Tear your heart
with broken strings
pull it kindly apart
as the Angel sings
knit it together
as winter is dying
her grandmother
never stops trying.

All my poems are postscripts
of The World's Greatest Poets
now dust and teeth in crypts.

Shakespeare still takes the cake
for all the scratches that we make
pretending exposed as a fake.

Nothing is new under the sun.
Every line's already been done.
Maybe world's end will rerun.

we are makers
we are breakers
we are gods
we are undertakers
we are eggs and fakers
we lie at the wedding

I'm waiting for my heart to
fall in love with you again
sitting in your backseat
trying to pick your locks to sin
I have a bag of seeds to sow
upon your fertile afterglow.

Visit my hall of horrors.
Every misstep framed in colors
plays endless loops feed the poor.
Remember visit the museum store.
Lock of hair. Stillborn brother.
Brokenhearted suicide mother.
Drunk and smoker's half life
spent my love in Queen's beehive.

Visit my hall of horrors.
Every misstep framed in colors
plays endless loops feed the poor.
Remember visit the museum store.
Lock of hair. Stillborn brother.
Brokenhearted suicide mother.
Drunk and smoker's half life
spent my love in Queen's beehive.

An afternoon tea
 lust's debauchery
set the hens free
 no **** let us be.

Climb down off your cross
  forget crucifixion's dying
  wow the gathered crowd by
  feeding them and free wine.
  Have the band play the hits.
  Do your comic act. Applause.
  Sign autographs no charge.
  Beg money for your cause.

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.

You staged my imminent demise
in your dreams behind your eyes
I was just an afterthought
a cheap trinket that you bought

I left her again.
I packed my clothes
in a garbage bag again.
I was in my cups again.
I'll crawl back tomorrow
asking forgiveness again.

I refuse to succumb to
surrender to old age.
I have no choice but
to turn the final page
read my lines on stage,
die against the rage.

Years build the decades,
expose our ugly living.
Mirrors image just fades
I'm godless no forgiving.

I'm ageless as the ruins of Rome.
I live in the white cliffs of Dover.
I'm the Pyramids and Great Wall.
I'm the tiny voices in your head
that never leave you alone and
chant your failures out loud in
bed with lovers never satisfied.
I'm Death's brutal echo forever.

I'm ageless as the ruins of Rome.
I live in the white cliffs of Dover.
I'm the Pyramids and Great Wall.
I'm the tiny voices in your head
that never leave you alone and
chant your failures out loud in
bed with lovers never satisfied.
I'm Death's brutal echo forever.

Let us make famous this field
   our armies' blood will make red
   victor makes vanquished yield
   both sides sort out their dead.

Now I love low light and shadows.
     Night is my flattering friend who
     understands the ugliness of aging.
     My skin turns purple as my veins
     capture hold on my thinning skin.
     Onion skin. Thin translucent, like
     strong wind could rip it off bones.
     I was a fetching beauty not too long
     ago. Full sun on the beach I had
     men staring agog. I strutted and
     knew they didn't have a chance. I
     decided who would plant their flag.

I am kind.
  I am cruel.
  I am loved
  and a fool.
  I am guilty.
  I am free.
  You'll find me
  in Agony.

Machines are whirring
drunken eye's blurring
future in ashes burning
the world keeps turning.

CIA Operation do or die
holograms make you ***
so real pants are never dry
humans are forever dumb.

Aids 1980

  We worked night shift
  and shared a bus home.
  Rod lived in Cambridge.
  He told me he was sick
  betrayed by his immune
  system. They'll cure you.
  I never saw him again. Shifts
  changed and we all moved on.
  He went to hospice care and
  rattled when he breathed
  and used a cane until he was
  bedridden and died quiet.
  His obit in the Boston Globe
  spoke of his kindness to all.

