Scolding Laramidia

can't write samples must write rhymes
going outside-cyclonic batter down protecting pines
our reptile eyes no weak nor blind
while a scaly atmospheric river intertwines
dance around and glitterbomb all the roadsigns
may gusty winds exist all over Laramidia divine!



Морон Морож Мороженое
Маращино—Руслан
Tы выйдешь за нас замуж, Пушкин?
Кот ласка Путин-а!


why bother with fingers when you can have blades?
all these remains show the crimes of our age
as the last living tiger is locked in a cage
eyes amber fury brow scowling in rage
hackles lowering as the death rattle fades


all the enlightened waste their time
wandering the wilds worldwide
if ye don't seek ye shan't find
an eremite wise and certainly none divine
so quit fucking waiting and mind your own
if you wanna find the truth, you find it alone
the truth is simple brutal and raw:
there's no fucking gods and no fucking laws

Naming the Stone

twitter twitter little bird
your music which is never heard
only dire written words
empty spaces in between
laden with burnt offerings
each little chirp hastens entropy
dance, ye starlings on dead ivory



Hope is a word which means "don't fear
those unknown futures which we may share, dear"
probability and estimations
combined with sensible regulations
possibly could have saved these nations
from human greed and exploitation
but we reckon we're in for more devastation



fetching fond affection
in agreeable agrarian best dress
farmer's daughter non-contrarian total mess
rack and ruin torques her tresses into Fascination's nest
a wedding a most fashionable and becoming institution
and bedwetting an acceptably minor revolution



Pucinella Puncharella dictates again how to behave
don't act out or show your passion
hide your eyes in hoods
bite your tongue swallow blood: resist that which you crave
touch nothing speak with nobody
lurk quietly in woods
now listen really closely: hear the knocking from your grave



life of incremental inching
no decisions choose no right choices
heat the cable set the rig to winching
jaws of life release the pinching
six swift incisions to silence the voices
well-behaved litter of kittens mews no noises
rasp one shallow gasp before our lynching

Rainbow Chiclet Teeth

a centipede of whiskers and fingers arch?
click clack typing like a regiment a-march?
Intersectionality is a better term
interstitial life puts the wood in the worm
from under floorboards frosty come the squeaks
scratching sounds so small and weak



hungry wan appear frail
alien star harden nails
inculcate plant seeds to doubt
in arid soil nothing sprouts
fingers tap whiskers hum
scan the field for motion
drift off like detritus leaf
dessicate drift down beneath
canopic capon canopy
no feathers only scales for we



favorite holiday was New Year's but you spent them all alone
you wanted to have a family but you became a wretched crone
shoulda smelled the roses more but now that time is blown
a work ethic ain't much use now that you're just a pile of bones



Chess, the agrestic acrostic:
a game of the fields
mounted knights, peasants, archers
the whole medieval deal
topple kingdoms and conquer
wash, rinse, repeat
march little men in their armor
to bloody defeat



Gilgamesh, Hercules, Jesus Christ, Neo Please
insert any individual make a Hero outta these
take a meaningful story and render it toothless, weak
pop down to the bijou and watch three sequel Matrices
yet a powerful human symbol is still just taking a knee



inaction's smog and fireplace
burns low as winter grows
limbs grow stiff and tendons ache
we pray this night to dream-migrate
we'd fly across equator to the Andes
our winds many-fingered, grey and sandy
to rest at nest upon a cliff
below us surf would crash to bits
safe ensconced in tropic bliss
no frigid air to blue our lips
all predators we would avoid
safe above the sharks and orca
below the blasting shotgun shells
warm and windy Laramidian breezes
would suit our Lemnos well

Acetone Carousel

midnight creature or big boy preacher?
party time down at the drive-thru
go and catch ourself a double feature
mix pieces of us with parts of you
we call these simple protocols procedure
for patching this punctured inner tube



calaverite palaver right
worst secret that we leaked tonight
fiber blown loose and fancy free
no limits to Gore's cartography
in quantum cryptoinformatics-speech
the library of Alexandria is a mouse's squeak
walls come apart in wind and time
we'll be waiting at the lines



we'd love to make a little shack
a burro, guanacos, perhaps some traps
catch some trout down a creek, switch back
Andean life? we'd take a crack
write some poems and break our back
at altitudes too high for rattlesnakes
spires like teeth — the horizon's breaks



truth is harsh but it soothes our soul
slick and right like an organ filling a neat hole
tuck it in be more functional
proceed in gratitude to fore
if that was grating we want more
in a razorwire-shrapnel ensemble to die for
we'd tango through glass on a sandpaper floor

