untitled, 1976

socks rolled up in shoes
socks smashed into shoes
salty socks
stink bunched up in the folds
socks kicked behind things, beneath
forgotten socks, misplaced
lost, but never wondered about
peeled off of feet
cotton slip of the vibrant step
dust catcher
years pass in a permanent furrow
accordion squished
sighed
ever poised
for the next new note

heavy

hook connives with hook
pulling away and
pulling through
blinding force at the point
where they
see eye to eye

upward mobility

baby,
we could cruise
but the car
is up on blocks
i would drive you
to the moon
if the engine
hadn’t dropped
coulda made
our get-a-way but
caught a flat
without a spare
so we’re dreamin’
that we’re movin’
while we’re getting fast
nowhere

adventures in shopping

every week
i trade in the cow
for a bag of magic beans
that never take me
anywhere

If you can describe it, you can escape it

fortified walls
hold a hurricane
and stifle the storm
but the pressure
in a fortress
that overestimates itself
crushes from within

san vicente

manure hard packed
trowled into the dirt
grass shorn weed chopped
makes a hacked yard blush like a pitted cheek
fresh shaved and balmed
wetted turds turn to feed the flowers

an alley
and the blind of bleach
twirling suds
a heat of clothes boiled clean
slaps at the unlit street
red eyes braying
coughing caustic in the night
to sterilize the shadows

cactus and aloe
thick-thighed and purple
moist vascular plants
breathe warm like baked cinnamon
tangle into sweet air
light incense rises where the blue moth falls
and murmurs smokeful benedictions
to mollify the moon

success and excess

the country is dying of
dehydration
while water filtration experts
are taking
long baths

storms

pilot light flickers you pray
the blue flame holds
steady in the tornado

shirt unspools before the dryer
tv station fades between channels
asthma
and the lung walls cling

holding the thread
looking for the cloth it used to be

straw? dry air? stuffing?
what holds together
this ghost of dry coughs

a heart once sang
now i crouch by the dial
leaning in to find a frequency
to hear you
speaking
meek
as a mouse quiver
whispering mumbles

i look for you in that tall body
and find only a mouse
gasping for air
in the hollow
of your big toe

All-Nighter

The conscience commanded, ‘Write a poem already!’
Smirked the roach, ‘Better wipe the counter clean.’
The dirty feet demanded, ‘Won’t you buy us more soap?’
Whined the fly, ‘Hurry up, mend the screen!’
The teeth started to shudder, ‘No more Skittles for dinner.’
The wallet coughed, but had nothing to say.
The paper scolded, ‘Yes, you’ll have to finish me somehow.’
Whispered Night, ‘Look now, I’m the Day!’