#19 (Murrow)

There are discomforts
and disclosures
causing implosion
works of mental smoke
with no fire
cars with rusty heritage
graffiti as an agent of change
buses corrupted with
smiling
frowning
bored
detatched
sleeping
seeing
bacteria.

When we find life to be fair
When we all get what we deserve
When the fish jump into the boat
Look to the sky
Look to the sea
Look to the sand
The quiet
Dark beach
With one work of fire
Orange defeating a small part
of black
The fire on the beach
The fire on the beach
Baking
Roasting
The salt of the sea
Breakfast with the resurrected
Christ.

The rain comes down on us
Soaks us
Makes our sneakers squishy
Makes us run hunched to the eaves
Loosens the buried time capsules
Draws us into the place
Of fire and smoke and hearth
Socks on hangers
Steaming
Elbows dug in the carpet
Our chins cradled by
Clammy hands
Elbows delightfully irritated by
Deep pile burber
Holding our heads
Drying
Pleasant
Watching something in black and white
Eating something in red
Slurping at the comforting juice of so many tomatoes
Drinking down the fruit
To posses one enemy
One child
One rich inheritance of reconstruction.

Detached

outside the building
between breaks
smoking that pipe

chewing that pipe
.........................stem.

“The thing is made of bowling balls.

Bowling balls!” you said.

A stem carved from the thing
of
throwing!
rolling!
oiling
gutters
beer and cigarettes
cheesy fries
strike!
spare
blow dried fingers

You chewed through that stem
in two months:

a ball with two eyes and an even bigger mouth
looking back at the
bowler
........his right foot
........sliding gracefully behind the other
and then frozen
breath held
eyes narrowed

on the path of destruction.

#1237 (Rodale)

Hey! Literati!

Remorse
will never
bring back
timidity.

Live like a child now
look up and wonder at all

all.

Cinco de Mayo (D.H.L. #244)

all at once
I am at my desk
before the open
screenless
window

in one hand
the telephone bill
and it tells me who I talk to

in the other hand
the complete works
of D.H. Lawrence

in front of me
on the sill
is a dead fly
blue in the ass
and I mean cobalt
blue
on his back
on his wings
legs stuck and crooked

then the thunder is off
and rolling
the rain is on
and my hound dog
seeks the comfort of my feet

the cappuccino I recently finished
its cup, sans saucer,
sits just inches from the dead fly
looking at the grass
getting greener
the crap
in the yard getting softer
and the pebble gravel looking
new again.

the temperature drops
and the wind makes its sweet way
through this room.

we are all looking for purpose.

#1321 (Rodale)

This is a contract between the
them and the they
the you and the us
a contract binding us all
to half truths
and 100% lies.

When you think you have seen the truth
please make a mark
that looks like your name
and maybe my name
and maybe ALL our names

initial it for all the redeemed.

it will look like this:
........firm
........steadfast
........unflinching…

wait… have you seen those Godzilla movies?
if you have,
then you know what I am talking about.
if you haven’t, let me explain it like this:

there is ardent, severe, destructive and most of all, unthinking
passion
against
passion
unwilling to bend to the force of the homogenized other.

initial the truth like that
and you will be bound to live
more than the rest of us.