They used to say things about me openly,
like, "**** him if he can't take a joke."
But it's funny how karma works,
what goes around comes around.
I only have one thing to say about them
& it ain't about love.
Did I read somewhere to turn the other cheek?
Well, I got one side black & blue,
& the other redder than a baboon's ***.
My coworker asked
me the other day,
"How's that working for ya?"
****, you gotta love him,
'cause he's so funny.

Sooner or later
the time comes
to pick yourself up,
reach for them bootstraps,
pull up out of the dark mire.
Your fire smolders
& staying in the pit
keeps you so.....
but you have so much
more to live,
give yourself
a fighting chance,
flame on & fly away
into the sunlight.

It's not just
a *******,
it's like
a universal sign,
a non-verbal signal,
to show them some attitude,
to send them a strong message
that we've had enough
& to show them,
where to stick it.

I drip
incessantly
heartfelt
ink
to make one think
of passions lost,
of new loves found,
& it's nothing profound,
it's just me
floating in a sea of stars.

O darling,
spin
your pretty flower
between
your delicate fingertips,
swirl those vermilion petals,
so tenderly
I will
partake,
pick you blind.

I love pansies & posies,
dandelions & roses,
& poppies do melt my heart.
The lily-of-the-valley
is endearing,
she's so beautiful.
Peonies & veronicas,
carnations & daffodils,
dahlias & tulips,
their colors thrill me,
spill onto my palette.

I extremely enjoy the fine
array of their luscious petals,
the explosiveness of their fragrance,
so delicious & soothing,
almost hypnotic,
they're dreamy,
I could sniff them
forever, taste
their flowery-spirit.

Flowing like honeydew wine water,
I get intoxicated on your cascade,
your raging waters of wanton-bliss,
my glistening pieces & visions
of our piston-like maneuvers
takes me higher than high,
and why might you ask?

'Cause I miss your sensuous-kisses,
get swept away by your flood,
bask in your musky showers,
your electrified ***** of emotion
are swallowed in earnestness
with my shiny red cheeks,
the raw savage sweetness
caresses my belly.

O this deja vu of you
never tasted so good,
it stirs my belly,
you & your powerful flow.

I loved a butterfly once,
it was beautiful.
so iridescent & fragile,
I had to let it go,
flutter free.
And, it never came back
to me,
sadly.

We packed the stone bowl
full with the stick.
Man, the air was thick
& when the smoke cleared,
we giggled all the way to the pantry
to get some chips,
flying @  forty-thousand feet.
It's so cool doing that,
with your two feet
floating firmly
on the ground.

Gripping the aluminum skin
with my fingertips
is one of the hardest things to do.
It can be a bit easier if you can claw,
find a couple of loose rivets,
maybe grab an emergency door
hatch cover.
But that's tough to do,
flying at such high altitudes
at hundreds of miles an hour,
outside the main cabin.

Gently rock,
soothe me,
focus,
focus on us,
feel the flow
of me
inside
of you,
high in Heaven.

I rumbled
around Folsom prison
today
& watched the water
tumble over the dam.
I saw the concertina
wrapped tightly
at the top
of the fences
& wondered if
the armed boys in the tower
would shoot me
if I took off my boots
to swim
in the cool
refreshing waters.

Then I thought to myself,
"Naw, I'd better not,
think I'll swim a mile
or two away,
it's safer that way!"

I love asparagus
& her cousins,
garlic & onions.
I want to lie in a bed with them,
rub them all over me,
roll in the shoots,
chomp cloves
& peel some layers
for an eternity.

She was a connoisseur
of the finer things in life
& a true lover of culture.
Ethnic foods,
in particular,
was her main interest.
She was always
experimenting in the kitchen
& in the bedroom,
with texture
& taste,
played to accentuate
her sweet tasting
physical attributes.
So it was no surprise
when I saw the Feta cheese
on the nightstand,
it was her favorite appetizer.
And the look in her eyes said it all,
tonight we were going to have a ball,
a full course meal.
She loved me fishing for olives,
and the kolbassa,
let's just say,
my baby's
one lip-smacking
hot date.

Emails & web searches,
filtered &
documented,
footprints leading right
to your fingerprints.

There’s a spirit living deep inside of me
that cannot be stifled,
it carries a weathered canvas pack,
wears woolen gloves
with holes in the fingers,
it’s denim has worn out knees,
boots are cracked leather,
topped with a faded red bandana.

It has sat in jungle downpours,
crossed wide oceans of blue,
tasted sand in the desert winds,
camped on sacred burial grounds,
seen the curvature of the Earth.

