I’m going to have some fun
With my rat-a-tat word gun
Words profane and words as pun

“A well regulated militia....”
Means hellya! we can police ya
And send you another noticia:

We CAN regulate your sorry ***
(Sorry, you think that crass?)
And negate forever your NRA impasse

Hey, you, you NRA ringers
I care **** about prying “cold dead fingers”
60 dead, 500 ******—that's what lingers

Legislators, grow a pair
Make good laws: strong and fair
End this mass-death love affair

Old dog,
wait for us—
Surely, you can do that?
Don't go while we are away

Stay!

The kitties need you.
The homestead needs you.
We need you.
We love you, buddy boy.

Old dogs teach us so much:
Loyalty, love, friendship.

Impermanence.

Buddy boy, please
Be here when we come home…

Okay?

Lonely boat
at low tide
bereft

Lost ribs rise
above gray mud
stark

Muck stuck with
elemental exposure
bleached

Proud vessel now
mussel struck
stuck

Roses are Rosaceae near 700 angstroms
Violets are Violaceae around 480 angstroms
Sugar is C12H22O11
(It’s sweet)
And so are you

The past passes
Frightenly fast
What you were sure was
Wanes to whatever

404: cannot be found
Format not supported
Access denied
Memory error

But we remember it
We know it was there
(I made it; it was mine)
Now just victim of time

Dusk to dust
Ashes to ask less
Things fade
Past is pastiche

They spread fast
Across the blue dot
With impact to last
In the end a blot

Planet plagued
Tyrannosaurus
Age through age
The virus are us

Time travel
Wears a body down
All that back and forth
Up and down some Jefferies tubes
Forgetting what’s been remembered

No cousin conundrums…
Thank goddess!
But I’ve seen me—
Gleefully pulling kitties tails
Splashing in a kiddie pool

The past is easy travel
The future most hard
The worst is what we don’t know
But we let it happen:
Super moons, king tides

It's nothing really,
No, really it's nothing.
Don't worry about it —
Didn't happen.

It's not a problem;
(Or, as I see it, pablum.
Yet, I seethe at your slight
You myopic fat pigeon-******!)

(Did I say that out loud or just think it?!)
No, no; it's fine.
Tuesday? Sure.
Yeah, me too!

Prepare the feast
Bread stuff has to bubble
Or you’ve got trouble

Pumpkin gave its life
Add eggs and allspice
And enough butter for crust

Free range young turkey
Neck and giblets included
Need ‘em for groovy gravy

Boil stock down
Rosemary and sage
Just in thyme

Cooking together
Three days on
Now that‘s thanks giving

Evidence is everything.

You can think something else is so;
You can hope something else is so;
You can believe something
Someone else has said is true.

There is no fake news
There are only fake facts.
Your take on the facts
Introduces subjectivity:

"Danger, Will Robinson, danger!"

Subjectivity rocks the boat
Distorts the daily;
Removes truths and
Introduces indecision.

Subjectivity *****
Fax me the facts.
Just the facts, ma'am,
Just the facts.

Wherefore the Monarch
In orange and black
Will you nevermore
Gently flutter by?

I knew a rhino
Dressed in black
Not coming back
No horn intact

Horror scene
This Holocene
Us? The way of the dodo?
I don’t know

Sensing them
From only here

Honest empathy;
But knowing, no.

Raise the sails
Cross the gulf

Manage your own estate
No one else really cares

We work sometimes together
Or better yet: laugh together

We even feign interest
We might even “like!"

Then home to solo corners
Our own personal concerns

The importance of self-love:
Definitely not underrated

My bones ache
My head seeks

The body slumps as
Spirit breathes and

Unhindered soars
And scores

Please, save me from home and our status quo zones
Where my dear and the misanthrope stay
Where sometimes is heard no dispiriting words
But the clouds are still cloudy all day

Home, home is so strange
Where my fear and the forlorn hope lay
Where is often is heard many recurring words
And I need to go outside and play

shadows stretch long
across the lawn
autumn sun swings low
singing winter’s song

Lil' baby peeks
From her towel cowl
Placed to placate
Her hissy scowl.

Spastic cat relaxes,
Spies with her little eyes
Safe within her clothy cave
Believes she's invisibile.

Later, much later,
Lucky emerges, yoga stretches,
Black cat arches back,
Shudders; tail's end softly twitching.

Ready again for tactile affection,
We stroke her silky fur
Feel her subtle purr;
Lil' baby again.

