The first born of the dead
  an arrogant poet called him
  loan me a bit of eternity
  put a good word in with God

  You could have built a table
  but you weaved a ****** fable
  40 lashes and nailed to a cross
  Your mother wept for her loss.
  3 days wrapped in a burial cave
  rise with eternity's souls to save.

Lovers are ******* hurricanes.
Shouting out God's nasty names
during the fevered ****** games
after the storm all that remains
nothing's lost but never the same
nothing ventured nothing gained.

Crossing Texas I hear
a voice on my AM radio
sounded like gramps.
A comfort to hear truth
about DC's gaslighting.
He faded in the thunder.
I turn the dial all day
on my way to wonder.
We need his voice
guide us to rejoice.

Do you make wine from water?
Can you save me from fires of hell?
Were you born poor in Appalachia?
Do you touch beggars and heal sick?

Was your father a carpenter named Joe?
Was your mother really a ******?
Are you a time traveler without a watch?
Did you die ****** nailed on that cross?

If I said it once
I said it a thousand times.
It comes and goes and comes
echoes persistent rhymes
clock ticks of my nightmares
heartbeats of my dreams
infinite souls in harmony
keeping time with screams.

All my friends are gone.
Feelings are lost in ashes.
I am alone like in a womb.
Dark is come and go flashes.

I yearn but still say **** it all
reach out in darkness for touch
fingers have disappeared
death is nothing much.

Dying at your own hand left
  broken hearts behind. Maybe
  that was your intent? It might
  have been a desperate resignation
  from the pains all our lives inflict.
  Maybe one more day we'd have met.

Church bells are mute this time.
Carols are quiet in a silent night.
Tree lights are dark and children
laugh without mirth. It's a funeral.
Christ was aborted from a womb in
a Hollywood motel on 5th and Main.
Return all the toys and ***** candles
and pour the eggnog down the drain.
Elves work in sweatshops in China.
Burn Santa in effigy slaughter his rides
12 fillets and beers on the house
and slippers of reindeer hides.

I came in a disguise.
Much to my surprise
I saw me in your eyes.
Reborn in the sunrise.
We weathered seasons
for different reasons.
Ignored the treason's
greater are the sums.

A hotbed of deception
  A dollar each confession
  tenfold more to forgive
  trade your lust to live.
  Kneel take your penance
  in your mouth this once.
  Don't forget again to come
  penance take it up the ***.

I'm a blind man without a sun.
We live in different mirrors.
You have light for everyone.
I live life that never appears.

Polio or stroke or death?
Macabre Picasso thought?
Pocket watch ticks breath
was I only sold and bought?

Healing takes time. It's a process, stages.
   My deepest condolences to your family.
   You're too young! You're too old!
   I was your age once. I understand.
   It always turns out okay in the end.
   It was meant to be. Make the best of it.
   He was no good for you from the start.
   I always knew you just settled with him.
   You're divorcing? You have two children!
   You met someone? Your *****'s not welcome!

The whole **** thing was
splendid chaos. Nothing
went as planned.
Marriage was a farce and
kids chess pieces for lawyers.
We survived until we didn't.

Give me our broke vets
under bridges in tents.
I give them all money
for a cheap pint of honey.
Thanks for your service.
July 4th makes you nervous
1812 Overture torn apart
from bottom of your heart.

I reached inside my heart
and found the broken part.
It was not believing in love
only hold lust's black dove.

Life

birth and death
first and last breath
time's chaos between
a pauper or a queen
all is only a whisper
a one eyed cat's purr
broke 5 year old leg
my ***** and her egg
start it one more time
is it reason or rhyme?
repentance or a crime?
wretched or sublime?

Stephen Dunn is dead at 82.
He captured life on the page
in lines I felt when I was 42
heart's know nothing of age.

Valentine in his shirt pocket
suffered from Love's black kiss
used to be its favorite neglect.
It's always been a hit or miss.

I eat live toads in the daytime
put it in the bank and spend it
in the night with drunken poems
I write listening to magic songs
that put me in frames of mind to
put my puzzles together again.

