Angles on Eden

keep the organics separate, in a tin box
moving day changing all the locks
hover by the dumpsters for the manna from rich cocks
everything fair game but underwear and socks
cut you soon as see you wanna be traced in chalk?

Mini-Machas con Nadie

come boomerang back
every single art attack
skin off our nose get a squid on our back
nose-dive straight into asphalt and crack
steal all the lightbulbs drink something clear until dawn
anything to drown out this neverending song
muse ever confuse and she do like to snack


heaven couldn't contain
and six hells couldn't stain
the love and pain whirling around our ever-flexible brain
so we remain undrained and seeming plain
just a rusty locomotive
what got uncoupled from the train


let's do it darling, get your kit
grab a basket we'll have a picnic
a cooler full of cokes, all kinds
a couple bags of hot pork rinds
grab some beers on your way out
your friends will spoil it gettin drunk no doubt!

Eternal Axolotl

no ballers on the court at night
skunk shuffle by keeping close to the fence
in the cold moon's light
there's a battered sign warning of snakes
by the pump track
and the anachronistically modern equipment
monkey bars blue like plastic pills
ugly against the yellow hills



once more under the brine
we decline
steeply divine this incline straight to fell
night's hills bathed by gibbous lucid
feeling as invertebrate segments detaching
modular dreams of instant repair
to wake again flayed
blowing like blood bubbles through the desert air



dreaming is an action
screaming this incision
let's leave and go between
incisor-yellow cream
no plaque to plague "Art-Pandemia"
send your prayers to stoic Academia
be wise or dig graves
but fight for freedom like a slave



the pendulum in this clock
tick most smug satisfaction
tiptoeing on a metal grate tock
do we wish to be wanted
or to be not?
three hundred and sixty little dots

Distracting Ravens

We like to mix our love and hate
for the nation we call home
in great passion for our state
we feel it's often wrong
but the dirt beneath our feet,
the air and dust we breathe
the people and the mountains
and every leaf and tree
these we love with all our heart
unreservedly



striding under junipers dapples mix with beams
how they so invisible in their grace?
our four tiny tigers prowl about the garden
each calico paw in every perfect place
we maintain a respectful distance in shadow play



Turchak rumbles in their den
neath the narrow canyon's span
the fur-beast rages now and then
but only at footsteps of men



Sun is disrepectful, brash
we blot him out with volcanic ash
Moon is constant and moody as heck
she's a primary instigator for shipwrecks
O what are we on Earth to do
with this blasting Sun and savage Moon
live all night and live all day
either way we'll play in rays



a shadow cast upon a wall
doesn't bother a wall at all
the dawn can creep her rosy fingers
all down the wall shades can linger
unperturbed it will remain
undisturbed by wind and rain
AN: insp. by Alan



like stars or just lights distinct discrete
dancing in the moonlit streets
to an urgent biologic beat
in spring shower desires to cuddle or to beat
yet no matter how close they shuffle their feet
they will always remain too far apart to meet

Emergente en la Oscura

its shape chaotic stormy changes at each glance
a toad-shaped strange beast box of chance
Nine-Eyed toad is its name and its trick
is a strange case of random reset right quick
as if an egg cracked then instantly unsplit
in brief remote views at every flash and glint


get cursed as unreliable, hey what else you got?
reputations come and go, we're slithering in one spot
take all the lightbulbs let it snow meth on every sot
like a goathead through concrete we grow, breakin up the parking lots


If only we believed in prayer...
we suppose that's neither here nor there
certainly not our place to compare
but we've become very accustomed to and aware
of this particularly familiar flavor of despair


too broken for this world?
so make a new one, grrl
s'what we do most every day
it's the only way we get away
with existing brief and sputtering
a glimpse of shiny diamond rings
then back to cracks we slip away
to create the worlds in which we play



we didn't have the words for it
what we are not all these tags
these fish hooks tearing us apart
just tugged and circumcised our heart
so we cried in secret, they couldn't see
our tears leaked out incessantly
adding to our endless shame
how do we live with all that pain