FBI like SCI/FI
X: Scully and Mulder

Sceptic and Mystic
Science informed Intuition

Solves the mysteries
Of scurrilous skulduggeries

Heinous histories
Resolved collaboratively

There’s a low below WWD
A kind of neutrality
How low can you go?
Lower than flow

Quiet

Breathless

Present

Still

But…
We go as we go

Smoke is clearing
We can see clearly now
Rain is stopping with
Flood waters receding

Appreciate this moment of clarity
Watch the fog resolve
After days of dark, the sun
Revealing harsh truths

In stark contrast
To hidden shadows
What follows is
A path forward

I cleaned up my **** today
Then, afterwords,
A lot of mouse turds

Decades-old dirt
Archived, postponed
Obvious duff discarded

Genetic leavings
Fingernail clippings
The flakes of folks we were

Cobwebs cleared
Mouse traps sprung
The new has begun

Tommy Tumescent
Made a claim, man
By the left hand
That’s right’s been
Unrighteous with you
Making advances
Asking for finger dances for
Tactical enhancements to
Grow slow, Joe;
Remove the hoodie
Show the woodie
Stick your neck out
Turkey ****
Someone loves you
Enjoy

I want something
I feel it deep in my bones
I feel it sometimes
I think it sometimes
A hunger, a longing

Akin to anxious
An unknown known
A dispersed urge
It’s important
In concealment

Just past dusk
A whisper before dawn
It’s under my skin
Something I should do
Begin what when?

There is no comfort zone
As a ****** alone
Traipsing and tripping
Calles and zocalos

Estranged stranger
Taller, whiter, foreign
Trying to fit not blend in
Stuttering sputtering sentences

Finding right words
Taxing not relaxing
But rewards every day as
Friends show us the way

Bomb!
(nuclear bomb!!)
Pshew! Pshew!
You're dead!

Not funny.
Seriously;
Not funny.

A musical once asked,
"How do you solve a problem like Maria?"
Or the father of Ivanka.

Give him a pony.
Or a destroyer
Festooned with
"Mission accomplished."




Me have cookies now?

I think about my Dog
All the time
The omnipotent one;
Maker of Chihuahuas and Bernards;
Distiller of EVERY smell we LOVE to smell
HE who NEVER NEEDS to eat grass.

Oh, Boy, Good Boy,
Why, oh why, don’t we have thumbs?
We can’t open the ***…frigging doors
To answer the NEED of nature!
We can’t even open any food container
Or answer the phone when they are away.

Don’t get me wrong—
I like being on all fours, Dog, stability!
I like my nose knowing and showing!
I LOVE doing it *******:
On a manmonk leg, on the couch, with a bi—
(Sorry, the manmonks think I shouldn’t say that word)

Speaking of manmonks,
Could you help them understand us better?
Don’t they know they STINK?
They take me out to play, yeah!
Then, I bring the stick back not once, but twice, thrice…
That’s just not nice.

And why can’t I EAT all day?

That thing around my neck itches.
And the metal thingies are crazy jangly; but
Thank you, Dog for allowing me to scratch scratch scratch scratch scratch so well.
And lick where I like to lick.
And lick where I like to lick.
And lick where I like to lick.

Oh Dog, dear Dog,
Please hear my lamentations.
Grant me my thumbs!
Let me open the door!
Remove the collar!
And finally use the holy

Can Opener!

I’m slipping through time again
From the when to then
From tomorrow’s sorrow
To today’s begin

The real ***** is the stitch
Where we actually exist
Between memory and wonder
And therein lies the itch

Remembering the past
Thinking of next
Wallowing in now
Sliding the narrow

The drone’s angle
Cauliflower green

Obligatory overhead
Forest scene seen

Filming automated
Droids watching as

Camera slides, smoothly
Overhead drama meme

Copter tracking
Story told between

Doesn’t come easy
I have jars on the shelf
Filled with
Jarring metaphors
Sparring rhymes;
Poems aborted

Dead ends.
Some just clumsy fumblings
Some un-clementine Frankensteins
Some too painful to finish
Some too personal to post

But for me, a life-line.

"I am old,”
Said father time
Absconding an
Older nursery rhyme

Baby 2019
Fresh and clean
Chortled, coughed
And ripping his/her bib off

Opined: “Settle down; breathe;
This can change with ease;
You are not the only show in town.
There are other clowns around”

Time slowed
Sat down
2019 rose
And now grows…

Guess who’s 42?
…me…

Who here is a clumsy 13?
(me…)

Roaring 20s?
CAPITALIZE MEEEE!!!

