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 sit on the curb at the liquor store
until 9 am when it finally serves,
wait for desperate beauty queen.
I talk smooth settle her nerves.
We share a bottle and queen bed
*** was just a lost cause at best.
I sit on the curb at the liquor store
until 9 am when it finally serves.

We had a perfect life
  in our snow globe. Every
  imperfection was erased
  how we chose our lives
  snow blinded us encased
  inside Currier and Ives.

I live inside a mirror today
where everything's reflection.
Kiss my shadow's shadow.
Break my heart. It shimmers
in  puddles wrinkled in wind.
You only break a looking glass
and suffer 7 years bad luck.
I curse you with all my love.

I live inside a mirror today
where everything's reflection.
Kiss my shadow's shadow.
Break my heart. It shimmers
in  puddles wrinkled in wind.
You only break a looking glass
and suffer 7 years bad luck.
I curse you with all my love.

I watch the moon move along the sky.
  Sleep eludes me but my faults resonate
  like echoes of thunder at three am. Your
  breathing keeps me sane. Tick tock love.
  Inevitable as sunrise a pill helps me to
  be me. I'm on the cusp of myself again.

You forgot your lines or missed your mark
    or maybe gave me that look you have that
    infuriates me. It drags my angry little boy
    from so long ago into the present moment.

    I sit locked outside the house, no one home,
    crying at noon, mom off giving birth again,
    another piece of her pie smaller for us all.
    Dad comes home and drives me back to school.

    Quiet on the set, and Take 2: We are perfect.
    My little boy still pouting in back of my mind.
    He's patient. He'll wait until the after party
    when the ***** oils the skids for his finale.

Honeysuckle makes me think of you.
The moon still hangs in the sky.
Indestructible. Frail in the ICU a
heart attack and now you wait to die.
5 daughters put honeysuckle by the bed.
3 sons neglected to keep in touch.
Girls adored as diamonds galore,
boys are just bags of trash as such.

I bring us back to life.
We bonded at the Air Force
Museum. Your crazy shades
a truly fashionable divorce.
Stopped at Perkins for lunch.
I miss you so **** much.
I'll join you much too soon
on the dark side of the moon.

I left without saying 'bye
or explaining to you why.
Too young to understand
lust's unbridled demand.
The bill one distant day
will threaten to be paid.
No currency can satisfy
the void I left to die.

He shouted in a whisper
my name in his phlegm.
I miss you at the end
can we just start again?

Pairing aces and jacks
on dance card bingo
whistle past grave yards
fingers crossed lingo.
Even or odd on cards?
Is the stick yes or no?

We were children playing house.
    Always on our knees for religion
    praying to keep the monsters away.
    We grew up and married one and only.
    We are older children playing house.
    We have kids. We just say no to religion.
    We drink, smoke and take pills to dance
    with monsters once we soiled our souls.

Lonely on TDY in Pascagoula, MS.
  Went to a light show dance club and
  got loose with beers and thumping DJ
  music. On the sidelines the local boys
  watch the ornaments dancing, enticing,
  calling from shore promising love.
  I saw the one. She was my Aphrodite.
  She left with a lover. I slept alone.

The bullets in the water fly
like a flock in autumn's sky.
Blood paints the sea burnt red.
My lovers always wash up dead
on the white sand beach instead
of satisfied next to me in our bed.

Happy accident
stole my breath
homework not
done, but death
gave me an A+
my casket desk
a silent pulse
wicked wreck.

This old arthritic man
pain my constant friend
will jump from fry pan
into my youth's fiery end.

Love between us is friendship.
   Lust between us is forest fire
   fierce chewing us to ash now
   blowing in wind. We are desire.
   Nowhere left for us to run we
   wonder what pleasures require.

I live in the dark
no sun no park
I feel my way
sun warm today
white cane taps
a stranger claps
I fall in love
his heart above
his light shines
in my eyes blind.

I hear your warning
pumping in my veins
beating on tin roofs
in pounding rains
never give up on me
don't lose our spark
but it burned away
in our casket. Dark.

Just square pegs round holes.
  Unable to fit in approved roles
  looking for love in gay bars
  neon lights exploding stars
  I saw you in the magazine
  you take me in a limousine
  to decadence I've never seen.
  you make me a beauty queen.

I live on the dark side
in shadows and secrets
touch me there and hide
meet again no regrets.

I'm a God billionaire.
I own hearts and souls
pay me for a lung of air,
and comfort in those holes.

Dark stage
awaits a play
to entertain
show us rage
proper display
poetry on a page
story be told
line by line
my heart is old
beating in time
looking for you
a perfect rhyme.

Dark women with coal black eyes,
   that's where all the passion lies.
   Fire and ice, extremes burn cool
   enticing poets into their pool.
  
   We already know broken trust
   now we know burned out lust.
   Hold me like a plastic doll
   poke me while I break my fall.

She wears red **** Me heels.
   your hands that woman feels,
   always swaying to her siren song.
   Go home at dawn where you belong
   with a sweet Lover of your heart.
   hold her close and never part.