Catterel Beats Doggerel

a butthole suitcase is this fat
enormous tabby on our lap
he doesn't meow, like a duck he quacks
he's always begging for treats and snacks
a stripey grey tiger with tummy spots
Argent makes our brain go soft



get us up on Gato Airlines, cats clinging to every vane
hurtling towards Kiev on a New Mexican kitty plane
drop us off we'll go and take over every train
arm every single kotënok in defense of the Ukraine
million Magdalena kittens oughtta bring a lot of pain



creek babbles by
clear high sun on glacial tarn
as stone contemplates



But would you eye a bat?
or say a thousand mewling cats?
a flurry of slaps by maps in traps?
bat an eye or slip on by
be like an interminable high
peak performance joy and all that


Is this what you wanted?
the sum of your hopes and dreams, cat?
to finally achieve a state of interference
between our keyboard and our lap?

Introductions in no Order

the water chilled her
she licked her lips
"oh yes, we could get used to this..."
a smirk a glint of white and lost
from flashing shadows
of raindrops brief and barely
a snap of cracking glass in frost
this green murder-fairy doesn't bury
her victims pay the cost



each lil' wiggler has an equal shot
half of them very capable half of them laughably not
bad jaguars like to roll the bones for heroic little dots
like periods or epigrams on their own sad lots
good ones teach the kittens how to show off their own spots



henny penny brick em up
fat jungle birds we like to call dumb
peck yer own toes off into bloody stumps
chicken are for generating income
or shredding into little lumps
for chicken nuggets to dip in scum
chow down til your heart's last thump
— we'd rather eat a plum



a cutlass to caber renders a man meek
darts and arrows are pointless, one might say
a 21 gun salute signals defeat
firing squad death sentences on holy days
rattling sabers and measuring meat
humans had better change their ways
can't move too quick with lead in your feet

The Luckiest Jaguar Farrier

we begged for change and got new quarters
voted Blue because Red was Orange
scared the piss out, it got gory
different masters same old orders
got fresh new gerrymandered borders
nickel and dime we never counted for much
just like a bad penny in an old lady's clutch



What if we don't exist at all
instead we're just a ghost
Were we even a soul before
our curse as affable party host
greeting guests and opening doors
What if we cease to be at a glance
before our guests begin the dance
What's a god her them or we
and why not let us be?



Antimerican antimericists lay lyricing and lyred
post-portmanteauing bloodsuckers and pigs to pigpires
Finchly chattered while ferreting the fire



at times
though we're not certain about the mind
our words are limpet mines
on a rusting barge listing, trimmed aft and circling
bouncing betty boomerangs bound to blast the deck to bit
s scuttling us with our passions and mad fits
neither Charybdis nor Scylla had spines

not even if you nail it down
she brings a crowbar, she's well-renowned
she doesn't believe in nations, you see
no borders or locks or property
she steals everything she can see
"If it's not being used, then fuck you gently!"
she sings out, laughing as she runs down the street

Plates Pinguia Saxuma

crows to roost, cats to waul
fat Moon rise and curtain call
rest you weary, give it your all
winter salmon dreams of swimming up falls
so sleep, don't fly or glide or climb
burrow in the earth, swing on vines
just rest your pleasant fuzzy dome
enjoy your Muse's nighttide poems



Pistachios came to New Mexico
nursed and coddled by Eastern man
the crows have been a-gatherin in great murders
raven genocides en La Altiplan'
all up and down the Rio Grande
corvids feast on Laramidian pecans



from pale green buds to velvet white blossoms
raw potential from blazing summer through autumn
unfurls into orchids lapping light in the dry season
when there's not much to do but gorge and make reasons



teeter totter a pendulum
a sword of Damocles, much less humdrum
see a saw or mill your maw
dodge jackrabbit's gougin' paws
nothin's toxic to the dead
so let snakes slither through our skinless head



plunge on in and hesitate
pause consider evaluate
check the fluids and every gauge
some allege they lead lives of easy breaks
some feel they can't afford missteps or mistakes
rapid switch unseparate
why make a choice or mate with Fate?



