Letter, letter born to return to sender--
extra-marital, maritime, marine, mercy, mercy mine--
two drinks in; four from home,
letter, letter born to return to sender--
.38 special, sexless, spiteful, spitting, spitting rites--
three drinks in; three from home,
letter, letter born to return to sender--
double-decker, drugged, dangerous, daggers, daggers dried--
four drinks in; two from home,
letter, letter born to return to sender--
clusterfucked, fancy-free, foreign, fine, fine unwind,
five drinks in; one from home,
letter, letter born to return to sender--
ether cloud, Evelyn, earthware, everyday, everyday signs--
six drinks in; on the carpeted floor,
letter, letter born to return to sender,
whitewashed, weakly, wounded, wishing, wishing for home.

I die a little bit inside each time
you offer an explanation for my
self,
   stubbed heart [popped out of sync]
   dips toward the ground and
   flutters to a silence

a still, empty blue presiding over
the world at large tonight, permeated
by plumes of white
(from the scrambled heads of dreamers)

nothing to hold against your
fiery facade, flaming formidable
fits of brilliance blazing before
my flustered eyes

and why do we cease to
contract, left ventricle?

to start up again and enjoy
it that much more (the second
time around)

In an idyllic garden behind Hank's old apartment,
Grace stumbled in high heels toward my then sturdy arms.
I'd finally gotten her drunk enough to notice,
and I was finally sober enough to appreciate.



Grace left before I woke in the morning.
I haven't seen her since.

That was 300 miles ago,
and a decade away from here.

Hidden.

Bullets love flesh
flesh loves touch

I thought guns dear
I thought them tough

But metal, and metal
is smooth, not rough

killed my baby and friend today.

I HAVE ransacked the encyclopedias
And slid my fingers among topics and titles
Looking for you.
  
And the answer comes slow.
There seems to be no answer.
  
I shall ask the next banana peddler the who and the why of it.
  
Or-the iceman with his iron tongs gripping a clear cube in summer sunlight-maybe he will know.

THEY all want to play Hamlet.
They have not exactly seen their fathers killed
Nor their mothers in a frame-up to ****,
Nor an Ophelia dying with a dust gagging the heart,
Not exactly the spinning circles of singing golden spiders,
Not exactly this have they got at nor the meaning of flowers-O flowers, flowers slung by a dancing girl-in the saddest play the inkfish, Shakespeare, ever wrote;
Yet they all want to play Hamlet because it is sad like all actors are sad and to stand by an open grave with a joker's skull in the hand and then to say over slow and say over slow wise, keen, beautiful words masking a heart that's breaking, breaking,
This is something that calls and calls to their blood.
They are acting when they talk about it and they know it is acting to be particular about it and yet: They all want to play Hamlet.

Deep passions and divine passings
You will never speak from your inside, out.
Mistakes linger here and there
But you think it's fine, you have it made.
Take it from the worst of them all
This is not the decision, it's not okay.
When you trip and fall
Into strawberry poison
Don't scrub off the deep stains.
Someday you will understand
But I hope you learn from my messes
That this is the time for an outburst of your most prized oragan
Precious ,though you were, I let you sift through my fingers
And once you loose that precious sand
It's hard to gain it back COMPlETELY
By picking it up
Grain by grain

She's leaving soon
[Masked bandit runs onstage and stabs in heart, leaves]
And it's going to be excruciating for
The next month and a half
But there is no such thing as goodbye

Goodbye is, in truth
A word, a phrase that should have no place in this world
Seeing as all it does is transfer its dark tail to an
Unknowing and usually unwilling recipient
[Bandit returns, retrieves knife, leaves]

The vast majority of the masses would consent to labeling my ideas as
Idealistic.

Fine then, I suppose they could be thought of as such by people who consider
Them to be impossible, improbable, or merely unlikely
There is a rhythm to my thinking, however, to
Take a good thing and expand upon it, learn from it, live with it, grow
[Clowns dance across screen]
Until all the self-righteous fools and their cemented mindsets become old and
Sodden with unknown wealth

Intellect can only get one so far before one must understand that
Not everything will be understood
[Large dog chases tennis ball across field]
And to persist in questioning, in excess discovery is to eliminate the wonder
The beauty that persists in all things, or at least to
Diminish it

Keep the volume up
The love strong
The fire burning
Your heart sound
Your dreams huge
My will stone
My mind clear
Our lives intertwined
Our lives intertwined
[Sunset fades to black]