The Innocent and the Untamed

the bus stops and accordions
she keens a muffled shriek
this scrofulus matron-harridan
hasn't bathed in many weeks
ragged nest of filthy curls
she scratches over us like a dog
we stand up and shout "what the fuck?"
our patience is used up



Encore, notre ch'Ur
we couldn't breathe without her
or walk or swim or even fly
in fact with Ur we all die
in closed system we multiply
consume and waste like mindless flies
it's all right, the world still turns
even if the forests burn
or ocean boils away to stars
fuck atmosphere, let's be like Mars!



See yourself as a butterfly
or a speck of dust in an elephant's eye
prone to change or chrysalis
the question is more about "what's this?"
than it is about what there is to do
the answer to that is only you



Topaz the Troll doniferous
laden down and burdened heavy
her sack filled with horizons many
through forests most coniferous
she spread the sun to every land
with her generous arthritic hands
sought no salve for her own pain
simply brought the dawn again



one two three
you and we
sitting in a mango tree
throwing rotten ones at bees
laughing at their fuzzy knees
studying the methods of Socrates
by reading from Homer through Thucydides
never skipping Plato, please
how else would we know of Diogenes?



one and two is three it's true
may vermin never nibble at you
four and five make nine as well
let's make a heaven from this hell



howling winds around whipping sand
kneel like a stone weathering
again in this luminous fantasy
emptiness and rock, storms dry as bones
tombstone visions abandoned rusting rest stop
flecked chrome and twisting aluminum reflects
a beaten copper sun

Lower Level Lovers

her eyes look more alive this winter
as sorrow lifts its shroud
were wretched, dull unfocusing
now gleaming, vibrant, proud
meanwhile the scales fell from our eyes
and now reside where they belong
along our massive, ugly body
un-serpentine and full of song



the stars in the night are fewer for her
she is made of thirty six
our lover's hair is a nebula
galaxies encircle her wrists
she writhes round inner singularity
a toroid twisting orb
this woman's mind is infinite
in her eyes we are absorbed



licorice, fish sauce, feta cheese
green chile roasted fresh
kebab-size chunks of goat meat spitting
(if you partake of flesh)
an autumn meal is what we're wishing
we had at winter's crest



pearl she glows and burns for him
this pebble grey and rough
when every breath brings shattered glass
and every heart beat stutters
she tickles him until he laughs
and closes all the shutters
safe together from the storm
they retract into their shells
each stone fierce and independent
but together they feel well


antes de seis y abajo de cuatro
somos ningunos no somos no vato
nunca no dinero no tenemos no patos
pero en casero tenemos alegros

Organics

Dead reckoning is a helluva thing
esto no es el toro-rojo
it didn't give us no wings
so we learned to craft a thing or three
and now we sail eternally
towards our tombstone—the end of we!


Living with two oppositional notions in either hand
we only survive by our home but we don't believe in ownership of land
we want to be forgotten so we write our poems in sand
blow them out in smoke rings for the cats, as they demand
we don't ascribe to nations, we are West of the Rio Grande


vervet viper's venom bile
tripod black widow with a smile
sheet metal steel tusk'd reptiles
a carriage-worm with self-cleaning aisles
positions require occupants
our globe is ordered like tenements
a certain level will be maintained
with humans on her, or just a stain


is every tree a wannabe?
every bush and flower!
how good can we be, really?
you're the one with executive power!
what about the other poets?
do they have a muse and does she know it?
fair enough you gorgeous little beast
get back to work, we need a feast.

