fallen from my sight

Martha was a Lyon as Lion as Lyons could go
Did she become that teacher? I guess I'll never know

Our group of five lived and dived in the strips pits of the hottest summer nights
We did the things that fueled the gasps and caused outrageous frights

For that moment we had no fear and everyday was geared
To living life unto the fullest
with nothing left secured

But time has tumbled down the mountain and nothing is as was
As we aged we learned regrets and "I said now just because"

Now the "Cuda" is gone and only the memories of friends remain
The rest is as they say "History" for the beast has now been tamed

P   picture perfect paintings

O   of openmouthedness
       oversimplication

E    evolving erudite
       eclamations
T    terminal tepid
       translations
R    rancid rich rauccous

Y     Yearning yesternight's
        yottabytes

I knew I was in "purgatory"
I couldn't make up  all the grade/s
Didn't really matter much
My pocketknife had a  broken blade

The "I's" are ever on you
No one hears or cares to understand
The questions put before them
Are lost to time by sand

So fling the words before me
My pearls before the swine
The path placed as pure adjectively
While you sit and mull your time

There was my life before me
In the parking lot of life
A beat up old "63" Rambler
With the "Club" attached  to the steering wheel of strife

Choking . . .
on the fumes of life
I give in
when too much strife
I though I had
made sure the plans
But they slipped through the fingers
Like sand in the hands

When devoured
our thoughts perverse
The truth be told
it goes from bad to worse
Porcelain smiles from a
crystalline face
The age has yellowed
The trust misplaced

You sit on the park bench
In the middle of night
No one bothers you
they can see
you are lost
in the midst of your plight

The thought of dawn
rising
far to the east
myths are on without
the peace
All my time is second hand ware
Ticking goes tocking
burdened by wear

You always wore
your face of frowns
Like a Queen possesses
all her crowns

The mornings found you
so depleted
All your will
had been defeated

You paid your dues
for cost analysis
They held the cup
for urinalysis

It's all there in
the black on white
Carved in skin
so pink and tight

You find
you're found
Roped , gagged
and bound

Estranged from
the freedom of life
Entangled
with all it's strife

And as , at last
the evening calls
Before the ghosts
stroll the halls

You prepare with such anticipation
For another night's
exhilaration

He sweats in Nephilim
and has nightmares of little men named Dave
Life is the giant slayer
of the thirteen year old boy afraid to shower at the school gym
But that was long ago over many potholed highways of chance and circumstance

Today's pockets have fishhook's sewn in the threads , borne bare from reaching for too much and beyond

Delete my words of care and condemn them to your black hole of desperation

Eternal bound frauds cut the bubble wrapped dragons of division and petrify their legacy in granite monuments on lawns that never raised a leaf to this life

We flee our desparations
as autumn butterflies before first frost
when the tardy become proof of natural selection
Fears turn into our reincarnation from years of future past alienation
Yet we wimp at the thought pummeling through our heads
of what the first frost might do to us

I woke up this morning
With a pistol in my hand
Hung over and ******
And my pockets full of sand

Oh lord ! What did I do ?
The front door was open
And in walked the man
neatly dressed in Blue

Put the gun on the floor
I'm aiming right at you
Blink one eyelid buddy
And I'm putting a bullet right on through

It just happened to be Sunday
Following a Saturday night
All I could remember
Was I got into a fight

Some girl sure screamed
And the bullets began to fly
I remember running for the door
Before I was to die

I tripped and fell as a bullet
Whizzed right there by my head
Please oh Lord I'm not ready
Won't you take him instead

I must have passed on out
I can't remember anymore
That will be my last visit
To Horse face Mary's bar
On 5th and Delanore

So listen up to me people
As they lock up my cell door
Drinking and guns
Aren't worth the dying for

Just a crack in the brick wall
A red rubber ball
The last time you can't remember
When you stood tall

The monotonous hologram
The seaside hotdog stand
The regrets piled higher
than any mountain can

Four stringed guitar
Home in an abandoned  car
Courage in a bottle
Wishing still on the first star