Coworkers on a bus after night shift
Waltham to Boston. He said he was sick
in a serious way. Doctors baffled and
he feeling worse by the day. I told him
not to worry because he'd be better soon.
They always figure it out. He died. AIDS.
Several years later at an AIDS hospice
I heard the rattled breath at deaths door.
Barely able to hold his cane he stood then
struggled mighty to make it to his grave.

Your breath rattles in a fragile chest
the heart feebly clanks to push blood
when there's a bit in the aorta. You're a
young man in an ancient failing body by
an unknown disease. You lean on a cane
slumped in a chair waiting for a miracle
that won't come for you. You're a skeleton.
We fear you. We fear death.
I fear ignorance.

You got fired today.
   The money always gone
   again. I'm sorry.
   Ain't we got fun?
   Camping out on Main St.
   Puking over the bridge
   into the river's waters
   Ain't we got fun?
   I'm just a tattered *****
   beauty worn thin by time
   Ain't we got fun.
   anything for a dime.

A knock on my attic walk up,
no good reason for my fear,
I'm a starving poet birthing
a poem to our new frontier.
Different like Bukowski and
Cummings and Frost and Dylan.
They stood in the hall in tears
for this Poets timely killing.

I'm going to say goodnight
and say my prayers
and hope to God
there won't be bears!

Light the flame. Do your magic.
   Mix your powders into elixir
   for me to shoot or snort and
   levitate above life for awhile
   a soul floating after death to
   God's welcoming arms at last.

Can I spin gold from straw
or straw from gold
or good from bad or make
promises and break them?
I deal in snake oil and magic.
Never give me your heart.

Dad dropped bombs on Dresden.
   I was born into wars aftermath
   first born son his namesake I
   had to endure his brutal wrath.
   Light the flame do your magic.
   Mix your powders into elixirs
   for me to shoot or snort and
   sing praise to almighty fixers.

The bottles in mirrors
in bar light infinity
Alchemy potions to
bring you serenity.
She looks at you, smiles,
spins straw into lead
I doubt all I once knew
realize I'm finally dead.

Hands begin to lose control
   start their palsy shakes
   like a *** of boiling oil
   angry bag of angry snakes.
   Can't operate shirt buttons
   or a steaming cup of coffee
   open a jar of dill pickles
   and pants look full of ***.

They live in crypt like bars
stained yellow with cigarettes
smoked over too many years.
Livers surrendered long ago
give them ugly yellow eyes
and skin the color of ****.
The stench of alcohol clings
like way too much cologne.
They never sleep. They just
pass out. Come to for a drink.
They just die day to day
while we all look away.

They live in crypt like bars
stained yellow with cigarettes
smoked over too many years.
Livers surrendered long ago
give them ugly yellow eyes
and skin the color of ****.
The stench of alcohol clings
like way too much cologne.
They never sleep. They just
pass out. Come to for a drink.
They just die day to day
while we all look away.

You always wanna be the best
It's a struggle without an end
Running as fast as you can
But you will never pretend
It's the struggle of our daily life
Of politics and war
Everyone here runs so fast
But only gets so far.
And suddenly you find yourself
Running with the Red Queen
Through valleys and over hills
nothing is what it would seem.

I try to keep my life inside the lines.
I drink Alice's potions and it all bends.
Can hardly see where I'm going now or
where the whole **** thing finally ends.
The Queen of Hearts says off with my head.
The Wizard of Oz speaks with certainty.
Toto exposes his act behind the curtain.
I'm in a Cuckoo's Nest; wine is my gravity.

I chew Xanax like Tums
to keep me from shaking.
Anxiety screams to me for
attention to her cruelty.
I lose my mind in her hole
to wonderland where the
queen of hearts takes heads
fields of poppies let us dream
of Kansas and dust gone wild
tornadoes take us where we
need to be after all in a barn
Tin man, Scarecrow, Lion.

They tried to break me.
I kept spitting out the bit.
You can't tame the righteous  
Fire burned my spirit.
Wedding bands won't
shackle me like chains
I buck and snort and rebel
burn you with my flames.