Monogamous love like dopamine
addiction to that sweet release
near first light they swear their oaths
may each shared glance revive full fealty
and sundown find and bind them both



lush and vibrant sublime spaces
canyonlands and malpais flows like broken cement
memories of Andes' graces
mental residents who don't pay rent
the lift of this Soviet-style tenement
is memories of lives cut short
with a red call button to the loft of lusts spent

Pueblos Desaparecidos

push pull membrane slow to respond
purses like a shocked child's slow moving mouth
O!
torrential exquisite meaty drops on a territory of timpani
countable infinities of tiny monkeys punching keys
the poet's emergent probabilities three be
Solitude, death, and poverty



Seventeen archers string their bows in rows
stand them on the tips of their noses
line up backs together in poses
take two steps forward and Arcade it opens
eighteenth takes their aim and looses
a gust might kill one sure as nooses
or a gander at the wrong goose's



Sister Death comes when she like
drifting into any party with or without an invite
she'll never leave and she's never been alive
her emerald green dress in tatters fails to hide
the glints and reflections of trophies inside:
Every single being who has ever lived and died



In moist and soggy foggy morn
we hear a far-off-nearby foghorn
our depth of field has been shorn
luckily we're not airborne!
no we just stand here on the shore
waiting for the sun and air
to burn off the morning mist
the urge to drown we must resist

Afternoons at Gipodrom

heirarchies of the past
seem like they will never last
but they stand for eons beyond
the ruins of their civilizations
from Gobeklitepe to the Colosseum
artifacts end in museums
yet caste systems and wage slavery
ever-present problems these seem to be



Romulan we all called him
this troll silent glum and grim
watch him irate gesticulate
when you steal his hat for a weekly bet
as the bum swung between despair and hate
the Northwest weather got very wet
childish pranks were his lot
the helpless and forgotten sot



outskirts cabin pendent dusty cobweb veils
reeling gentle fro and thither in convection
aluminum echoes bellows of frumious wails
late passed early now a new suspension
no niter and no bezoar will remove what ails
the alchemist's sum; a life trapped in reflection

Mother Ant-Rake

integrate the love with hate
touch a knob to avoid the spark
tonight we attend a crowded ark
around the floor they formicate
their tricks and torments leave no more marks
on this insulated iron heart
there is no more reason left to mate
we leave the dance a little less dark




facedown asphalt sleeper crass
Masc'ed up in his beardy mask
this shabby drunk eschewed a flask
drank whatever came cross his lap
a spin cycle whirlpool down the trash
would've suited this scummy ass!




five and two and three makes ten
who takes care of your heart when it's broken?
if they cannot themselves their own hearts mend
then stay the heck away from them!




buy seedy apples large in size
use the knowledge inside your mind
extract and refine the cyanide
then you'd simply aerosolize!




Why introduce anything
that would spoil the game
better keep 'em guessing
like fuel to poetry's flame
why say anything at all?
a writer spends the following winter
writing about the previous fall



side effects of interstitial ladders
climbing up all the walls pitter patter
perspective multifacet attention shatters
resolve to focus on what matters
poetry music and radio chatter
to mitigate the burgeoning Holocene disaster
or at least to get it over with faster



trapped in a doldrum of birdsong
wind whispers echoes of thought
canyon memory, rockfalls gentle and far-off
murmuring rhythm begins again, insist
pulls us into singalong, we cannot resist
offbeat uptick hit it on the nail
evenings keep on misting past
we hike along this trail



grey children need things to enjoy too
just darkness it may seem to you
but creepy crawlies, precious things lost
ghosts and relics, solemn thoughts
are as important if not more
than heroes, gold or unicorns
so please do inform the smalls
that Sister Death comes for us all

Porcelain Shatter Windchimes

Oh darling we must remain supine
the supper you prepared was most divine
on no please, we're not romantically inclined
we're just completely stuffed with mussels in wine!



imagine a geothermal spring
in your backyard, of all the things!
a nice rock pool in which to swim
healthy minerals soothing tired skin!