Still he caresses the neck
Presses down the frets
Sings three octave blues
On life's reef of wrecks

He's free lost in the chords
The music opens doors
The pathway is as bleak as sin
While inside he reaches for more

He goes off to sleep
He has his dreams deep
About a paradise for losers
And a five string guitar

Never had I more than a chance
To look at the future but
with a glance

I saw the world from
the rear window of a car
While being driven to
destinations that were near , some far

So many miles
before I was five
Before I even realized
I was alive

And home was where
my grandparents lay
Maybe we could go visit
on Christmas day

I learned to walk long
and I fought hard
Always drawing the shorter straw or the
the blackest card

I learned to spell struggle
with colored crayons
With black and blue
and red when hit on

I learned to run away
at the age of three
There were no fences
that could stop and hold me

Snakes and snails and
puppy dog tails
Emotional distrust
and a *******

No little boy
should ever be a knapsack full of momentos of forgotten history

Come black night
I envy thy heart
It dwells upon indecisions
It lashes out in dark

Thy cold comfort
Is the age within my bones
Your sly wink foretells
That I won't be here for long

Everything's so futile
Like the flowers on a grave
I see Eleanor Rigby
No one would be saved

"All those lonely people"
Words to a forgotten song
Two rights joined together
Don't constitute a wrong

Blue eyed beauty
One determined in her ways
Her love torched
the Panchos of her days

Love was hot and fast
like the lead
that they
were never spared

While life was short
like the stars of night
They both knew that
it would never turn out right

Pancho died of bullets
Luz while she was fast asleep
Both now just memory
One I will to keep

Like the soft green grass
'neath
the morning dew
I'm thinking 'bout you

The tides and change
happens to everything
and everyone that
you ever knew

I can't remember
the whens or whys
we were divided
in two

Cassidy . . .

Ah ! The nightime stars
appear so near
yet they are so far
We have cut their beams

We had our plans
The world was our's
if it was only
in our dreams

Oh ! Cassidy

You drove your car
a Cadillac
the top pulled down
and the radio on

I asked you ,"Where ?"
you said,"I don't care
as long
as we are moving on."

Remember those
night time wails
and the days
we spent in jail

The women we met
The broken drum set
The times we said ,
"We're going to Hell !"

Oh ! Cassidy !

In Mexico you
met your match
on the railroad tracks
trying to escape the pain

Your hand was hot
but the deck was stacked
so you cashed
out of the game

The Tequila was warm
but the night
was cold
and your clothes were thin

You went to sleep
and left
the pain behind
never to wake again

Cassidy , oh Cassidy !

Like the soft green grass
beneath
the morning dew
I'm thinking 'bout you

The black teenager gave the two white police officers a thumbs up and yelled Trump at them . The two officers looked at each other then beat him to a pulp just to be sure .

I was always a different one
Out of place with hair undone
Seeker of the fates unknown
Collector of dead rats and their bones
I loved the chill that made bones ache
The desert's sun that kills and bakes
I lay upon the mountain tops
In all kinds of weather and falling rocks
I hid in the forest where
none could see
Swam muddy waters of the Tennessee
I give thanks when none is due
For the seeing eye over all I do
I was never planning on staying long
The mindful plans knew that all along
So the plans of rats and man
Are far beyond us to understand

I was just a cowboy
whose story goes untold
I rode the range in
summer's heat and
the winters long and cold

My legs were bent and so bowed
From years
on horses that I rode
And memories that I made
were my treasure trove

I saw every sunrise from across a coffee cup
And every sunset wrapped up in a blanket as I sat and supped

I am no more lonely
than a wolfen howl
While underneath the stars I find myself blessedly so wowed

And everyday is like the last in my paradise
I have no chords that bind my life
to your civil strife

Give me open range
and ways that are ever fittingly so free
And kindly please
will you let me be

I'll never be the one
flipped and done
Kiss the sun
Burn your buns
I guess you won

You stabbed my heart
With paper darts
Made me ****
Tree's stripped of bark Apple à la cart

Look down below
Summer's in the snow
Wondering you know
How we just blow
Separately on the go

I was aways opening the door
Backing up on the floor
Stumbling ! Falling !
The fabric of life just tore
Tattering
Who's keeping score ?

