Born into baffling worlds
With double edged swords
Marching from birth to death
Fighting life to the final breath.

Time stands still. My movie
plays on in stalled flashes
I imagine us back in the day
relive mistakes left in ashes.
Clock hands frozen at 9:23 pm
tock is silent like French leave
I drink to forget and remember
like the God I want to believe.

Misery of corpses living on the street
pushing baskets with their lives inside.
They see truths with their dead eyes
while yearning for a crust of bread
or kind word or smile or proper grave.
They too were children playing among
fields of gold with mothers tucking
them in at night singing lullabies.

I fell in love with a boy
and I gave him my toy
he said it was forever
always be together
Romeo and Juliet
I'll never forget
our stage in light
the final night.
The curtains close
frozen in our pose.

Lust is brutal and raw
   blood in a shark's jaw.
   Absolutely pure desire
   humans' procreation fire.
   We devoured us forever
   always find a new lover.

Mommy works a waitress
I quit my job proud protest.
We walk barefoot to dive bar
a gallon jug to fill with beer.
We watch The Point on TV.
We three just wander free.
Mommy cries real tears
frightened by real fears.

I gave you my heart but
knew you couldn't keep it.
I'm still expecting you to
hold on to Love to a finish
line that doesn't even exist.
I set fire again and never look
back. I smell the burning
flesh. I hear familiar screams.
The burning flesh is mine alone.
The screams are in my head.

I misled you from the start.
I adored your kind heart
and your weaker knees
spread apart to please.
We made our Love baby
no if and or maybe.
25 years we downsize
sleep alone realize
these rooms don't fit
sleep in beds of regret.

I drink alone
in the attic room
of a boarding house
kind of furnished.
Lamp, chair, ashtray,
**** out the window.
I write my Collection
on paper with classical
music on a tinny radio
rejected each **** time.

A mute mimicking a mime
   for a living set me on fire in
   ironies hot furnace and it melts
   my metal heart where it beats
   silent in death's fierce grip
   pried from God's fingers.

She comes and goes. My wife in
   an instant becomes a stranger
   a vacant stare. Holds her purse
   tighter to her fearing my danger
   There's a loose thread in her mind
   she keeps pulling until she holds
   the end and everything is gone but
   me. She sees it slip from my hand.

Each and everyone I knew
I'm blistered in my grave
cold earth warms my blue
lie dead wait to be saved.

The mad dog foams and hates down
  dusty streets in Maycomb and we
  need Atticus to put the bullet in
  its skull so it once again can see.

There were leaves barking
  and dogs fluttering in the wind
  birds were swimming in deep water
  and fish were flying in the clouds.
  Communists defined their reality
  made the rules put us all in gulags
  wore big hats and lifts in their boots
  in mansions they killed us bit by bit.

Here lies my innocence, my religion, my hope
and dreams and trust and my caring anymore.
I bury my despair and belief in another lover
next to my naivety. My bones are picked clean.
They are bleached in an O'Keeffe painting
next to the cattle skulls and scorpions.

We've all gone crazy lately.
I don't wear a tie or cut my hair.
I smoked some hash and lost my
mind a little bit. Save me from
a world I don't recognize anymore.
I dress like a clown and eat drugs
to keep me up and down and level.
Friends are straight or hippies each
seeking their very own Nirvana and
I walk a tightrope above madness.

What stool softener do you use?
Where's the cheapest Fixodent?
I was a ****** in my last life.
Old is a smell you never forget.

Lightning flashed that night
frequent like a strobe light
an old time silent movie
we loved quiet and free.

I crave love.
I hunger for White Castle.
Your hair smells like rain.
Box Chardonnay is coolio.
Keep me in your thoughts.
I'll spy on you in dark from
the tree in your yard and
sign the divorce papers.

It waits around a corner.
She haunts your dreams.
Under your bed fluid beast
bleeds through your seams.
You wake in the sunlight.
Wonder at the blood
God's intervention
takes hold of the flood.