And if you knew its ways,
you’d swear it was created in pure love,
which can never die,
it can only leave footprints,
my spirit.

True friends listen to your fears
when the chips are down.
They stand by you in your pain,
when everyone else scatters.
They take you for who you are
& don't pass judgment.

They cry when you cry.
They laugh when you laugh.
Sometimes they cry when you laugh,
sometimes they laugh when you cry.
Friends don't feed you illicit drugs,
they don't chug your weakness with you,
or fill you with self-doubt.

They stay true.
They pick you up
in turbulent times.
They face the wind with
you in the good times.
No matter what,
they believe in you.

And they do it unselfishly.
They do it with real
genuine love,
not that synthetic kind,
the kind
most people use
all of the time.

I saw the signs
& knew she was my kind of lady.
There were bright venetian beads
hung around her slender neck,
she wore faded torn Levi's
& a light cotton top,
a bit see-through.

On her mahogany dresser
was a used
elegant bottle
of Aqua di Gioia,
right next
to the Tiffany lamp
depicting large dragonflies.

The black light above her bed
was a bit odd,
but not the Kama Sutra picture
just below it,
it peeked my interest.

Her cozy bricked-kitchen
had the aroma
of nutmeg and brown sugar
with a hint of saffron.
The selection of wines
not too extravagant,
the French Bordeaux
caught my eye.

The Chinese dragon
wrapped
around her ankle
was an inkling
of her mysteriousness,
her speech repertoire
was impressive,
her diction eloquent,
a real genius.

And her eyes blazed
hues I've never seen,
a gaze that melted me
dead in my tracks,
it was breathtaking,
radiant beyond
any word-description.

I will forever be awestruck.

I miss the steamy waters,
heated by volcanic magma,
bubbles swirling,
the smell of sulphur,
immersing me &
my muscles
screaming
under the Heavens.

I levitate there,
fall into a beautiful-trance,
savor the romance
of the moment.
Pan pipes play
ancient mystery tunes,
gliding me up
into splashed milk,
covering the sky
so brilliantly.

I ride comets,
kiss red giants,
visit swirling galaxies,
touch billions of suns
offering warmth & light
in the frozen darkness.
There is no time,
it disappears,
floats like cosmic dust,
days turn into nights &
I explode into a super nova,
becoming
one with the universe,
forever found,
forever lost,
high on the altiplano,
inside soothing waters.

I lay awake
spitting my words
like candy kisses,
wishing for something
beautiful,
wallowing in my loneliness.

One more night,
I want to lie,
to lie & hold you,
float on crystal seas
& I never sleep,
'cause you forgot me,
wide awake for
another audition
calling you.

Remember me darling.
Remember me
when you go down
to the coast.
I will be there.
For I am the tempest wind,
the roaring thunder
the sound of me
reverberates.
I am the salt spray
on your lips,
traces of me,
you will swallow.

And when you
lay yourself down,
weary at night,
pray for me.
For I am the light,
who makes you quiver,
somewhere in
your deepest dreams.

It's weird how **** changes.
I remember all them young dudes,
they worked a crowd
like the Flatbush mafia,
they didn't drive hummers,
they demanded them
& when they didn't get their way,
they clicked their ******* fingers
to shake loose hell.

Even the cops were scared of them,
but not Molly,
she wore an original tattoo,
people wonder
what happened to her.
Some say
she became a lizard queen
and joined Jim.
I guess anything is possible.

Bravely you answered the call
for your fatherlands,
fought revolutionary wars for your mothers,
protected you children from the scourge
of corruption &  greed,
the murderous acts of
villainous human-rats.

You became nocturnal sentinels,
counted stars, cupped cigarettes,
yearned for new creations,
kept faded photographs
in the special pockets
of you tattered knapsacks.
You learned the art of insomnia,
slept in the mud & dirt of your homelands,
spit lead into the sick hearts of the wolf pack,
whom you were always certain would **** you.

You became eternal combatants
& fought with great zest,
confessing your strength
from machine-gun nests,
laughed like mad dogs under fire,
those times when things seemed dire.
You were killed with fireballs & tracers,
gunships & tanks & planes & artillery,
died in shallow trenches
& in hardened bunkers,
in the thick jungles
& in endless deserts,
on mountaintops
& on beaches,
even in the cornfields
& on the city streets
of your own neighborhoods.