a pair of dreadnoughts massive glide
crash through the ice as narwhals dive
tusks flashing in the Arctic glare
grind of floe on hull fills the air
massive leads open before
the pair as they let their cannons roar
firing swarms of krill larvae
in last-ditch effort to save the sea



we want a Transcienda with sky blue adobe walls
we'd allow a transient Transtopia to grow inside the hall
we'd grow trans chile, weed and cabbage
with trans goats and burros small!
every trans person'd be invited, welcomed, one and all



like Alexander and his Iliad
under your pillow you ought keep
a magic notebook tied to your mind
to record your dreams when asleep



The empire is comin down brick by rotten bloody brick
it's a time for heroes, poets and wisdom to come back
bringing music, knowledge, strength and sneaky tricks
don't be burning daylight now, blaze up and pull the slack
each your herbs and vegetables, take your medicine and don't get sick
this time the wheel it turns again, we don't want it to attack




A valkyrie perfect for we
one fated from the start
after battling the currents and doldrums for ages
she'd find her port in our heart



whisker, antenna, nose, or toe
eyestalk or trail of pheremone
earlets furry or scaled magnetic reception globe
you gotta see the world through your brain, you know?

Her Emerald Gown

in seance we speak with our ghosts
our dreams are memories of drown'ed hopes
render us please from this fetid swampy host
throw us in the sun to roast
we tire of the company of our soul



fear is a shrieking howling noise
in bravery we find our voice
not one of rage nor one of ice
between the two is where to slice
corpus collossum connects the pair
but when separated we are never there
just an otter and an octopus
battling in a cage of rust



a fall of snipes swoops round our wake
picking our leftovers out of the drink
the flock keeps on growing the longer we tack
we really don't know what they think!
But as long as they stay off our deck and our rigging
and out of our way we won't blink



a lateral thinker means Wut?
neurodivergence is a pain in our ass
it's not our fault they can't seem to grasp
that what they put first ought be put last
so they cast us out and say we are strange
but we've always been out of their range

Venerating Resonance

Corporation's movin' into town
say goodbye to good times now
24 hours for the first few years
'til every mom and pop disappears
cut it back to daily hours
no products left, just maida flour
Probably should just burn it down
but then we'd starve, dry up or drown



huff a trail of smoke as it floats by
bubbler gurgles as rhythm grows
get toasted, fucked up, go get high
the less you think the more you know
now hemp, he's a flexible and tough little guy
but marijuana's a better beau



no more pleas on bended knees
no beggars at the gates
he's beaten all his enemies
and snuffed out all the Fates
the warlord sits upon his bones
and roars at empty halls
No more, please!
eternity alone within these walls...



again we become an alligator
no chuckwalla in between
two rocks down in the meteor crater
sunny and serene
so here we are again in winter
submerged except our snoot
waiting for the temp to rise
so we can again to Laramidia scoot



lights
shuffling begins the competition
fine etiquette must be observed
positional notation depending on
the sentence and the rotation
every breath is carefully measured
every blink recalculated and questioned
What are you in for?
a tea ceremony, motherfucker

Laramidian Mechanics

fraying violins at night, the white noise from creation
tooth-itching grind of collisions and separations
plips of stars like raindrops hitting a puddle in formation
song lines peaks and valleys of these Original vibrations



in circuitious perambulation
of a gypsum ocean made of dunes
this is how we'd do the dying
hopefully not too soon
chats with ravens and with rattlers
abandoned cats and lizards too
these are conversations worth having
— Better with them than you



becoming a villian isn't so hard
simply embrace the pain in your heart
whip it to fury let it loose from the reins
stir up your vanity, set it aflame
the question really becomes what will remain
ideally nothing, so says the refrain
but wendigo is the end of all life
no villain can match it no matter how rife
with cruelty, rage, or ravenous spite
nothing's just nothing, better to be a Fool



long grass in winter tall and lean and dry
changing in between the blinks of an eye
one moment clear and transparent as sky
twist in the gust flip and everything they hide
give tussocks care as they're elf hunting blinds



Two cats meet at the dawn and stretch
yawn with fanged frozen breath
she creeps about and never rests
yet every day at least once she sets
Sun blinks his eyes slowly at her
but Moon just looks on down
concerned as always for her litter
as the globe below her spins around

