The end of empire is preceded by lies.

-cec

Death is taking a break here ─
arms of bone folded behind head
it looks comfortable with legs crossed
a smiley face mask would look good to wear
except for the show of ribs, cage like
where a tiny bird flutters, frightened

Dusk leaps in tall shadows
darkness steals away all forms
seeping in one great present void
where sings the sound of a faint warble

cec

giggling children pull synthetic webbing tight
this front yard tree did not mind its branches bound

cotton candy webs festoon neighborhood round
polymer birds, quickly caught, and ***** in flight

snakes gathered motionless on leaves and grass
waiting for a standing rubber rat's first move

as cold breezes begin to fog in evening's loony mood
tattered fabric clouds consume remaining day's pass

now night extends its long and hairy legs in cramps
as shadows move among threads suspended stiff

All Hallow's Eve howls its curdled screams
spiders creep, crawl and wrap sweet cadaver corpses

-cec

All of us Americans ─

a tilted cowboy hat in a black & white photo
quoif, scarf, pins and a sprung natural look
flowered, dresses below the knees, short sleeve shirts
old clothes, flashy new and coal dust overalls
rouge color on pale cheeks below sad clay gaze
beards, no beards, eyebrows that come and go
smiles, leers, frowns, cheers, questioning mouths
kissed & kiss-less lips, painted, puckered, pouting
first picture, last, in-between, life and love
lonely portraits, family gatherings, couples cling
eyes peer at future viewers, wells into a soul
wallpaper thin stares, opaque glints at eternities
bursting happy faces radiating morning's first light
left right, left right profiles, marching off a stool
chair, log, fence, tree, minutes after mile markers
in a long chain of humanity migrating into frames
captured moments of agony and ecstasy flagged
absent red, white, blue in our film noir, still life, body

cec-

you come to this confessional
mouth full of contrition
sorry for him, sorry for her
longing for them
streaming your line of poetics
stringing syllables, a rosary

a lost sol in the ink of space
wanting somehow to replace
that feeling of having transgressed
bonds, promises, fingers crossed
now, typing out a stone ledger
atop the remains of the day

-cec

In a timeless embrace
they did not remember
when it had begun

only a rhythmic sway
spoke for them both
as arms incubate and lips claim

soft neck, cheek and hand's brush
here an ear's whispered endearment
mouths exchanging breath for breath

and a sacred romance plays out
over forgotten ages and rendezvous
passion tenders two more lovers

-cec

No, the sun radiates
this moon bathed in light
down to despair’s depths
life survives in city’s rubble
myriad hands digging hope
hearing cries for one more day
powdered wigs, faces, clothes
dry weeping in shadows
separated by earth’s broken back
sculpting a landscape of destruction
with miles of piled masonry
under a magnifying lens of tears
hearts and minds, bulwark
against each darkness found
a swarm of humanity tunnels
saving one more precious being
gently carried into distressed search lights
and the arms of a caring world

-cec

pink, purple, greens, white
fragrances coil eves whisper
Spring wears its perfume

-cec

waters bend shoreline
under billowing clouds
mirrored blind white, groping
wrapping around mountain trees
drifting in dusk's catnap

-cec

furiously they appear like apparitions
straining their engines and wheels
belted steel, industrial rubber, woven demon fibers
crossing white broken lines in darkness
weaving frozen traffic in seconds
a nightmare of TV movies, ‘juegos de muerte’
while horror etches into glass faces, oblivion

this highway stretches across a city
concrete and metal ready to explode
into oil black, blood red, eighty-seven proof fire
arms, legs, torsos, leaning into death’s curves
steering too slow, certain motion’s end
gathering random unwilling victims
just for the fanatical flight of hellions

-cec

left the water running
a slippage of the mind
how long it ran through plumbing
quizzed a liquid block of time

how swift the thought had faded
with fluid cascade views
of an otherness that waded
into ponds of current muse

as a conversation bubbled
and the tangents went astray
leading to the very bobble
that forgetfulness betrayed

-cec

peek a patch of pale blue
in white and grey sky
while dark masses brood

this ceiling of billowing sheets
carry a Pacific burden of rain
a meandering muddy creek

rung out in obscure wet curtains
from where the hidden sun stews
paper covers rock, wind cursory scissors

search lighting sea gull two tones
poised on their soaring sojourn
slender sails, as colossus strides blown