You were assassinated by pariahs,
the enemies of your people,
your blood watered your lands,
helped to nourish
your strong beliefs,
the flowers of freedom
& now you sleep soundly,
deep under the sacred-grounds
gifted to you
by the same blood
shed by your ancestors,
your forefathers & mothers,
brothers & sisters, aunt & uncles,
all the members of your family trees.

And with great love
poetry will be written
for you rebels,
recorded histories
& unknown graves
will be the stark reminders
of the size of your hearts
& your mountain of courage
will forever stand as testimony.

It's like a real Mexican standoff out here,
people are getting edgy,
acting like they want
to mess each other up.
Elephant protectors on one side,
elephant trainers on the other,
the cops are in the middle.
It's pretty ****** evident
both sides are in love with their causes.
Still, I wonder what the animals would say
about this protest stuff,
so much of their habitat
has been destroyed....
and the humans want to ****
each other
to get their point across.

I witnessed
your flower blossom
in beauty,
open up
to the heavens above.

I felt you
release
your fresh spirit
in multiple explosions
of pure-ecstasy,
I tasted the joy
in your tender kisses.

You lay feeding
on my seed
that came
from my heart,
my love just for you,
under me.

I reel off four every four
and still have another,
but sleep
I need more.
Good night
sweet readers,
thanks.

I think she’s drop dead
A fox hidden in disguise
It’s in her sweet eyes

People say I'm multifaceted,
but they really don't know me.
I feel splintered,
cut from years
of allowing people
to abuse me,
lovers too.

Yet, I still feel
handsome on the outside.
I'm working on the inside,
looking for an
inkling of perfection
& wondering if it
really does exist.

Or, if it's only found
in the words of fractured poets.

I'm a caffeine ******
& I've got the **** so bad
I walk down the street
to the grocer,
then I walk down
the coffee aisle
just to sniff
the ******* bean-laced air.
I can't afford designer coffees.
But I hang out at the local coffee shop
& wait,
I wait for the other junkies
to drop their empty paper cups.
If I'm lucky,
I can get a drop or two of mocha.
None of this **** is a joke either,
I'm jonesing for some Kona
& they're out.
I had my mind set on it....
I'm buzzing like an electric eel.....
I'm gonna explode.

This shady-bar
gave you more ***** than mixer,
cheap spirits & rot gut elixirs flowed,
some did lines of flake on the teak.
By eight, most dates were sloppy drunk,
buzzed, frazzled to the gills,
schmoozing the feline-walk,
talking ****, listening to
Floyd or Skynyrd.
It was a circus of sorts.

Back in those days
we called the cops 'fuzz',
they'd make their rounds
every couple of hours,
it made it look like they were
using tax-dollars wisely,
but we students knew better,
******* establishment.

The parking lot was a mix
of racetrack & boxing ring.
Cars jammed, roared,
cruised, honked
their way
through the fistfights.

Once, I saw two sweet-babes,
real rough-cats scratch and claw
themselves to near death.
The flowered-blouse
on one was ripped clean off,
one of her ***** hung out,
it looked bruised.
Blood streamed down
both of their faces,
ruining their mascara.

When I look back,
it's quite amazing
any of us survived
that freaking place.
Now come to think of it,
the last time
I saw my buddy Marcus
was outside that
nasty-drinking-establishment.
He was ******* amongst
the drunks & excrement.
I really wonder how he survived,
if he made it out of that city
in one piece,
alive.

What would happen
if nobody wanted anybody,
would someone give up
on everyone,
would no one
really care,
then where would be?
Nowhere, somewhere
or everywhere & who,
who would tell us
what to do,
everyone,
someone or
no one again?
Doesn't sound like
much fun to me,
nobody loving nobody,
just a bunch
of free range chickens
clucking around
with their heads cut off.

I face west,
tasting the cool winds,
the warmth of the sun
kisses my back
& I am free.

Warm sunlight is kissing
the tops of the conifers,
moving down
as the morning star moves up,
igniting the dark sky
with splinters of
vivid reds & oranges.

And in the nearby meadow,
I hear the songbirds
revel in the new day
as I lay here alone,
smelling the aroma
of fresh coffee brewing.

Ronnie sang it out loud,
and he was freaking right,
you ain’t never gonna change this bird,
I’ve been flying free since the day is long,
songs fill my breath,
you are my tune.

So if I leave here tomorrow,
it’d be great if you
remember me,
but if not,
fly straight
friends
into the golden sun,
there, you’ll still see me
in your dreams.

I read about a zen monk
who wrote over twenty-five thousand
short poems
during his lifetime.

That's a lot of enlightenment,
chicanery & honesty
from the bottom
of one's heart.