You're my mirror. I see my true self.
Thank God you have a sense of humor
and the kindest heart of anyone I know.
You're a bit askew. People hate perfect.
Sins are forgiven for shots and laughs.

How to move from here to there?
With our entire life in tiny boxes.
Million rocks to move somewhere
Sisyphus calls the Uhaul  bosses.

I'll let my bladder
leak and explode,
ignore the sirens'
song from a road.

Sing your song from inside
   your drug coma like a dead
   Billie Holiday from a grave
   sing like Sirens from bed.

I drink Absinthe all alone.
I take my pills turn to stone.
I fade into the womb of night
I'm born once more into light.

I've been here before. I know
  the drill, the prayers, the coffee
  and stale cookies we learn to love.
  Some are court ordered going through
  the motions. Some are earnest with
  hope in their eyes. We're all addicts.
  We want to live in a different place
  where we change it to suit our needs.
  Forget the past. Let it grieve itself.
  We must move beyond *******.

Curtain parts on birth scene
****** Mary's birth scream
Christ child inside friction
of time and crucifixion.
I love all of humankind
Love is so hard to find.

Ides of March
     March 15, 2024

Turning point in our decline
Soros' Obama's Biden's crime
on full display all in place.
Never shame, never disgrace.
Proud comrades fill the gulags
that is after all just prologues.

I never believed in anything
as much as I believed in us.
I'll never forget dog breath.
You taught me how to trust.
You taught me patience and
humility and to be kind when
it wasn't deserved but atone.
I need you more than ever to
show me the way back home.

Sent ahead to a college bar
scouting for a coven of *****
virgins seeking violation at
closing leave back seat ******.

Trophies for all participants
bragging rights in next class
wearing bloodstained underpants
wrote "Virginity in the Trash".

There's too many broke pieces
need to be fixed before we move.
Each one reminds me of time and
place too sacred like a graveyard
to be disturbed. Sell it as it is.
Let buzzards buy and discard.

Yellow Sticky Notes
No Forgetting

  Ultrasound to see alien in J's womb.
  Pick up Bailey at 3 from daycare.
  Take Bailey to shrink for anxiety.
  Walk Bailey down her wedding aisle.
  Pick up Bailey's son from daycare.
  Drop off the **** to the cleaners.
  Take your blood pressure meds.
  Mom and Dad 50th anniversary Dec. 12.
  Pick K and S up at the orphanage for w/e.
  Dinner at Robin and James Saturday.
  Mike and Kim at the Keg Tuesday at 5.
  Pack L and me lunch for tomorrow.
  Dori for drinks at pub friday.
  Tennis w/ Fuji sunday 10.
  Katie and Sean this w/e in Columbus.
  Xcountry skiing lesson w/ Dori.
  Lunch w/ Marc at Crossroads food court.
  Mojave desert sandstorm with L.
  T and I wed at JP at noon Wednesday.

Time warps are real,
God cheats, will steal
minutes become hours
night's stolen stars.
We live in sideshows
freaks nobody knows
the rules to follow.
It all seems shallow.
It's right or wrong.
It's weak or strong.

Lovers come and go.
Life's a relentless
ticking time bomb
our horrible mess
breaks of pleasure
we create and ****
under guilty pressure
with surgeon's skill.

I lost a lover to another
  blind eye didn't see truth
  playing out before me now.
  My cat lost an eye to cancer
 She comes to me at night
meowing our indignity.

Tin cans off the Marriage
carriage to our honeymoon
too drunk to **** but one
for the road and drive to
Mars and a tree house
with a full moon and years
gone by and kids and
ulcers and shrinks and
finally divorce.
We die together.