Drum and Based

so long we melt like granular plasma
the accretion suddenly losing bonds
a shabby heap of carbon dusk
polarized light peripheral as needs must
orbital refractions with lost memories of lust



Or perhaps we'll stay inside
for a moment we take a pause
the man, the chin is not the prize
the cats outside have sheath'ed claws
that would be the seat he occupies



Don't hate on Babylon
we want that intimacy back
could do without the civilization
but communication is our crack
the one in the Bible is propaganda
we're talking bout a city of mud
economics, science, construction
art and music: Our life's blood


spoken voices the grace of breath
little catches and pauses of woe and regret
primal recognition an unmistakeable scent
a not-quite-right but similar enough
fellow sufferer, you are a lot like us
faster, smarter, more flexible
hope Ur and Moon didn't break the mold


Farcinatin' fornicatin' foal farriers five
slide seven slithering scarlet skirt-slits sideways slyly
nine niobium nightsnakes nip nightly
nobody minds, nobody dies

Sugar City Candy Brigades

oh Charlie they swim the streets
paddling great canoes of leeks
the carrot cats and parsnip pals
with carbine rifles and cannons loud
Oops, they seem to have hit a snag
an orange orca pod in drag


Hypno-pops alert lemonade tyrants
who send licorice cavalry to defend the front
fountains of candy from fire hydrants
sweetness leaks down the streets
stains gutters rainbow-colored for weeks
confectioner's avalanche roars towards the leeks
rescuing Sugar City from defeat


Da gum, da gum, ta-rum-pum-pum
fire da gum where the holly is hung
stick up the field where the vegetables come from
bring peppermint pikemen to the fore
deploy the chocolate orange to war!


the leeks sank down beneath the creek
the carrot cats barely wet their feet
from sinking canoes into the breach they leaped
dodging pinwheels and saltwater taffies
the last few bits of the tsunami


But there at the verge, at the allsorts ivy
the parsnip pals confronting the A.I.
as one planting placards which read "Buy Me!"
coupon-bearing buzzards descend from the sky
addicted to sales and clearances of shinies
they clear out the root beer barrels by and by


But where is dear Charlie, can they see the gates?
hard candy shatter dusts the sponge cake concrete
carrot cats take pot shots with their carbines at dates
as liquid wax sticks lie dead in the streets
we do hope that Charlie won't show up too late


an unprepared candy is easy to slaughter
the tyrants glower in their marzipan tower
gurgling the citric acid and water
spewing their sugar out in a shower
a blizzard composed of their lemony powder
growing to blight the fields of sunflowers


in settling dust of the whirlwinding zest
arise the old guard, the battle-scarred vets
candy corn, brittles, buttons and straws
lemonade unmade reality to bring them from rest
and rising above like dirigible doom
a flight of circus peanuts casts down a peach gloom

Conversational Oikosoverse

"they're desperate for a solution, what do you got?"
"what is the situation with the hole?"
"more product placement will fit in this spot."
"final, finally, menthol, men, skin, skinflint...."
"let's make another mistake"
"let's not."


Walking lines and rectangular spaces
finishing sandpaper wraps the heart
manners smoothness flawless graces
like black widow lady's delicate laces
spinnerets dance a ragged chandelier
as each beat abrades it slowly erases
circling tragedy is where we find art


a choo-choo train the SS dragging
noggins knocking on the ties
til every little nazi cries
torching fascists into cinders
drain their blood out over winter
hang 'em high and let 'em dry

Whorls and Eddies

a gift remaindered left untouched
somehow missed in the camera flash
a child feeling left out, wounded, unloved
pretty box collects dust in a can of trash



haul up the lines and clean the traps
stiletto reacharound the back
when she smiles her dry lips crack
her pelvis cutting into our lap
breath from her throat grave and flat
whispered bone clatters and squeaking of rats

Dereliction of Dissolution

sedentary glowscreen life
verdant with vivid dreams of strife
vodka bottles, erinmore
tobacco ash all over the floor
footing found, want a little more
greater purpose than just being bored
drilling forever in preparation for no war
battling nothing more than bedsores


surreptitious searing via Tongs of Torquemada
choke Marcel and Albertine in the exhaust of a Lada
you say tomato, we say tomorrow
joy is finding truth within sorrow
energy, light, quantum velveteen matter
the shards of our truths flash briefly when we shatter


it is impudent to be alive
we labor for no prize
obedience and duty to which we strive
high watermarks for seas all dried
Fraternity leaders will decide
whether society lives or dies
when the smoky room opens we'd rather be
off the range than on the inside


music to a cold wind's ears
twisted in tangled seasonal dreaming
cats all scatter as Sister Death nears
the sounds of bells in steeples a'ringing
big brass cups for frozen tears