Oranges,
bananas,
and strawberries
split the sky
wide open.
It's the most
delicious
fruity-sunset
I've ever feasted
my hungry eyes on.
Yum.

Obscure
the messages,
their context
out of synch,
don't you just love
cyber space?

I want to see an actual face.........her your voice.

When will we stop
thinking
about the center of the universe,
which is not us.
This importance,
this arrogance
in the greater scheme
means
nothing,
not a **** thing
with our bellies full.

Ever have one those full moon days
where it feels like Mars
is in major retrograde,
Jupiter might be imploding,
the sun is spinning backwards?

It’s like everybody you run into
is a super freak.
They don’t seem normal,
seem tweaked out
on something really bad,
they just ain’t right.

Those are the days
when I want to stay home,
brew up some of
the good herbal green stuff,
kick my feet up,
mediate about love &
how grateful I am
for my own life!

Built for speed,
this primal need is killing them,
but boys just wanna have fun.
Thanks Cyndi
for the inspiration.

There's an autistic guy
sitting in the booth next to me,
he works in a different zone,
but they keep piling loads
of meticulous **** on him
& he does it lickity split
with a smile on his face.
Who knew he'd be
so proficient.

Funny, it's no joke
how the rest of my
coworkers whine
when they don't
get their smoke break
with so much
of their work
left to do.

Actions speak louder
than hearing
your missing words,
so I think I'll sip
some summer rose,
crack the morning paper,
read the comic strips
& maybe chuckle.

Peach burns in the western sky
as darkness plunders the hills,
leafless trees stand
like a row of dead soldiers
along Galley Road,
a quiet testament
to a different time,
an era of content,
now gone.

They’re invisible to the naked eye
& they don’t wear shades
nor dark silk suits,
zeroing in on every move you make,
leaving no footprints
& no ****** untouched
by you.
And you,
you think, you think
you’re so slick,
so sly, so sly
with you little schemes,
you ******* dreamer.
I’ve seen the other side,
I know their sophistication
& believe me,
you cannot hide,
‘tis folly to even try,
they can have your *** anytime
they want it.
So game on mouse,
play away,
go ahead, look for
that big hunk of cheese,
'cause it could be
your last day.

It's crazy how sometimes
we'd lay there forever
gathering intel.
The bad guys
would move around
as if they owned the place,
scurrying to and fro,
moving ordnance,
an RPG or two,
lots of AK's.
Most of the time
when we saw them like that,
we'd bag them in an airstrike.
Game over.
Camo works.

We'd play
Dungeons and Dragons
for hours
in the bunker at night.
We all had special powers.
Some of them worked,
some didn't.
I miss those guys.
I wore a cloak of invisibility
so I could
come
back home
to write about it.
(I Thank God,
my cloak
& my lucky stars.)

I saw her in a vision
amongst the stars &
I must be going nuts.
My mind does this,
seems to play tricks
on me,
am I a little bit crazy?

From time to time,
I feel it slipping,
I feel like
I'm from another place,
from outside our system,
from another galaxy,
one seen far across
the dark night skies
that disappear
when the sun rises.

But I do feel the pull,
so many of them twinkling
between constellations,
the lure of the stars
beckoning me
& inside my pocket,
I hold a tin version of authority,
the type the runners carry
to maintain universal law and order.

O traveler tell me,
please tell me
Aldebaran exists.
Tell me this is not
some strange dream,
a sick joke
played on me
by the lady
born under the
sign of Taurus.

O, tell me she's real.

Pretty painted face
She hobbles on wooden shoes
Beautiful maiden

I think it would be cool
just to sit around
& spin records,
crack open
the expensive bottles
& shoot tequila shots,
slurp whiskey
out of the small
of everyone's back.
When we started
to hallucinate,
we could all *******
while sitting in a circle,
then write home
about it on a postcard
telling the folks
what s great time
we were having
acting like the beat generation.
They did **** like that you know.

I'm gonna take a hit,
wait...........................
............................­......
..................................
.......................­...........
that's better,
hold on,
I need some cashews
..................................
......................­............
..................................
yum,
gonna turn the lights down a bit
now,
hold on.....................
yum,
another handful of nuts
..................................
.........................­.........
..................................
gonna brush my teeth,
wait...........................
..........................­.........
...................................
that's better,
just a sec,
I want some more cashews,
hold on.......................
....................................
yu­m...........................
feeling sleepy...........
whew,
thanks for hangin'
with me
while I ate a few nuts,
good night man.