How can we possibly be original?
Suicidal poets have been done to death.
Ogden Nash made us chuckle with wordplay.
Robert Frost took us through New England.
e.e. cummings lost the shift key on his Royal.
Dylan Thomas wrote language of gods in
a tiny boathouse in Wales in his cups.
Ezra Pound hungered for his own kind.
Allen Ginsberg broke the rules when he
mentioned unmentionables. *****
weren't roosters anymore.
Do we stand a chance in this century?
Anybody?
Shock. Astound. Hunger. Justice.
Anarchy. We all know heartbreak.
We know injustice. We use bad words
all over the place. We want to be loved.
Our whole class raises arms, pick me!
Let my voice be heard. Please.

I wrap my arms around my tears
raining upon my misery. I'm in no
position to make demands. I beg for
you to unfold me upon myself until
they see the real me as you did. You
knew me with Virginity before you
took it from me and left me to bleed
from the wound that never goes away.
It never shows mercy. It cheapens me.
It leaves the smell of blood perfume.

Everyone I've known
   fades into a lie.
   We're all children
   'til the day we die.
   Let's dance close
   let's be wicked.
   Take a chance
   be a bit addicted
   reduced to threads
   inside our heads
   above our beds
   torn to shreds.

Circus 1944
                  body# 1565

  I was 9. The circus was coming that summer.
  It promised to bring life to the cornfields.
  4th of July. Circus matinee and evening
  fireworks!Daddy had it all planned out.
  Mama smelled pretty. Papa looked fancy.
  I wore my favorite white church dress.

  We were in the biggest tent I ever saw
  with people everywhere. Louder than
  anything I ever heard. I never felt like
  this. So much energy in so much space
  and my skin was electric, my eyes wide
  with the wonder of it all. Magical.

  It really was the Greatest Show on Earth!
  Girls swinging on trapeze and men balanced
  100 feet above us on a wire. Elephants huge
  powerful beasts tame as puppies on the farm.
  Clowns silly and mute and lovely made us laugh.
  It was heaven. We were suspended in a moment.

  I smelled smoke. I saw smoke and fire and panic.
  8000 people wanted out now. I wanted to see the
  fireworks in the dark. So many died. Animals died.
  Mama and Daddy died. They smelled like cooked meat.
  I died from smoke. I was found perfect in my dress.
  I'm unknown. I'm called body #1565. I love the circus.

We live and we change,
some easy some strange.
I can't rhyme it tonight
maybe tomorrow's light?
Maybe there's no rhyme
or reason the last time.

I drank my weight in wine.
I tripped the light fantastic.
We fell in love on the blue line
and went home and pretend ******.
I dream of you crying with joy as
I barely catch my breath. You!

Angels bleeding in the night
after their morning's flight
cry angel tears as we fight
addiction's horrible delight.

My drunkard hand shook so much
I chipped the fine china teacup and
spilled the ******* tea on My Despair.
I pulled the poem from my pocket
and gave it to my host as a gift.
He sold it to The New Yorker.

Elder aunt adored
lazy Summer bored
reading Hardy Boys
stroke mystery toys.
Sleep in tent on her lawn
chickens wake at dawn.
Spoils us with ice cream
old man's boyhood dream.

A carny biography
of ******* photography
married Aunt Glenny
his shiny lucky penny
beauty thin as a rail
hard as a track nail.

I move my rook to Queen
a bold move never seen
in the 60's summer of love.
Pieces go down and go above.
Waifs put in an orphanage
Queen turns an ugly page,
Catholic guilt on the stage
I burn my religion in rage.

Everyone I've known
   fades into a lie.
   We're all children
   'til the day we die.
   Let's dance close
   let's be wicked.
   Take a chance
   be a bit addicted
   reduced to threads
   inside our heads
   above our beds
   torn to shreds

I would never suicide.
My children need me.
I have nothing to hide.
Neglect we never see.
An ounce of ****** is a
pound of prevention.
Divorce was surrender
never my true intention.

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 them all.

******'s sin is mine alone.
  She never understood her power.
  Bubble gum and puffy ****.
  I desired her perfect flower.

  Her mother died to save her
  but she saved me instead.
  I brought her to my bed for comfort,
  the night she finally bled.

  ****** floats wild on the wind
  her cheap perfume my seduction.
  She died birthing our sin and
  baptizing my *******.