44. I’d rather have what came before.

Look you in the eye at 55
And lovingly speak truth

Will you still need/feed me
When I’m

Creepy dolly thingies like
Chunky Chucky upchucks

Melody box ballerinas
Mesmerizing, hypnotizing

Rat-a-tat-tats splatter spats
To the music of sax and violins

Little ******’s pursing lips
Seducing the sinner in me

Or ending it all at the end of
The barrel of a long, ferric gun

a poem a day
what a way
for neuron sway

brain elastic
language plastic
a bit sarcastic

word play
what a way
to start or end a day

Darling,

The sun is out
My door is closed

Clouds come from within
Not without you

I assert my right to live
Here, not aggrieved

This land is your land
This land is my land.

What way
We can’t say

Imagery
Left to be

Poetry not
On the clock

Turn a phrase
To mayonnaise.

I know who I am
A man of
Complexity

Completely
This and that and
In-between

Coming and going
Evading but knowing
Modern eye Popeye

Yuk-yuk-yuk-yuk!

I’ve packed it up before
Appointments not earned
Arrangements undeserved

I went off map for months
Leaving one closet for another
Life defined, boxed, shelved

Tossing the flotsam
Flowing the jetsam
Purging the past

Scripts, notes, lesson plans
Decades of detritus
The past as trash

One story ends;
We hope the sequel
Is better yet

time slows,
shows, goes

feel it come—
then its gone

anticipate to
participate…

(endeavor to
remember)

Step north south east west
Topsy-turvy choices
Whirlagig way to go
Arounds abound

Make a choice
Bet on the red peg
Double down
Scritch “Hit!"

One for a high
Two for low
Three for pig
No mistakes

It’s a crapshoot.
Aim high.

BAM!
The cudgel descends

RIP!
The bandage off

****!
Old wounds can fester

POW!
Kicked while down

WOW!
Past is present again

GET UP
Brush it off
Mend your wall
Stand tall and
Walk away

Punchline?
Hiccups!
Ah-eht!
In the middle of a breath

Makes it hard to do
A radio show
Or the fi-INL-nal lectures
Fine with two days time?

Please?

FAKE NEWS is not new;
Fantabulism populism:

SHRIMP, BOY!
Mind the clause!

BEARDED PERSON!
Absolutely Ordinary!

ZIPPY THE PINHEAD:
Are we having fun yet?!

I loved the ****:
Tongue teasing
Emergence…

Elegant rising from
Folds within folds
Rising sighs…

Lust to laughter
Owning ******!
Gift from me to you

Terrified at first.
Girls. *******.
Teeth?

I fell in love –
I fell in love –
I fell in love –

She, mostly;
An occasional he.
Which makes me…

Me.

Me, standing up
For myself
Summer camp, 1972

Catholic camp
Anything but
Everything ****

Big guy
Twice my size
Calling me gay

What’s gay anyway?
Didn’t know then
Now I do

It felt entirely unfair

Hairs tingled
Skin prickled
Kicked in adrenaline

Little fat boy
Stood tall
Never to be bullied again

My story is unexceptional
But for a few exceptions

A story uneventful
Except when remarkable

There are characters dull
And characters full

It’s a whirlygig existence
More than a water slide ride

Take note as it happens
No one else keeps score

Hello, yin, I'm yang.
We're different but mostly the same.
You're white, I'm black,
We curve and enfold:
A little of you in me,
A little of me in you—
Not a lot, just a dot.
With that, we complement each other.

Did I tell you you look especially good today?

When is this?
Where is this?
Where am I?

Awoke in dark
Wall dimly glows
The rest shadows

Here now?
Then when?
Where to go?

Stepped from sleep
All unfamiliar
Observe; think!

Gauze falls
Fog clears—
Here. In my chair.

The line between here and there
Grows thin once a year and death
Smells of copal and marigolds
Those who remember sit twixt
This world and the next to commune
With madres y padres y abuelos y tias
Bathed in candle light; this afterlife
Remembering is festive, not somber
As October moves into November
With those living and past together

We fall who we fall for
Feel for our amour
Evermore.

We came into kemmer
But it got dimmer;
******.

As we both grow older
I need a shoulder
Less colder.