You look at me and shake your head saying without a sound , everything is to be implied

I return the effort made while digging up a shallow grave ,"So what if it's in the middle of the night ?"

And the Sundays fled and the eagle flew off with the cat

So don't tell me up and down that everything is going ginger right

Now if rain could change a name , make the letters wash away

Or if you could choose your place in time , do it now so you don't have to stay

But what it really boils down to is does it really matter if it's in the middle of the night

After all having nine lives didn't work out so well for the cat

Like new summer wine
We were green in our time
And the yellow rose
never smelled better

But like the weeds in the road
Armadillos , horned toads
The truth was spelled out in the letter

You know some days are just fine
Others will find that your lying
But most of the time
you're barbed wiring

Well the rains came on down
Washed away most of the town
I found you boarding the bus to Dallas

You said you gave it a go
It's time to go with the flow
Then I watched the bus
dissappear with sadness

Well the high plain's never tame
Life's not long there for the lame
And one can drown in the dust
of your sorrow

You can ride on and mend
But you will never be able
to bend
The land or the will that's known as Texas

So goodbye my dear friend
You can write but I'll never send
I'll be waiting for you
at the nexus

She walks like heat before the summer's storm

With waves of motion
that envy the oceans

She speaks in flocks of rising birds in unison

Leaving little to wonder
in the commotion of perfection

Her absorption of all internal leaves you exhausted but forgiven

For her meekness has inherited my world

And I who was once last will be a first in her heart

Listen . . . the thunder rolls announcing the coming of summer rain

And she walks like heat before the summer's storm

When the days have folded
When the book's spine breaks
When you no longer need me
Then the truth penetrates

Will away the foundation
Will out any discourse
Will you forsake me
Leaving me remorse


Every monument crumbles
Every one to sand
Every choice we've made
Turned out of hand

Life turns to what's lost
Life cannot be held
Life leaves us shortly
And it's just as well

Look not down the road hoping that I will come

I am placing down the final words and then I will be done

I will board the ship and it's sails will be unflung ,

as I follow my destiny into the last rays of the sun

With much more than reluctance I turn now to go

Chuckling to myself , I did put on a good show

As all good things will come to an end,

win , lose or draw I will miss most of all

all of my dear friends

I loved to ride my Schwinn bicycle
I guess I was only nine
I ride it down to the pond
where I spent a lot of my time

I also loved a girl back then
She had a dog named Polar Bear .
Of course it was white
Until it was run over
by a school bus whose driver didn't care

I loved living in Florida
The salt air from
the ocean there
When I left the Sunshine State
I left a huge chunk
of me back there

Now I am a hand in my pocket
Always reaching for something not there
Home is where you hang
your hat
But I found no pegs to hang it
Inside of your lair .

If only we could put poems
in a bucket
Then throw onto a raging
fire
Would the flames die out
Or leap even higher .

But it seems words cost us nothing
More plentiful than the grass on the ground
Our lives have become instrumentals
Where there are no words to be found

It's almost two am
in the morning
I hear the silence
of the forgotten
and forlorn
I see the endless
empty feelings
of being here
forgotten and
all alone

The evening
was so full
of promise
The laughter was
so natural
and carefree
I felt like I
had finally found
the place that
I was meant to be

But the people
soon paired into
their couples
The loud noise
had become
subdued
And by midnight
the room was
mostly empty
Empty as the feeling
it had left inside of me

So I left
and nobody noticed
No goodbyes
or see you again
real soon
I walked into the darkness
of the warm evening air
Realizing that I was
one of those
who had no one who cared

So put me on the highway
I've got no where
I have to be
More empty miles
of lonesome
on the road
called eternity

And I will now fake it
And I will somehow
learn to take it
Take it all back home
with me