Dervish Bait

dodge the depth charge, micturate....
spin about like water weasel
slick plastic versus painter's easel
take a break from remonstrating
appease the breaking hearts pulsating
back to the spinning and the winning
can't see the tears through all the grinning



trash flows down to rest on the beach's sand
down by Cuba just by Alabam'
in a state we call Florida,
like an overflowing hiker's pack-it-out can
or a rotten razor clam
the stench from their ill behaviour saturates the land



stuck on a titanium nail
reminding us of impossible trails
miles to the sky
can't see the drop on the other side, crevasses behind
rumination slides inside
we're stuck on that nail rewinding our mind
resetting to play forward
— no sleep for tonight



red-tailed hawk seeking
instantiates winter's peak
while prey hibernates

The Whistling Giants

like a coalmine to a canary
we spend each day dusting this ossuary
tidying up bones and making room for more
in this tomb sanctuary there's plenty already piled on the floors
but we get bored
pick up sticks seal up the infected behind bricks
whether plenty of time or just one tick
these mortuary technicians always workin up new tricks
...don't get sick



wheel spins and stops abrupt
spokes resolve from whirling disk to static struts
as two lovers tuckered out from lust
from motion cyclical and mysterious
to inert plain matter motionless
the cooling damp of love's dank musk
elides the bottom line of cost



ego doesn't seem to get sore
just drains the blood and vigor
with bursting neuropathic flares
our bombs all fizzle in mid-air
with every touch a new dead thing
a murdery Midas — sure as shit no king
ain't got but a few years more
not much time left on this liver for sure




from this chandelier emanates
a glow the wholesome red of hate
feeds us razors at the gates
prepares us for another race
we will always make last place
it's all about traveling with grace



when the day is long and the sun get low
when the coyotes yawn in the longing shadows
he rises and walks the chupaderas slow
whistling a tune from a long time ago
a sack on his back full of dry bones
when you get lost in those hills down south
you won't ever be alone

Napier's Freshest Bones

getting back up again
at the back of his head an itch
—a loser never wins
this gnawing, pecking bird clutching his nape
so hard he never cleans it
like a six pack of hot dogs in motor oil and grime
shaves obsessively cuts his ear every time
he never cries



reinforce the barriers
smudge and burn the wards
shroud the prisoners you keep within
dampen all their roars
let the mortals sleep in peace
they do not have too long
keep the nightmares up your sleeve
and sing a pleasant song



Nothing's ever easy
least nothing worth the try
spend every day fencing angst
never too terribly wealthy in supply
we gotta titrate and measure with scales and by eyes
lest we run low and get too high



it's better than nothing
it once was a shame
we wear it with honor
a badge of our pain
call us a bastard
call us an airplane
we don't care what you call us
we know our own name

Von Neumann in the Sheets

two figures alone stand in the square
their eyes hooded by lowered brows
in shade the audience gathers there
as windy strains of music grow
pulse insistent starts the fair
the pair dance until the sun sinks low
that heatwave summer by the gallows



resolution and fidelity
become unfocused when they get low
but when they fail they simply serve
betrayal à la mode


A puss is sleeping on our tit
her name is Izzabekkel
she a grey floofy little shit
with very long whiskers (snakefreckles!)


crisp and savage fleshy beast far from lean
twisted, strange-articulate but you would be mean
if you'd seen where we've been
through many different hells, at least seventeen
our shoebox is in the closet with Sister Death's rags of green

Witches and Her Other Curves

their dead eyes open in your sleep
inside your dreams silent they creep
when envy fills a heart with greed
a soul of rage is what they need
as buzzards landing near fresh meat
a vengeful outcast will end in peat



Laramidians great to small
travel round with jaguar smiles
pygmy shrew to bison tall
otter gangs invade the Nile
wolverine and tapirs call
caiman meet the crocodiles
Human evidence and edifice
crumble and reduce to bits
armadillo to quetzal:
nature's beauty above all



one touch two touch three arms four
drag you down to drown before you step on shore
benthic patient oceanic massive cold
when Grendel's mother was a kitten she was already old
Kraken is the overkill the Wendigo below
she's never gone away and she'll never let us go



like a nicotine stain over everything
detail us inside and out there will be you all over
rubbed out on the brushes and rinsed down the drain
russet and amber liquid like blood and golden tears
you're under our skin detective
sunlight-in-forest-shadow dappled deer



the cyborgs are among us
in pacemakers and in stints
a wheelchair or a pair of shades
from which the sunlight glints
in fact it's getting rather stormy
perhaps we should slow down
drydock this haphazard bucket of bolts
before we capsize and drown