She wears red **** Me heels.
   Dance, your hands love that woman,
   always swaying to her siren song.
   Go home at dawn and climb in bed
   with the owner of your heart and
   hold her flesh and blood to yours.

I don't really know them. Really.
Things are always great but we
all know that's never true. Never.
Life is chapters of laughter and tears
and wine and roses and Valentines Days
with Ben and Jerry and Heartbreak Hits.
Hated fix ups that never take off.
I give her away to one who did.

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

D.C. Addicted ******

Civilization crumbles with laws
made of DC lies from the jaws
of mindless government ******
barter dignity at Dollar Stores
buy the fish on Motel 6 floors
commies finally won the wars.

They haunt dreams and Oh!
how we cry! Aunt Blanche
drinks wine and smokes her
cigarettes and calls me Kid.
She loves me, doesn't judge me,
knows my horrible love better
than I ever could. It's in flak
that rips an airman from the
sky in wars that leave us to
bail out from burning love.

Dead and alive I see
needle marks my arms
how can this even be?
I always want charms
needles point's womb
I die and live again
like Christ in a tomb
one more shot of sin.

For the dead the wars are done.
The dead's pets will not atone.
Chemo's foul stench won't become
roll dice to see who gets a bone.

Moments still eat seconds that
eat from minutes that feed from
hours while we toil at jobs that
steal from ticking life's hourglass
sand in tiny pieces never quit
until we are just dead clocks.

My body on the stainless steel.
They drain my blood out while
pumping life back into in me.
I'm dressed in the latest style.
They make me up like a *****.
I finally look best to please.
Friends never see the corpse.
They only see their memories.

Haul me back from time's
lost junkyard of broke hearts
a band comprised of mimes
quiet for whispered starts.
once upon a time is dead
replaced with overtime
no more need for a bed
meeting the deadline.

Why do we obsess on your death?
Wear mother's furs and die in a car
painless, breathing her dead breath
as your own in the closed garage.
You painted your suffering in such
splendid colors and signed it AS.

Wrapped in flagged boxes
happy remains from foxes.
War's a dead zero sum game
both sides always the same.

Chess pieces off the board.
Playing in the park in shade
of oaks dropping Fall's leaves.
They lie stiff under sheets in
foreign fields loved ones won't
recognize in tears and sobs and
prayers of despair to a deaf God.
Death ends the games tonight.

Not chemo tired
not marathon tired
not **** *** tired
not old man tired
I want for nothing
finally dead tired.

I prayed since I learned to kneel.
I begged You to keep me pure.
I asked you to give us food and
coal to warm our winters but You
mustn't have heard me. My goldfish
froze to death in their bowl and my
tears froze when I wept for them.
I found a warm girl and fell in love
and we sleep close alive and forgive
Your ignoring our needs as we ****.

If I could play guitar
I'd write a song
instead of poetry
poems are deaf lyrics
heard only by poets
and you and me.

I wish you were alive
so I could apologize
for disappointing you.
You took my kids fishing
when I was drunk wishing
for miracles in Boston
the kids in an orphanage.
****** kept insanity at bay.
I never knew how to just say,
"Thank You. I love you, Dad."
In an honest man to man way.
Eye to eye we just up and die.

You broke me in pieces
when you abandoned me
sent to an orphanage
you set yourself free
hopping freight trains
postcards of small love
from places in a granite
heart push comes to shove.
You keep guilt ***** quiet
sleeping in bar lover's beds
dreaming of your life's despair
wake sober reach for the meds.

You broke me in pieces
when you abandoned me
sent to an orphanage
you set yourself free
hopping freight trains
postcards of small love
from places in a granite
heart push comes to shove.
You keep guilt ***** quiet
sleeping in bar lover's beds
dreaming of your life's despair
wake hands shake take meds.

My Dearest Dementia,
  I forgot how I met ya'
  you sanitized my life
  with your septic knife
  on the tip of my tongue
  from when I was young.
  I dream of broken fists
  lots of forbidden trysts
  locked bedroom doors
  many desperate ******
  abandoned all my wives
  destroyed many lives.
  I wake my memory bled
  kind old man almost dead.

keys strike my story
molested with my truth
on the ****** paper
still looking for proof
why did we fall in love?
was it all mirage of lust
or hating my cold father
betraying my sacred trust?

Jesus Christ promise me
  there's hope for us still
  that you'll drop from the
  sky and set things right
  keep the communists away
  and stop the lies and let
  me drink my wine in peace
  and write madness in poems
  while You do heavy lifting
  and we won't be so reckless.

scorched walls
    airless halls
    belching flame
    delivers pain
    what was a room
    is now a tomb

Just a note to say I'm sorry.
Please let it go don't worry.
Everything will end up well.
Kiss Kiss from eternal hell.

You are finally facing
demons I left behind.
I am now facing yours
I've always been blind.
Thick as a ******* brick
just following my *****.