So put me on the highway
I've got no where
I have to be
More empty miles
of lonesome
on the road
called eternity

I ran with the fleet footed
only to be left ever so far far behind

I sat with the quick witted
only to find out we are not of the same kind

I prayed with the most religious so devout that only for God had they any time


I am a tent maker
I fiddle as I so please
I am at ease with my maker
He says bless you
every time that I sneeze


I am never at ease with one or many many more
I guess it was that surprise punch to the gut so I am always looking out there for more

I make friends only slowly
But I'm quick to let go
I live where there is found soot on the surface of snow

I have a family but only by blood . My son lives in Boston
My sister died in Orlando

I exist in my nowhere in the middle of my state
Just waiting on circumstance
so someday I can escape


"I am what I am and that's all that I am"
That's what Popeye would be sure to often say
Of course that is considered now to be so passe


If all of the I's in "if" were unbound I think more people would be willing
to stand for their ground

But when the "f" is surrounded by words I think it has people thinking they have fallen down

So I will end now
I really must go
I will get back to you
As sure as the sun
melts the soot on the snow

Don't you want to touch me
Don't you want to feel my pain
Don't you want to swim down
the chanels of my veins
Can't you taste the poison
flowing slowly through the brain
Medication made in Hell
makes one feel like they're insane
Feel the sorrow baked into the marrow of the bone
Feel the lungs gasping for air
just to let out a simple groan
Feel the grip of depression
that comes from drugged induced
The voices nagging endlessly
Telling you there simply is no use
All because of asthma chronic though it be
You haven't given in to one
Hoping someday to be free

The seas are full
of all kinds
of beast

From the the
very biggest
down to the least

When asked to go
for a swim
at night

I look disdained
and full
of fright

For yes I no

Jack and Jill
ran up
the hill

And stoped
to frolick
in the bushes

Ever since Jack
spilled his beans
Jill has been getting larger

Yes I no

Everyone on the corner
was looking
to the sky

Jesus just then
came walking by
and stopped to ask them why

We're looking for
a sign from God
then they turned back to the sky

Yes I no

Ever the moments
of nothing
Lingering
as gray clouds
before a warm dawn
I feel at home
in loneliness
I see no need
for it
to be gone
Mulling over the
history
of the days
that I could never forget
Some make me happy while
others fill me with regret
It's between just me
and my maker
Who seems to always
be around
He allows the thoughts
to be resurrected
Before I put them
back underground

I am the father
to the son
who will become
the grandfather
of my soul

What I have
proclaimed today
leaves a statement
for the future
someday to be told

and when the wind
is released
it stirs ancient dusts
uncovering
a continuum to bind

Like the sins
that are covered then
we reach forward
back in time

to the father
found in me
will be the son
found later
down the line

Fire !

so it goes with anger

a ballerina

the forest

or my Catilina when she is jealous

for the moth

it is the gate to eternity

but for the wise moth

the secret to life

is to come back

with singed wings

Sands of time are the tiny rocks from the mountains I tread upon on my way down to the sea

So the Sony clock belched
out the seconds
It had been empty as another full day
The whipoorwill yelled
for Ubernation
while standing on his bones
of petrification
It seems dinosaurs never
really went away

Alleluia

How many times have I crossed the Mississippi ?
Only God will know now for sure
The same can be said of the continental devide
The land of summer snow
It's full of purple mountain majesty
It yaws at my imagination
Someday I will to go back for more

Hallelujah

Some people say you either love of hate me
There is found no middle ground
That has me often wondering
about judgement day
As I will be surely standing down
Will Jesus look at me and say I know you , won't you kindly stick around

Halleluyah !

I was the one
that came undone
At the very first signs of strife

I twisted
upon my cross
Praying for another chance at life

I tried and failed
then I wailed
please make me into another exemption

But the shadows cast
by the time
now have turned into perdition

So cast the sins
and the stems
Watch as they go up in smoke

I fan the flames
of burning ice
life is such a joke