yes of course
i noticed you yes
you sitting on a park bench watching
the tail-wagging hunting dog you bought to charm
us into loving you

and if you really want one of us why
challenge me to this game of
mixed doubles badminton i can't possibly win
some lose some

how can i trust you if you
have to put my plants out in the rain to
catch a chirping cricket or if you
can’t make me cry with laughter when you
make fun of my religion

you are not
the kind of person who would
tell me the rugs make your body itch so much you have to
take a shower & steal my clothes while i let the
tetrahydrocannabinol go to my
mouth (and you think
god she's beautiful and
god i'm such a handsome *******) you are not
the kind of person who would
wish people took care of you as well as i
(do or die trying) and

i have severed the hand that fed me
with these flesh-sharpened canines
of mine
and i have not had seconds yet i have not
said grace i have not
eaten the porridge from your
outstretched hands cupped
as if to catch the hail that
stings my skin and
ricochets from yours as if it were
leather and the sheath of your knife
concentrated in the firelight and the
scent of burning cedar i am not
the one with a wrung-out neck and a
doll-eyed stare if you could
pluck the feathers one by one from my
frozen flesh i would not
bat an eyelid swing
low closed and animal finish
your story and in the dewy
morning the dead pine
will crawl with the beetles you brought in mason jars

how can you look me in the eyes when
dinner & wine always ends with a
checkmate

Cool black night thru redwoods
cars parked outside in shade
behind the gate, stars dim above
the ravine, a fire burning by the side
porch and a few tired souls hunched over
in black leather jackets.  In the huge
wooden house, a yellow chandelier
at 3 A.M. the blast of loudspeakers
hi-fi Rolling Stones Ray Charles Beatles
Jumping Joe Jackson and twenty youths
dancing to the vibration thru the floor,
a little **** in the bathroom, girls in scarlet
tights, one muscular smooth skinned man
sweating dancing for hours, beer cans
bent littering the yard, a hanged man
sculpture dangling from a high creek branch,
children sleeping softly in their bedroom bunks.
And 4 police cars parked outside the painted
gate, red lights revolving in the leaves.

                                        December 1965

The bees and butterflies already came
I've no more nectar,
For you to take

**** me
If you will
Go on
Take of me what's left

Ash,
Once carried on a lilac breeze

Smoke,
From a limply held cigarette
Burnt
To the filter

Me
A distant souls memory
Remaining on a winds
Left swirl

My resin fairy gave birth
Prose, Her name
Wingless *******
In my pocket

She and I
The same

You showed me to create life from dirt,
how to hear the Earth's heart beat
and how to devour life in every breath.

Its been a year since I saw you last.

Cold and lifeless on a table.

The reaper was waiting for you to leave us,
waiting in the fake grotesque comfort of a cafeteria
for you to join him again.

You avoided his company for ten years.
Deteriorating slowly.
Laughs fading into the creases of your skin.
He dimmed the lights in your eyes
slowly,
so we could watch.

I remember you in flowers.
And coriander,
and crushed mustard seeds,
and by the mini liquor bottles you collected.

I remember you in car journeys,
and in stories.
In the walls of the house you built
out of blood
sweat
and hustle.

I remember your lessons
and the jokes
and the blue clouds of smoke
that separated us then
and now.

I remember your fables,
the guiltless line of where to go,
and how you showed me to not be afraid of the dark.

I'll carry your fire and perforation,
I'll carry your name and nationality,
I'll carry your pride and persistence,

with everything left in me.

Kick a dead man
He don't bleed
rubber face
never breaks
has no need

Why stab the thing
it doesn't live
wrapped in bags
buried in the sea

feed the fish

Dumpster dive deliveries
snails and worms
and pretty things
fingernails pony tails

and teeth

A thousand million
maybe more
trinkets
and a broken *****
washed up on a
greasy shore

get your needles free

with running shoes and feet

treasures on the beach

dig the earth and reach
search for more

muggings of my sanity
I can't go out
I'm never free
all the eyes are watching me
dollars down the drain

such a shame

***** names and ***** stains
I've seen it all
It's all the same
demoralized beaten
left for dead

Dig a grave
for someone else
staring back
behind the glass
whiskey poems
the Mensa test
and death

Diseased

Pick Your poison
cups of tea...
forget

there's simply nothin' left

No one Loves
no one tries
kick the bodies all aside
and deal your truth
where it seems to fit

I spit

I'm used to it

I think it's time to go to sleep
digging up a darker deep
Killing pigs
with gloves of kid
I slit the neck
bleeding out in reams

it streams

anything that floats your boat
Is likely just a dream

and one more lifeless body
slips into the drink

Roosty

The ocean looks safer
than your eyes
Though we both know
which I would rather drown in.