Postprandial Appetite

five plus two is seven
see the songlines in the heavens
stars in a line dividing
bisecting the milky way
routes across the night clear
machete away the undergrowth
shrubby clouds scud across the moon
pearly gleaming cold lantern illuminates
lights this lacuna in the earth
calico whispers only visible in motion
like chimearae in the benthic deeps of the ocean
prowling about the cold winter ground
round junipers, creosote and burial mounds

Pools of Desire

come down a helical trail
switchback in her eye
just above that silky veil
covered in butterflies
take a rest by her nose
sip of her clean tears
taste the mineral water-woe
erosion from last year



ceviche by a concertina barbacoa
tangerine beach for sunset lovers
sleep to lullabies of kraken and loa
wake in blood-vermilion dawn



such pretty little carmine spots
in millions swarm sun's light to blot
march and march and turn around
twist a tad attack with mouth
chew chew never stop
ladybugs murder slice and chop
crawl in our ears consume our mind
peer out from behind our eyes
witness our death-rattle's sigh


one and one and one make three
an anthill just beneath a willow tree
where we rest most happily
examining the paths and traces
the busy ants about their races
displaying the most refined of graces
a liver mad with esterases
antagonizes agonizingly


if it fit, let it be as it were: As a bee!


across a ridge like a hut should be here
strip down langour in möebius theory
it's a big field wide open and clear
heart beats in opium's comforting shroud
a view to the Interior seashore below
chip off cement and scars, wipe clean
kneel down and watch phantom pumas prowl


worms overlay and feel our sisters
in poisonous smoke and encrypted whispers
each quartz-kept solemn droning vespers
like a winch-cable strained and hot to blister
hackles rise at gorgetted misters
growls and coughs and hacking barks
no wonder they so fear the dark

Dessication Station

mauve and taupe in faded bright day
this plastic trash samurai's uniform decay
stabbing coke cans by the highway
as clouds scoot by and play
battered by blasts from passing traffic all day


maintain internal polarity while floating in space
charm them with your talent and remarkable grace
effervesce silently evaporate... all waste
turn all the lights away from this repulsive face
ticking rage away within timidity's suitcase


en las mesas juntos a la ciel
vive una cabeza mas elevada de dos mil
si que ese craneo vive bajo nos piel
asi ahora hora pegamentos como la miel


slide back in and pull the lever
transfer the click to bone
ripples outward from the temple
like calm pond after stone
nothing limbic is so simple
feed a cold and starve a fever
damaged goods to true believer:
If she's abusive, leave her

Winter Bitten

"Everything is dying"
she speaks into the dawn
this winsome pale old lady
she sings the carnivores songs
slide back into the shadows and shrug
it's not as if she's wrong



whether we get wed or simply turn up dead
we will be at the trailhead
it's a nice place to meet
here on Laramidia street
where the turtles lay their eggs on the beach to the east
caimans and bison and moose with webbed feet
ichneumon wasps the size of a helicopter fleet



pure blood spilled on snowy ground
small cold flies buzz and maggots play
wind breathes a quiet, dampening sound
tattered flags flap like the wings of decay
ice melts on eyelashes and streams down
at the beginning of the day



blade crafted leaf spring from a 1930s rig
cold night in winter stick a rabbit on a spit
in pockets wires and nails, marbles, stones and twigs
resourceful and resilient, little tools and big
with few real skills outside of math and nature, dig

Dutiful Dirges

her shape it twists and changes as you watch
try to catch her with your eye and you've lost
a presence looms from beneath
behind the ears is where she creeps
crack stone demeanor blood will leak
if we hadn't invited her we suppose we'd weep



we build the robots to build more things
new plastic toys and candy rings
posts that waste such energy
puffs of smog with each stroke of every key
collectively paying obeisance to entropy



The color of bones in the desert
cold breath of wendigo
blancmange and clotted cream
poisonous maida to the soul
black is earth and fertile ground
rich mystery of night
but the face of Sister Death herself
is blindingly skull-white