-cec

"Of bodies changed to other forms I (sing);"

and dip an oar into a primal sea
to see a world more animal than human
pierce this shell of surface tension
to feel, smell, hear this bottom extent
being cast within profusion's briny flow

in slow evolutionary tides
washed up on shores of crashing sound
run aground through fur und fetters
tail to mouth food chain devoured
'ever preening in disguise

unmoored in a rolling mirror
duplicitous while moon howling
even Zeus took occasion's swan dive
to lead a baser instinct's anatomy
and shoot a swimming seed home

Dr. and Mr. mixed in a beak-er
shaped and shifted over geology's ago
flooding forms into molded forms
and yet scramble out and into breath
filling lungs unto this crested vision

"So mastered by the brute blood of the air,"


-cec

but her heroics was tragically 1945
she found herself a martini shy of sane
cats filled her half full cup in a tiny house
with a garden of overgrown raspberries,
creeping violets, dandelion and shotsy-****

one story, split level bungalow blues
smoking cigarettes into chains
with an occasional store stroll
blind doctor visit, and neighborly chat
atop damp earth with subterranean worms

they found her dead in her chair
sitting out her physical existence
stains of her last **** between her fingers
the ash length not having fallen
in respect to her final perfect moment ...

-cec

gesundheit!

"reflexive longing" says Charles
looking at looking as an end
time's tailored rust overcoat

back in that day ghosts lived
high and low road spiriting
pinned chronicles of osseous tissue

this hunger, thirst and yearning
for aging interstitial cartography
points our happy compass arrow

remembered like a dear friend
or a stuffed bear or rabbit tale
where familiar comfort comes home

-cec

This seventy eight plays in the head still—
A needle scratches out melodic grooves
leading the convolutions and folds
of a young developing brain in synchrony
to the rhythms and beats of a tropical stew
far away in a mystical coastal city’s playa,
where warm air caresses and clothes are optional. A longing for a simpler time seeps to bone, vibrating, the funny one happy; remember? Legs begin to sway with the palms, memories float, clouds drift, waves laugh and the moon looks down in wonder.

-cec

the crescent moon did not set for the world tonight
chandelier near a pin-point planet in the void black sky
a giant turtle labors as it carries four elephants
balancing the world on their backs in time and space

many have been to the edge to look over into the depths
there the waters churn, creating, recreating in white vortices
many forms emerge as we aim our red eye further
blinking occasionally to believe or disbelieve what seems

flippers stroke, swimming endlessly in cosmic oceans
while pachyderm memories log in history’s journal
hieroglyphic charts and maps of fleeing galaxies
hungry gravity holes, with dark arms, chasing after

tilt is not in their vocabulary trunks, all or nothing being
in the wake, comets and asteroids weave destinies
stars nova, birth and boil, leaving a frothy foam
of life gazing out, waiting another plunge into sunshine

-cec

"Man Bites Dog!" Dog sues man. Man counter sues and slanders dog on social media. Dog files second suit for defamation and seeks to gag man on social media. Man appeals gag order and seeks to dismiss court proceedings. Dog files briefs and motions to continue legal actions. Man files motions to delay trial dates and jury selection. Dog seeks resumption of legal remedies. Man refusing to give depositions and stand witness. Appellate judges dismiss "Man bites dog trials". Headlines ..."Dog Bites Man!"

-cec

Waiting --

hanging on a taught thread
a breeze of tender caresses
air, as molecules, provides life
for now

each tethered knot appointed
pearls on string, in space, through time
echoing eons of primal schemes
forward in the stillness

dangling from one ancient ligature
on silken line suspended
twisting, spinning in dry wind
its storied form tells of the hunt

-cec

by Walt Kelly (1913–1973)

The basest ball
   Of all the game
Is one that travels hence,
   O'er our grass and our gloves
      And finely, loves,
         The fence.