I died yesterday
light floats away
into night's star
neon sign in a bar
my obituary cool
bury a dead fool

I want to live until my little girl
finds her happy ever after.
I've looked for mine forever
and all I find is tears and dust.
She gives and trusts compromise
as a key but gets empty hope.
Ride the high winds full winged
and watch it all from up high.
Love is a pool full of sharks
you swim alone and keep on.

I'll dance with forbidden
and kiss girls forgiven
drink the devil's brew
as if we never knew
we'd turn a final scene
and both end up clean.

Break our world's heart
**** our beloved JFK
Dallas November 1963
CIA was culpable in play
Grampa smokes his pipe
innocent chuckles display
Allen's duplicity again
now you **** poor RFK.

Long hair bearded man sits on a toilet
reading poetry by Whitman and Frost
and Auden and Elliot and Dylan Thomas.
He works night shift as a janitor in
1956 the beats howling for truth.
He saw the best minds crawling
through the city streets at dawn
looking for an angry shot of speed.
He screamed truth on pure pages
and planted ugly seeds of rages.

Just be my breath and heartbeat for a start.
   Be stories that tore beautiful through my heart.
   Every lust that ever brought me to an end,
   the absolute to my doubt, straight to my bend.
   Be my broken vows and promises forgiven.
   Be my gentle ending when I'm done livin'.

Just be my breath and heartbeat for a start.
   Be the stories that made me fiercely weep.
   Every lust that ever brought me to an end,
   the absolute to my doubt, strength to my fear.
   Be my broken vows and promises forgiven.
   Be my gentle ending when my end is here.

Can I expose the making
   of a nation called America?
   Freedom the rich promised
   owned us all along let us
   vote and gloat we're boss.
   The federal reserve is
   our god almighty and
   keeps us trapped in rooms
   making trinkets and hourly
   wages taxed into destitution
   forced into credit cards we
   pay off with prostitution.

Can I expose the making
   of a nation called America?
   Freedom the rich promised
   owned us all along let us
   vote and gloat we're boss.
   The federal reserve is
   our god almighty and
   keeps us trapped in rooms
   making trinkets and hourly
   wages taxed into destitution
   forced into credit cards we
   pay off with prostitution.

Can I expose the making
   of a nation called America?
   Freedom the rich promised
   owned us all along let us
   vote and gloat we're boss.
   The federal reserve is
   our god almighty and
   keeps us trapped in rooms
   making trinkets and hourly
   wages taxed into destitution
   forced into credit cards we
   pay off with prostitution.

Everything is just beyond reach.
   I don't care anymore. Almost.
   I remember lover's smells. Almost.
   I remember my children. Almost.
   I know you. Almost.
   A golden retriever is familiar. Almost.
   My face in a mirror is a stranger.
   Almost, but not quite. Disappearing!

Am I your lover?
Or pretend Mother?
Criticize and flatter
find war's splatter
on the kitchen wall
wake in shame all.
Perfect hair perfected
my children neglected.
We'll always own stain
and confused love pain.

I almost cut my hair
It happened just the other day
It was gettin' kinda long
I could-a said, it was in my way
But I didn't and I wonder why
I feel like letting my freak flag fly
And I feel like I owe it to someone

Must be because I had the flu for Christmas
And I'm not feelin' up to par
It increases my paranoia
Like lookin' at my mirror and seein' a police car
But I'm not givin' in an inch to fear
Cause I promised myself this year
I feel like I owe it to someone

When I finally get myself together
I'm gonna get down in that sunny southern weather
And I find a place inside to laugh
Separate the wheat from the chaff
I feel like I owe it to someone

I offered impossible puzzles.
  Trapped love in web of strings.
  We made seeds, sweat, nuzzles,
  a world of fantasy smoke rings.

  We always danced in the darkness
  together yet each was still alone.
  Lifetime later I finally confess
  my selfish heart is made of stone.