Cantor's Rubber Car

from monoliths standing very tall
to tiny mote of marine snowfall
all creatures great and numbers small
most wretched rise to the greatest fall
the gears of time recycle all



watch from under the juniper's slough
hawk's throat pulses in jugular throb
stock still staring off downslope
keen eyed as feathers ruffle in a blow
barred tail flashes — off like an arrow
calls out a shriek as the sun dips low



stinking ape went out and jogged
came back smelling like a bog
icicles of sweat and snot
dangled from his shaggy mop
he grabbed a pipe and lit it up
we crawled up onto his lap
to "little fish goes pop pop!"
cos this old man he is our pod
and we love him quite a lot



Houdini was an amateur
no proper ambush could he lay
nothing on this beast for sure
we're ash by night and smoke by day
our talons rough for gentle play
always retreating into song
queer and weird and too intense
tilted twisted odd and wrong
never built but smashed a fence



lateral liquid tentacle creep
half of we is benthic deep
who the master is? we speak...
she simply gnashes her kind beak
our symbolic cephalopod internity
a construct for our therapy
devised her independently
which suits us rather comfortably



two enormous onions habanero to begin
half a huge tomato, slice them paper-thin
coriander seed crushed up with salt and chile
lemon juice and olive oil, basil so it's pretty
our amorous apology, dear, a salad for Din-din
if you're feeling pleasant, we call that a win



our substratum is founded
in original Vulgarian unbounded
we battled other larvae in Puget Sound
we swam on down, they washed aground
so bring it, those who think they can mock we
we're a nasty fuckin kraken when we wanna be

Fermat's Photo Album

pen them illustrate them make them into cards
edit and prepare them to be fit missives for the marms
get em published, then you matter
our poems dry leaves a'scatter
teacup shrapnel and crystal shatters
we're late we're late we're ever so late
but we ain't no looney hatter



in dust devils and peripheral vision low
tumbleweeds pass through them like shadows
not a tear in their thousand tiny eyes
a sneer a leer a rippling shiver as they slip within
boneless limbs crawl through shake you on like a suit
skinwalker plays your body like a flute



silver weeps scintillating in the thin clear air
when every mountain in the West had its own bear
every creek burst with trout from San Diego to St. Clair
now it's garbage and agricultural and radioactive waste
filter every cup, you wouldn't like the taste



Detectives search in every cran and nook
badger all the nans and crooks
by hammer nail and by the book
they do not ponder what they've forsook
they think this task they've undertook
will serve from crèche to mausoleum's rooks
in living requiem for a mom's kind look

Gatos del Rio

50 kph skittering up the Bugaboo Creek road
washboarded-out Porcupine protectors
A-lister asshole alliteration all about
chicken wire and rubber tires
Hound's Tooth gleams in the clear blue sky
philosopher, friend, and guide



the impulse to throb
to beat and repeat rhythmic
mental-nomic regal-air a pause
or a choice balanced
Pulsative in potential
unopened shall be released
a cog a gear a strident spear
as the wild stabs of precious alchemy



as if a flea chooses to be puce
the shackles of addiction are a fine excuse
might break your neck to shake them loose
and we recommend you drink lots of juice
stay hydrated and keep fit
the goal after all is not to quit
but to live and run about
get more time in before you're out



a chook the size of an emu fair
gliding in the summer air
how dare an emu loft above
a pigeon or a mourning dove?
the cassowary thinks below
howls at the emu what he know
"Stay on the land, you're a dinosaur!"
Fat chicken lands before
tasting the rage behind the roar



wish a fell on the great alchemists
a salad bowl of sorts
collect all tears and despairing sighs
we'd fill up our passport
travel visas to their high mounts
see the lost and lonesome tower tombs
O gilded skeletons in laboratories in the skies
transmutation begins in wombs



