I'm sure an abstract painter adores
the confusion of their
lovers.
Glass reflections on materials in a bedroom
E M P H A S I Z E
the EGOIST in every
sofa
and
actress
in a television set while it rains out
(creating pockets of water on the balcony)
Where is my foundation for times like these when
feet become LOUD ER in the daytime
and obstacles have grown their teeth?

Perhaps a dump truck full of nicely dressed mannequins
will finally be
ticketed
and my eyes
will see
as soft
as your
hair.

Quarry of bones in an office space
and the FORMAL TIE HAS DESTROYED ITSELF WITH
SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS AGAIN
(LUCIDITY KEEPS INSANITY DISTRACTED)

Caffeinated Canadian Bohemian
daydream of firs showering adjacent
Manhattan batteries.
Tomorrow's rejections watch
bright and beautiful waves smile with false
inspiration
a n d a n o t h e r
concrete victim is created.

!MADNESS!
(the solar flare of the Neutral)
the ammunition in my coffee
and conversations blinking
LAUGHS          OUT
                           TO
                           THE
                           ABYSS
(gorgeous and hollow lineups in front of
a Vancouver bar 11:30pm)

Pale October energies and the
Dharma Radio
feathering my fantasies as this year reaches it's last quarter
CREATIVITY MEANDERING
NEAR NOTHING
anxiously I roll around on the mattress,
open window, listening in on the intricately staged
oblivion of trees
who've become infatuated
with coffins.

Gastown (as it appeared in my dreams)
has found it's dusk anthem!
Adriano Celantano's
"BUONA SERA SIGNORINA"
what a strange dream that was
the music was vivid to the point of
impossible recognition
and I'm awake and dizzy not from all that
but from love
(it's tilting my axis!)
Always has......

An untraceable eye
lingers in
malevolence to ALL city banks
where the late bop players
stand united and "free"
(Outside, by art on a wall with animals dancing in a hot air balloon, jealous of their own permanent state of painted euphoria)
Restaurants are consumed by silence
upon closing down,
but NOT the Fisgard streetcorner cafe
I frequent!
It's LOUD TRUTH and San Francisco weeps in
the decorated walls.....some far off dream of North Beach
Trieste evening with people who were once ALIVE!!
People that bleached
THE AMERICAN VISION
with sharpened language sleeker than
the polished jaw of Apollo.

Here I am again,
accepting the same sweeping misery
as those before me
(settled tombstones barely seen beneath a wild oak
while cars cry exhaust to beach-view apartments
and Winter's harsh wind drums against the window pane)
sure they were good people, but living plays no favorites.

I'm awake and dizzy!
forlorn with the morning.
Stars surrender to a sun
which often wonders
how we adapt to this asylum.
(Vanity makes me sleepy)

Warm in the delicate crimson light,
I lie in a temporary peace.
I am setting
as all else rises.

Every puzzle takes a first step
figurin’ and measurin’—
cutting the extemporaneous—
getting the lay of the land
on the crime scene, on the body—
detailing and matching lineups—
following every lead
and kicking it in
with bluffing intimidation—
drawing probabilities—
untangling the material
to fit, unstitching the profile
to back out mistakes—
the sweat of thought.
Putting it together
and tearing it apart.
The tyranny and the value
of the word on the street—
crimes of fashion
designs on ******—
what is revealed
if you’re not careful—
you can mesh anything together.
Self-composure
as your story stands
or falls.
Time always running out
before the job is done
and after the job is done—
the bitter faces around the gallows
as the execution hangs.

My love for you is like a porch in summer, half lit in the fading sun, cicadas hanging heavy from the trees, each bough buzzing with warm electric static.  Moving in and out of harmony, they attend to all the ways my mother understands, all the ways I am satisfied with the wisdom of my father, and all the ways words become unnecessary on a night like this.

This night: my baseball glove sits on the porch floor, ball tucked inside.  I tune the radio to listen to the sounds of the city. The announcers voice comes through introducing lineups, pitchers, sponsors; his voice sounds like forgiveness, like the redemption of a day's misguided energy. In the background I hear the crowd finding their seats, conversing, smelling hot dogs and pizza, it buzzes through the speakers. Sensations strong and pulsing, like the roar of a passing motorcycle, like the smell of the earth after winter, like the beat of my heart; I pick up my glove.

This night life becomes simple, finds all its complexity expressed in the strain of muscles, the sound of a ball hitting leather, the image of crisp green grass, of a lit up stadium against the darkened city, of which I am a part. Though that remains unsensed, trains howling like wolves through ***** streets and all.

This may be the closest I come to love, what I will see when I look at you, what dreams will unwind when I brush my wrists against yours.