Fluff and Fascinations

dance a tarantella in the dusk
the hazy air of smoke and must
cold winter bluster chilblain the cheek
in salted snow boot leather grows weak
no fortune great waits for the meek
ride your galleon, if you have a Fate
greatness comes not to those who wait



herding cats among the weeds
wield butterfly nets for catch and release
get live traps for the geese
relocate those bastards North
clear out space for more exotics
let's get our natural selection on
who will rise and who will fall
smart money's on something very small


every time a fairy dies a bigot gets their wings
tell us sweet soft pillow lies as their blood begins to sing
marching boots and flames some broken glass again
punches to the face and teeth these harvesters of pain
an orgy of frustrated brutes is such a shitty thing



what's that word in baseball where you don't hit the ball but — ?
it's like that american football word for a kind of kick, a —!
or the smallest wonkey-legged kitten with the floppy ear, the —.
we're not feelin very creative but politicians are all —.

A Hungry Wind

hollow bleeding gouge and scoop
hosed-down concrete stained in rust
bleach-stench and the whines of dogs
dead-eyed boredom in pale guards' eyes
buzzing heap of glass blue flies
in gulag of our discontent
all our hopes and dreams are spent



We'd like to be a pair of shoes
slip right over some dainty toes
protect them from getting stubbed in the cold
sleep in a shoebox battered and old
right next to the wainscot-mold
in the vestibule



emergence from stems and insterstices
filling in empty voids and cells
injection-moulded scope of existence
hoping for a light at the end of this steep tunnel
a long waterslide through the heart of the earth
splashdown will be a surprise



all the depth of an LP's groove
under light of stars on the move
our breadth of vision of the land
feels like a single note
a mouse's fart underneath a chair
as choral symphony lashes
passion through the air


In the gaps between nightlife
a clean hot glow eclipses the Moon
crisp harsh light suffuses what was former gloom
all bones and murders become laid bare
in open antiseptic air
under daylight direct and sere
last night's crimes will become clear



¿Donde nos ninguna desde lacuna?
porque quereren bailemos en desierto de Luna
y comemos corazones como pumas


skulls are but hollow spheres
minus love and hopes and fears
bony caverns, homes for mice
spiders, centipedes, adorned with ice
frozen head wintry asphalt splendor
ice stalagmites a roadside cut
cascade paralytic comatose
black eyelids nevermore morose



BANG
starting gun went off eight decades ago
still he goes
tilt
rather than lash a dervish to relax
dynamic
elliptical interludes of ten to twenty miles
every day
pounding rubber soles to the metal — rock —dirt
—grass it doesn't matter
he can't stop


truck stop neon buzz, Fritz out:
Glorious dream of American Redoubt
vacuous echoes of horrors not grasped
these vapid wannabes, fat weak and ersatz
naive and coddled, they believe they worship death
but all they have in common with their heroes is meth


tow roe row the toad
hooping rolling down the road
poetic cephalopod overload
eat oreos, milk overflows
document the lore you know


hesitant ragged in between
pause and beg the breath inside
camouflage the vinegar fear
in this hollow keep do hide
in hiatus from the clear
open exposed forest brake
blood on fern means no mistakes
not for elk nor dappled deer

A Decorated Reef

grey-yellow aged grass
like a cactus' hairy nest behind hooked palisade
polly parrot impaled on a Barbied-wire fence
empty dry sockets gazing South whence
lies the jungle of her origin so dense
she can never return forever hence
we kill a few species for twenty five cents



bus stop sleeper in a surplus coat
gabardine fashion bundled tight at the throat
hauntings of deafening roars and creosote smoke
screeching brakes and squealing wheels
coughing hacking fits he chokes
discarded gargoyles in a sunbeam mobile
dance from civilization's loose ropes



in cold steppe vigil standing tall
still as stone standing at the wall
knee-high rubble won't stop anyone
so there she waits in midnight sun
her eyes like the sea her hair like bear
try to pass her if you dare



shed ye of your need for trust
in her domain the rules are just
as dagger tip is cleaned of rust
bare throat before her throne you must



Segregation is the order of the day
violence plus Repression is the American Way
it's lucky if you're rich enough to avoid the bullet spray
a hundred sirens howl and scream as you're making hay