Mirror mirror smash to shards
slash our face to match our heart
proceed to visit the abbatoir
leave these huge arms to a butcher's dogs
squirm to a nearby trash compactor crush us nice and small
this would be a handy medical solution for our insurmountable wall

Spider Balcony

surgical spider steel glass
hollow legs perfect at fine tasks
dilate extricate from threads and webs
calculate a crack on thin line when vertical
plane the grain away with wing-dusted refrains
needles hid in fingertips of gloves hit veins
pinching jade leaves— kills pain


aurora comes again to orbit
from each ear telescoping
infinitesimal lobe-wiggle like a disturbed sponge
tab on his tongue woad on his skin
what the fuck is about to kick off
throw a spark plug at a windscreen
empty parking lot in concrete drab


Liminal lovely lune—
Phrixus' lambent lambswool loom.


meniscus transmissable lensing and flares
null degree atmosphere cold doesn't care
infinitesimal snowflakes form and unform and crystallize
these wide-lofted bare skies
glare from the wings of the morning gold and bare



Counting coup while salting your shoes
we don't what is wrong with you.
You shout about phantom threats
when you left the house such a mess?
Why must you so perseverate,
on Election Day you slept too late.
Just get a grip, get over it
the rest of us are sick of your shit.



like a school of dimes turning see her silver inside
cascading curls flashing penny-red drip
luscious from her head like hydrangeas
long muscles tendony narrow athletic and lean
Lo-fi Fashion Casual, fine and refined
diamond eyes: Not much left to do but die

Winter Wear

when in doubt just twist and shout
slip a skin like a robe
slither thither up the withers:
Upgrade your mode with hooves
coil round the pain stay in a lane
until the refrain in your brain can be
uncontained safely drained of venom and bile
refined from blood to whinny

All Cooped Up

L'ennui a tide a flowing sea
ebbs and flows uncomfortably
from tidal bore to sandy shore
yearning for light evermore
resolution fades in winter
icy sludge cold blood we shiver
yet on the high steppe arid plain
we feel a freshness in our veins
at night our frigid body bakes
thus morning clucks resuscitate
bright-eyed eager always quirky
these chooks all fat happy and quite floofy
wee egg-production factories
keep the yard clean and pest free!
domestic regularity may seem to be rather boring
but to us it seems rather to be
an elegant delicate thing
constant care requiring
to keep said armada crystalline
floating

Assessing the Cat

whitewash days all bleached out
low by the sea in Puget Sound
that good old Ground Zero countdown town
Cold War memories and youthful scares
all obviously vaporware
oh if only it were so
but these monsters still remain
and their chains are rusting in the rain...



certain whiff in the rising heat
familiar scent, hearts skip a beat
flowers to eat with our wide mouths?
nay, a kind thought most profound!
perception is tuned to hear these pings:
Ur-reptilian radar for beauty in things


brows like a raven's parentheses
wide cheekbones bring us to our knees
oceans for eyes, gleaming like stars
makes our heart bleed like an abbatoir
a vision of eternity
in her arms we'd feel most free


We're going to write something simple
We're not going to write something grand
We're going to write a poem with no meaning
we hope it doesn't get slid of our hands


fierce otter grey and battered rest
sleep now, lick your wounds
we crawl out from beneath your hide
like eight wiggly creeping eels
we creep up to the handlebars
and steer out into the sea
silly sleeping otter
got on a tandem bike with we?
-An Octopus

The Naked Brutalists

Our hyperfocus pedestal—
climb a sandstone chalk-pocked wall
waste away try to get small
if we get high we won't feel too tall
some ain't suited for basketball


The gyre generates endless cyclones as it whirls, hypnotic... massive.



