The only time I feel secure is when I'm away from my computer.

t
h
   e
g
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r
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n
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s
e

ICE
freezes
lives
upside
down

eyes closed
half asleep
i hear a bird's flight
etching notes of color
across my mind

bright twill--SHOCKING PINK

earnest soaring cry--DEEP YELLOW

fast stroke upward--CRIMSON BLUE

soft tremolo--ZIG ZAG LINES FAST DISAPPEARING


bird has vanished

i awaken

       clutching a Chagallian rainbow

a
forest's
stillness

so
still
you
hear
your
own
ears

and
wish
o­pera

Chemical spill
Into Animas river
Involuntary terrorism
Affecting millions

The two most important questions to ask of anyone are: Are you hungry? Are you cold?

passionately red
held by its mother the twig
its father the tree

She told me she was a ******.
I believed she was a ******.
But there was no way to tell.
She lived seven thousand miles away, this exotic belle.
We exchanged hundreds of letters.
We exchanged hundreds of photos.
Too late I found it all a lie.
She was married to some other guy.
She had played the card of ***** to my Simple Simon.
Got a free college education and
all of my money with her many a "I love you Robert, honey."
While I sat at home with an eager smile
sure I was gonna pop her cherry one day
in true love's most impassioned style.

Careful, the naked woman in the
bathroom mirror stands behind you
as if she has something in her hands
she finds difficult to show you.
Does she want to turn you to yourself?
But what would you find that you
do not want to know?
Or is she about to suggest again
a couple months separation?
That 3-day no speaking moratorium
did neither of you any good.
No, you don't look at yourself
only at her through the mirror.
Careful, do not ask the mystery
of her distant downcast eyes.
Ah, just as you are about to
snap off the lights
to end this little scene
she holds up the busted TROJAN!

air
not
breathed
nor
folded
hands
feel

Wherefore has this unspeakable evil arrived in our midst?

Another name for the police
                       IS
City Scarecrows

The world is their toy...
And they haven't been brainwashed...

Next time you see one, get in strut!

foliage
windows
barking

TRESPASSES

Agony is knowing
you can't fold glass napkins

ommage                    
                    to
               ­             e.e. cummings
                  itsalwaysapleasure
                   ­                         (?)
                       to...
                      read      (u)
                       ­               U; of all
letting us know
the what of IS

red roses in mud
pink sky dripping falling stars
sparrow shakes a worm

A blazing hearth
Food and guests at table

Two shy lovers standing
Off in a corner

The slanting amber light
Upon his hand at her cheek

The imminent caress you'll abduct
To abate your chill

She strums her graffitied mandolin
shakes her leaden locks about her Spanish head
takes a while to begin
her now crone's song of melodious sighs
lamenting world's false equations and cruelly-veiled lies.
--surreal woodcut of Joan Baez

i abide a lover without arms
in your long shadow reaching
though not for me
nor at the goat of my desire
tethered at my feet by fraying rope

i can hear your errant kisses
proffered in others' open doorways
know the cruel stealth of your escape
pinning my eyes
to your back never turning
in retreat
or your face
gifting a moment's qualm

There is probably
nothing more lachrymose-inducing
than holding hands in a movie theatre.

A very old dictionary
is like a very wise and grizzled
Daddy rendered eternal.

The gentle Indian man disliked flyswatters
He would let an imprisoned fly find an outside exit
Helping it escape on his mantra which
seemed almost holy,  "Dear Fly , Fly!"

She holds up the broken Trojan...

hapless fate or secret dream?

sweat
hope
hands