Drunk on a shaking plane
escaping myself again.
Everyone wants some.
I bled out and it's all gone.
I love all of you.
I hate all of me too.

We share a sense of humor.
  I'd trust you with my life.
  You danced a ballet in the
  bar introduced me to my wife
  you saved me from Eric's ego
  my plumage was always *****
  life ebbs and flows still waters
  run deep. You have my respect!

I'll tell you things
I never tell 'cept
stranger in a bar
slam my fist into
fierce night for
stranger in a bar
Forget the priest
forget confession
I'll tell my sins
to a stranger in a bar
nothing left but my
forgiveness and a
dime a dance and
sleeping in the arms
of a stranger in a bar.

My draft card 1A they call
all lined up like dominoes
sent to Vietnam to crawl
invisible in war's throes.
My love writes less and less.
The jungle is wet green hell.
Dear, John note more distress.
I will die here just as well.
We die one by one 'til gone
war's body count completed
for the week finally done.
Insane it's always repeated.

I'm from the future
   I'm from the past
   time is relative
   slow and fast
   I love my life but
   I'll be leaving soon
   chasing desires to the
   dark side of the moon.

I walked the earth
looking for our love
hiding in some nook
or cranny a false alarm
broke heart and charm
you bring me to my knees
I pray and pleasure
what it takes to please.

So many questions
for my departed loved ones.
Always a day late
and regret's sorry fate.

The wind blew up her dress.
  Those lips sang to me from
  shore like sirens of Ulysses.
  I was tangled in the sight
  caught in a net of memory.
  I was trapped in her riptide.

grow your hair
no underwear
everyone dopes
everyone hopes
wear Birkenstock's
ignore the clocks
be brave don't doubt
turn on, drop out
on Alcott Lane
myself to blame
paint a full moon
in the living room
nothing as it seems
in our acid screams

My old blue veins
are a map to a lover
bleeding past stains
still left to discover.
Tomorrow never comes.
I am yesterday's news.
We were the only ones.
I sing yesterday's blues.
I drink the bitter wine
I cry such bitter tears
for lost chances in time,
but laughed for years!

The musicians were all the
unsung heroes of those hit
records back in the day.
Tommy Tedesco,  Carol Kaye,
Glen Campbell, Dusty Rain,
Earl Clapard and Cindy Paine.
The Wrecking Crew
we never knew.

See Hear Speak nothing.
Let me ****** and drink
and watch comedy videos
and take Ambien to sleep
and Xanax to live a life
and die on time forgotten.
Leave the bleached bones
of freedom in our graves.

water drips. metal clangs.
The world swirls in floaters
in the edges of my eyes almost
visible like God but not quite.
I blink and write my soul down
word for word and try to be real.
All I ever am is almost a disease.
I love for moments but never more.

I hated you for being so different.
   Wealth and power obligations
   the confines of civilizations.
   It hit some raw nerve inside
   from which I could never hide
   It was truth. It was forbidden.
   Sadly, in the end, it was hidden.
Nothing left but forgiveness anymore.

I read the news
flawed reviews
singing the blues
missed all the cues.
Join me in my bed
where we all bled
alive then dead
suicide instead.

I have scars of life
mostly self inflicted
bad judgement of youth
just accidental addicted
to a crack ******* pipe
and Satan's debauchery
Eden's fruit now ripe
Eve offers her cherry.

Countless atoms arranged
just so to make this a me.
I'm here and now to write.
I speak for this entity.
I'm almost ready to dance,
finally take that chance,
sing that song of songs,
find that lost romance.

If only I'd known from the beginning
   things would take an ugly turn.
   While my well intentioned gift of love
   played out too soon and burned.
   You could have worked out nicely since
   my mother would never approve.
   I destroyed all your pictures, got new
   bedding. All traces I will remove.
   Tomorrow I'll find your replacement
   and try once again to make it last
   forever after. I keep trying to make
   a Madonna from ash. Same old past.

You say Tick
I say Tock
we live on opposite
sides of the clock
you're even
I'm odd
You're Satan
I'm God
You're vilified
I'm deified
We're spent time
to just die
without a why.

She warned me you'd be fat.
  You're beautiful but grotesque.
  I desire and recoil from you.
  Each desert you devour and
  next size up made me flaccid.
  I think of the night we met
  and drink an ocean of wine
  to hide my shallow regret.

Stab me with your pen
in my poet heart amen
hate my poems of truth
so **** real and uncouth
bury me among my poems
sacred graves truth owns.

I took a rowboat out into God's anger
at midnight in His angry swollen sea.
I never cared about frailty or danger
I just had to row toward my fantasy.
Swept up in some kind of allegory
bordering upon my lonely purgatory
I might live. I might finally die
in my awful rowing another try.

Lust is demanding
delivers pleasure.
Love is thoughtful
delivers treasure.
each equal measure

I've known you for years. Grandad introduced us.
    You always made the room glow and laughter flow.
    You calmed me when I betrayed those I promised
    to never betray. You made me smarter than I was
    and clever when I was dull and modest when clever.
    There's always a madness in the air when you grace
    us with your presence. Thing is you make me ugly.
    I dance on tables with lamp shades on my head and
    drop my pants and invite kisses and go naked at noon.
    I plan your funeral. I bury you in a potter's field.
    I've tried burying you before. Like Christ you rise.
    I put a stake in your heart and salt on your grave.
    You refuse to be banished from the lives we live.
    Maybe you'll stay buried beside me in my grave.