leftways subequatorial
she plays among the bleaching corals
anoxic barrens her favorite place
unseen she dances with infinite grace
grey fine-grained muck surrounds like dust
her bubble's safe, luxurious
Thank you, little octopus,
forever cleaving into us


ascend three steps
brave little hearts flutter at the door
no pausing for idle chatter as before
push through and up three more
little sprouts in little pots
generating novel thoughts
three steps more and there they are
all trees turned to lumber and tar


a self care day is a siege-climbing mission
preparation begins days before ignition
cessation and a repression secession require
a two hour soak and a smoky blazin' fire
and usually extracted Tetrahydrocannabinol
but one must always get up after every single fall


meant to swim in surf
and creep down low while on ground
this is not our turf
but then again the globe is round
every rattlesnake on earth
is more kind and more profound
than any human being
(at least they make warning sound)

A Condemnation of Hearts

musician with her heart electric
and smoothly humming brain
crash and burns the dialectics
smothers all the pain
porc'lain keen and clean and pallid
ethereal and wan
a puzzle for the cryptominded
or a single solid tone?


two little children play in sandstone pool
larger mocks the smaller for a bottle with a little water
(he fancies himself a warrior and the other a fool)
tiny fool ignores the taunts and shrugs off all the blows
they busy themself with finding out what the tadpoles know

all the pain and agony
beginning at day one or three
a neonatal calamity?
it develops into "an oddity"
this dervish gleams with inner light
careening through the stormy nights
agony has set them free
solitude increased acidity
but these empty prisons sing of liberty

Beaches

windy afternoon ancient town on a sandy beach
sunbrellas fly away in the 21st century breeze
off-season agora to get out of the gale
the tourism dependents look grim thin and pale

their heart gave out on another coast before
much less sun and a rockier shore
pillow basalt black as you like
turns mighty grey in the salty spume's might
rains every day and also all night
thirty six meters one year they were there
also in the Amazon and southern Chile, they swear
nipped by pingüina their blood on the shale
did they pause then? nah, kept going up the trail
keep up the pace little ace get braced
the wind from the Andes blowin grit in yer face

smoking some ditchweed out of a can
far away from oceans, high up on the land
the air is much thinner but there's plenty of sand
up here no pingüinas might lend them a hand
crows spiders and lizards are much better friends
than orcas or pingüinas or elfantes marinos
esto es la tierra de los encantadas y las cariños
solo un elefante por todos, es el elefante del Rio

Cats of the West

field fog dissipates
fraying as shadows grow small
sun parabolic blasting
another woolen beast
will grow again before dawn


surf to the beaches where turtles nest
best test lest they cannot crest
above the waves on their buoyant breasts
protect them from gulls with a wet dress
stomp on the crabs to keep them at bay
help baby turtles get through the affray
to swim out to sea with the dawning of day!


loving ain't easy it's more like a plight
might as well try mowing a stone
don't let the wondering keep you up all night
you can't figure this out on your own
one could be perfect in the right frame of light
or seen through a lens not their own
rest and in dreaming you will take flight
and in the morning they might throw you a bone



You call it "The West" but we just call it home.
Y'all came out here to live now you ain't leavin with your bones
Told us bout your prophets and your souls and your childish notions
Look around you: Las grandes montañas, junglas y rios
in disharmony with five oceans
You talk about hellhounds because you're too feeble
to handle the truth of raw natural evil
stay in the East, stay in the middle
Laramidia's got nothing for your Bard's little fiddle
you wanna talk dogs? Let's talk MesoAmerica
tell us again which dogs are superior
Eastern dogs came here and won
except for a single individual pup
they live on today, immortal and such
canine transmissable tumor they call him
genetically mutated from a four-legged friend
this "disease" is now global, his story won't end
You think covid's bad? Wait til you get deep
into the jungle you burn for your meat
moo vacacitos, moo loud and long
the ends of your Progress is the end of our song.



up here with this rude substratum
where time runs the spectrum every flavor of late
here's where we all ride burro-sized atoms
and the sand badgers burrow in perlite to brumate
in this land of the desert mountains and chasms
coyotes bisect cats with no malice or hate


What artillery howitzer brash and loud is this?
a guy with a goat and a beard in the mix?!?
This miraculous shell blasts through our defenses:
The simple pure comfort of animal friendses
a primate on two hands ungulate on four feet
in brisk winter air snuggle together for heat