There are not enough
   poems about manatees
If you are interested in human
   rights being kicked like a dog
   and justice being dragged
   through mud, you can find it
If you are interested in love
   that aches with a “burning
   heart” or a “bleeding soul”
   you can find it
If you are interested in death
   that holds out its hand
   to you like relief, or takes
   one too early, you can find it
But where, I ask, do you find
   a badger in a turtleneck?
Or a cup of coffee that doesn’t
   sound so self important?    
If you’re interested in the
   ocean or the sea or maybe
   a single “crushing wave
   of emotion,” you can find it
If you’re interested in God
  dying to save you, or God
  abandoning you to the darkness
  you can find it
If you’re interested in athletics—
   especially running towards
   dreams and horizons—and
   losing and winning, you can find it
But where, I ask, do you find
   a good left-handed centipede?
Or a wonderful, ice cold beer that
   doesn’t turn into alcoholism?
If you want to find a poem about
   how the “gray rain spills from
   the clouds like the pain”
   you can find it
If you don’t want to find a poem
   about rain you’ll still find it
   (cause those rain poems
   are everywhere)
If you’re looking for a poem
   about regret and forgiveness
   and cruel mercy making false    
   promises, you can find it
But where, I ask, do you find
   a barbarian ballerina?
Or a cigarette whose smoke doesn’t
   outline the shadows of a lost soul?  
Show me these things, show me
   a fat manatee, and I will finally
   take a deep breath and smile

max was a good dog
and it doesn’t mean
                      anything

Into the darkness I go.
Right?
Left?
Straight?
I do not know.
Consumed in the nothingness;
Peace washes over me.
A florescent light appeared not to far from me.
A warmth filled me;
One that I wish will never go away.
"Please, don't go."
I heard a cry.
It came from the darkness from whence I was.
My breath caught in my throat,
The voice called out my name,
it cracked as the person spoke,
"Please don't leave me."
I turned back to the darkness,
Ignoring the voice.
I took the step to the warmth.
"Goodbye."
I whispered,
as a single tear rolled down my cheek.

yeh, That Happened... 'member ? you had all the helium and the softshell crab !
i had the battlements of sham. i choked on the bone of our contention
and wrestled a bare conscience.
what have you done to remain constant
by hurting the ones you love
by way of " What's Love ? "
by osmosis. by no means that means well
but a means  to face hell.
yeh, i caught your eye at the burger joint, on Grant.
you had pie in a mode of dairy, chilled to a cream of white heretic.
switch to the new black finch, and be quick about it !
don't cloud the Garofalo.  laugh in the jungle of perpetual jungles.
don't feed the monkeys, but nobody knows you're here.

feed the monkeys. but don't tell
how we can't. '  tell god '
He mocks.


and has nothing to show for it.

or not.

It's amazing what one person can do
they could come in and leave a mark
as big as the the sun,
And at a moments notice
they leave you completely undone

And when they return
it's immensely magical
that a second chance is given,
when all along you were a fool
for thinking love has risen,
and it strikes you like lightning
that everything is just so cruel