Birkenstock's and halter tops
no bras no rules free love
drink acid from the tea cup
bury God the Father and son
smoke hash eat ****** and
keep your sanity balanced in
space and time we have left
with alarm set to overdose.

They're hills are huge,
defeat us in numbers
and never give up ever
and always remember.
Marx. Lenin. Stalin. Mao.
Senate and congress now
in broken USA anyway
middle class dead today.

Death's lipstick kiss
fire's breath and rain
in blood war's red mist
we pray stop the pain.

Santa Ana winds
angry fire maker
arsonist unbends
pizza oven baker.

Love is slippery full of lies.
I hear promises feel your heat
seduction into my secret garden.
Feast on my sacred ****** treat.

When the bar lights blink off and on
  and last call announced half hour ago
  we calculate the odds as drunken sailors.
  The bar is full of sirens calling from shore.
  These beauties must've appeared recently
  cause I never saw them earlier. We take
  their measure and like dancers we choose
  partners and meet near the door and waltz
  away together into the night. We find our
  way to beds holding on to this life raft
  as desperate lovers often do. We love
  the best two drunk strangers can do.
  We wake in morning light blinking.
  We'll always do this dance again.

In the time it took me to leave you the
universe was born a billion years ago.
Heaven and hell woven by the very threads
of our existence. Complexity only God's
watchmaker could ever begin to envision.
In motion chaos has its way with order and
beauty is scarred and love is lost and you
and I drift apart in such ordinary ways.

I don't know how to tell you
I don't love you anymore.
I never want to hurt you so
I'll just turn love off and
you die of thirst not sudden.
I'm a coward. I hate me too.

At the edge of consequence
razor wire upon the fence
captured in our human cage
heartbeats full of rage
society inside will adjust
to fragile realms of trust
Attica was hearts of stone
Musketeers none left alone.
We swelled in riot as one
overpowered guards and won
a right to be heard on TV
passion play on bent knee.
Some died on both sides
the end was just abides.

Don't go back in the deep end
for a breath or two, be real
don't break in two just bend
hearts need time to heal.

When my demons win I'll live in fear
    in ugly memories just before the dawn.
    In a hall of mirrors truths are blurred
    and all I tell are lies, the devil's pawn.
    We stretch light. We slow time. We fill our
    veins with black tar. We welcome the flight.
    It never lasts but the next taste is the final
    shot that will hit the top. Follow the light.

I'm barely awake from a dream. I
    need to call home. 6 Alcott Lane
    Greenhills. Is my room still there?
    Is the Xavier pennant still nailed to
    the wall, and Christ on the cross?
    That room was my growing up womb.
    
    I found my *** in that room. I puked
    beer in that room. I played with my
    plastic super heroes in that room. I
    was sent to that room when I told my
    parents that Kathy and I were pregnant.
    There's no place like home they say.

You have limited weeks
that are still available
small vacation peeks
your time unassailable.

Leave it clean so new
guests thoroughly enjoy
their pristine view
of this brand new toy.

Dawn Chorus by Thom York

Back up the cul-de-sac
Come on, do your worst
You've quit your job again
And your train of thought
If you could do it all again
A little fairy dust
Thousand tiny birds singing
If you must, you must
Please let me know
When you've had enough
Of the white light
Of the dawn chorus
If you could do it all again
You don't know how much
Pronto pronto, moshi mosh
Come on, chop chop
If you could do it all again
Yeah, without a second thought
I don't like leaving
The door shut
I think I missed something
But I'm not sure what
The middle of the vortex
The wind picked up
Shook up the soot
From the chimney ***
Into spiral patterns
Of you, my love
You take a little piece
Then we break it off
It's a ****** racket
It's the dawn chorus
If you could do it all again
Big deal, so what?
Please let me know
When you've had enough
It's the last chance

they take our orders
  clean our tables after
  fractured smiles always
  with an eye on the clock
  coins left like charity
  count it fingers crossed
  feed the kids or keep
  them warm or buy a pint
  and dime bag to feel a
  little like a big shot.