My time is ticking on
night and day light
Hold me tight at night
so I won't slip into death.
Breathe quiet and submit
to life's loud demands.
This is where it stands.
Time will just silence it.

Poetry was my religion.
Each poem touched me
like quilted squares to
blanket me set me free.
The world's gone sallow
sun doesn't cast shadows
the moon lost its hold
on the ocean tides
orbits don't follow
gravity's rules now.
My world is gone
I'll die a mad poet.

No one wants your love
a bitter pill of poison
sounds of a crying dove
with no rhyme or reason
tears falling from above.

I remember your taste
and the bed we shared
drunk lovers pretending
lust is love we're spared.
One night of debauchery
the tips of lover's spears.
Enjoy whatever's offered
high noon it disappears.

I drove the 57 Chevy
family station wagon
to my first real date
to the posh East side
too fast don't be late.
Met mom and dad
she liked my cologne
hasty exit to be alone
so we could be bad
bench seats our bed
puzzle bra distressed
I calmed as I was fed
inches in secret garden
we screamed as we bled.

Just an afterthought
I ruined their lives
lost in haze of wine
club of my ex wives.

you touch your sacred heart
and bless us with your hand
I thought you'd be darker
coming from the desert sand
I trust you on my dashboard
to keep me safe from harm
through thick and thin you
are my jesuz plastic charm.

I broke my own heart.
I always fell so short.
The girls loved my me.
I never let it all be.
Silence in dark forever's
betrayed by worthy lovers.

Don't blame a god
or praise a god
invented by me
and a few drunks
on bar stools on
sand in Jamaica.

We are defined by many things in our lives.
  You're a good son. A great older brother.
  An eagle scout and crazy *** metal guitarist.
  A firebug and science nerd and my friend.

  I know cancer is devastating and destroys.
  Loved ones are targets for despair's anger.
  You can't control your ending. Life or death.
  Your victory is remaining you. Michael.

My lover's letters yellow
from decades gone by.
I read them and stain
sacred words with tears.
Tonight I sleep alone
with your ghost near me.

I remember when I was young
and burned too soon too bright
used up all my light and blinded
everything that was in my sight
universes were consumed in fire
victims of youth's blind trust
of the fiercest flames of desire
all that was left was star dust.

You're not there to
   meet me anymore,
   just a shadow left to
   greet me like before.
   I heard the news.
   I know you died.
   I tried to conjure
   tears I couldn't cry.

Night defeats the sun
    and hangs its pale imposter
    in its own sky
    to wax and wane
    and woo young lovers
    under the boardwalk.
  
    Lust ebbs and flows.
    Our tide was high.
    Our moon enormous
    balanced on the horizon.
    Reach out and touch it and
    be reborn with me tonight.

I fight monsters alone
in deep water and stone
with my angry sword
heads my reward.

Make a collection and submit
it for consideration
forget the apprehension
each poem bleeds
of it's own beating heart
we all have carnal needs.

As angels go Dorothy was my favorite!
She saw within our hearts. She knew the
possibilities. She helped us believe in us.
She laughed the hardest, she loved us all,
she guided this lost soul into a place of peace.
We miss you dearly can't see clearly through tears.
Thoughts from the scarecrow, tin man and cowardly lion!
We'll find you at the end of the yellow brick road.

We're always best in our autumn watercolor
  picking apples in golds and reds with the
  weaker light a muted burnt sienna. The
  children are just suggested brush strokes,
  shadows yet real playing in the hay loft.
  We watch in awe with us and everything.
  We're always perfect in the right light.
  If only we could freeze time and love
keep it in a shadow box
safe forever stop the clocks.

I'm 70 and blush like a 10 year old
     crushing on the girl with snake hair.
     She's electric and boombox loud laughs
     and shakes me from my very foundation.

     I have my life packed into boxes ready
     to sell for pennies at the yard sale.
     I can't dance. Rhythm was never my thing.
     I don't want to fall in love with you.

     This valentine inside my chest betrays me.
     I'm always ready to fall in love with trouble.
     The ashes smoldered and now come alive and
     We'll burn with lust in uncertain tomorrows.

I lost you in my chaos
an indifferent attitude
I've felt the sacred loss
inside the tiny solitude
I look for you everyday
in the out of way places
we always seemed to stay
searching all the  faces.

There was a cat if nothing else.
Don't be defined by suffering.
You were so much more than that.
I missed you in the neighborhood
you tore from your life in shame
I'll never understand. Stand tall!

Love is nothing but a memoir
broke hearts are just keepsakes
remember to fall in love no more
'til you find your perfect soulmates

Christ, I'm underneath your avalanche.
  I need one of your miracles right now.
  Forget bible verses and pretty nurses
  I need the saving of your sacred cow.
  I'm froze in place like Mount Vesuvius
  captured in our small pieces of living
  as I suffocate I think of you and me
  and wonder at the miracle of forgiving.

Wearing a top hat and a straight
  jacket with a monocle and goatee.
  He owns everything like God does.
  Nobody will ever tell him different.
  He'll silence you and disappear you.
  He'll buy your friends and family.
  He'll define what's real and false.
  He's the man who bought the world.
  Our lives are in his cattle cars on
  our way to his indifferent endings.

Every color of the rainbow
  shadow and nuance and love
  eyes face hair and lips
  your eyes thalo green
  mixed with bits of sun
  face ochre mixed with coffee
  hair midnight black mixed with
  beach breeze and *** perfume
  lips rust lust in a hayloft
  blush leaves a hint of crimson.

Death is a rebirth back
into infinity's dark mystic
the vast door opens a crack
into time's lonely final tick.