"The Jack Acid Society Black Book" by POGO as told to Walt ...

you sit there jiggling to the music
buried in your old collar coat
chair slouching to a rapid beat
only your neck whip-lashing complaint

a son of an engineered father
lessons learned behind thick glasses
lost and leery in a dark venue
worrying that snow showers threaten

a life in limbo rushing to escape
just enough time to ‘peg down’ a genre
artificial is a thorn in your philosophy
as you took flight in fear of winter

-cec

do not speak of old, oak, trees
tell rather, of young saplings' iridescent green
living by water reflecting tall timber's leaves

leave out turbulent wind's, egg peak, waves
cast line upon the mist, listen to it drop
a solitary note, in the silence, plays

dew gathers for the morning fire wood
crackling limbs spitting from the ash
cinder comets fly through space to land crash

dawn's sun appears conjuring lake genies
casting spells in pines, bristle and moss
mushrooms, passing in the night, deliquesce

-cec

Federico García Lorca --

Dawn in New York has
four columns of mire
and a hurricane of black pigeons
splashing in the putrid waters.

Dawn in New York groans
on enormous fire escapes
searching between the angles
for spikenards of drafted anguish.

Dawn arrives and no one receives it in his mouth
because morning and hope are impossible there:
sometimes the furious swarming coins
penetrate like drills and devour abandoned children.

Those who go out early know in their bones
there will be no paradise or loves that bloom and die:
they know they will be mired in numbers and laws,
in mindless games, in fruitless labors.

The light is buried under chains and noises
in the impudent challenge of rootless science.
And crowds stagger sleeplessly through the boroughs
as if they had just escaped a shipwreck of blood.

you carry old baggage in straight suitcases
full of contrition’s contractions, each rosary bead spent
dragging sorrowful daggers of spite
pity self-pity’s pity, no others or places

killing softly with words, not deeds
psychic murders in poesy lines
each keystroke a slasher’s razor bleeds
disregarding tender hearts and rhyme

history’s ink well spill on your page
born-out to suffer blue outrage
sworn blind with fear of life’s gift
unwilling grace to heal this rift

-cec

Donny Clump took a dump in Okefenokee swamp
young possum and turtles had to hold up their nose
for descent of the “phew”, was allowed by broke pumps

many steered clear of the few, chewing their cut
as the congress-mum says, “Don’t be caught indisposed”
with the slime off the feet of those stirring up mud

this swamp, as all wetlands, was pristine, toy green,
beware of the snakes, vultures and all poison toads;
while a fat pachyderm is proceeding up stream

now the waters all tested by once EPA
here polluted and rancid by one parties’ sway
to bring final solution to democracy’s flow

-cec

Andromeda --
parsecs of wandering gas clouds
******* infinity while giving birth to stars

Are galaxies conscious beings?

this other-verse would, yes, approve;
of this dust mote seen by giant’s eye,
all mighty light and gravitational darkness

spirals


-cec

grows more every year
birthed it and gave it nourishment
it likes to grow now, wants to grow
it feeds upon past memories
skeletons from previous years' lists
the burnt offerings of cards
in the fireplace
roasted chestnut traditions
in the open flame of hope
wishes for a better better year
while we char our meats black
on Friday instead of fish
or is that good Friday fry
either way the list is listing
as wet weather turns cold as ice
and white is the color on trimmed
red coats and roof tops

-cec

glass winds chime, small birds
mandolin, violin play
anticipate spring

-cec

he turns the corner in a slow shuffle
we watch him with persistent questions
mommy, mom, mother now, 'Juaquina'
crosses herself, and utters,”poor man”

poor men, poor women, with basketballs
hanging between legs and shoulders
who is to say what is natural or not
we still reflect and say, “poor old creature”

he walks by occasionally
but we never saw him disappear
dying asks us to relinquish the dark figure’s
corporeality, at the end of the street

-cec

pink cotton candy saw it's reflection
being so shy, it blushed, pale white
becoming a cloud long shore

-cec

Godzilla and King Kong battle
while Atlas has his arms full of sky
giant squids wrestle whales
dimension Kaiju trounce on Jaegers, likewise
everything is in a fight club,
club fight, landing jet powered punches
and hammering the next victim down
worlds collide, macro and micro
armies clash, rock vs paper vs scissors
Cane brained Able, Rocky the Russian
pitted against all in all comers, Earth vs ...
Apophis, hurtling itself to land its knockout

-cec