Since birth
I have been
God ******
by original sin.

No clean slate
**** fresh start.
blackened soul
a Devil's heart.

If I had a heart I'd pray
  If I had a heart I'd stay
  If I had a heart I'd try
  If I had a heart I'd die
  If I had a heart I'd lie
  If I had a heart why?

We knew all along
we weren't happy but
neither had the will to
start over for another
bout another fight
sick of endless rounds
with no KO's just punch
drunk slurs and morning
shame and mute rituals.
Amazing how good we became,
amnesia and kiss off to work.
Who knows where the time goes?
Will either of us have a shred
of life left when the other finally
dies to lie naked with a stranger
just to sleep with your memory?

2 coolios met at Rugby's and we
  crawled into each others heart.
  We died for 3 days and rose again
  into Southern light a fresh start.

Night defeats the sun
    and hangs its pale imposter
    in its own sky
    to wax and wane
    and woo young lovers
    under the boardwalk.
    Monsters hide under beds
    while skeletons fill closets
    and life gets lived always
    hanging in the balance.
    Dawn beats back the dark and
    makes us live another day.

'Til death we vowed
heads fervent bowed
We'd been drunk wild
belly full of child
18 and 19 naive
tonight we believe.

I work the streets at night
dressed for business in cars
I do my best to look pretty
makeup hides my scars

They always pay in cash
never kiss me goodnight
beats cleaning toilets
without the delight.

I want you all to be okay
    just quit dying day to day
    why the empty hourglass?
    count corpses as they pass.

I could've been at his deathbed. Maybe offered
      some solace and comfort and sent him off
      with a proper "God's speed"!
      I Declined an Invitation to My Father's Death.
      I might've played right into his hands and now
      guilt plagues me as I listen to sad songs and
      write sad poetry and hope I remember to call my son
      tomorrow so that maybe he'll be at my death bed.

Welcome to Crazy Town.
Everything upside down.
Church for **** priests
steal altar boys' feasts.
I ****** Christ's bride.
I have nowhere to hide,
broke her sacred heart.
Crazy Town comes apart.

Reuse old souls astride of graves.
Life begets death begets life without fail.
I found an available womb: Donovan.
William and Jean. 23 July 1948. Sail.

March 23, 1949. William John Donovan, jr.
Born against my will! Welcome to home.
Who are you people? I need familiar!
I hope to some God I won't die all alone.

Samuel Beckett -
“They give birth astride of a grave, the light
gleams an instant, then it's night once more.”

I promised something last night.
  I was slightly askew. What was it?
  Remind me again. I was in my cups.
  Take ballroom dance lessons? Groupon?
  What the **** is that? I hate dancing.
  I have two left feet and an old man's
  aversion to new tricks. Spare me.
  Try me again tonight at happy hour.

Saturday night barn dance
banjos and fiddles romance
a forbidden hayloft chance
we birthed us in a trance.

Cotton obsessed, ***** oppressed,
    Southern charm and whipping the help
    mint juleps in the oak tree's shade as
    Delta planters tamed this flooded jungle
    with a thousand slaves bought in kennels
    filled with a savage fear of lost orphans
    from lands beyond reach of our dreams.

    A noble savage we tried to free in Civil War.
    Free to live in squalor with **** schools and
    **** jobs and **** projects to call home.
    Don't fear these truths. Don't stare blind.
    Carry this prayer to your altars and pulpits
    and shout from pews demanding justice.
    Sing of misfortune and tomorrow's hope.

The sky's so clear
  in the atmosphere
  stars perch on a tree
  caged birds set free
  my mind takes flight
  into the cold night
  an old lover beckons
  naked in the street
  I'll chase her heat
  I saw her in a window
  her curly hair in a bow
  when I just can't feel
  what's dream or real
  my dogs walk me home.
  I still dream alone.