Three Cats One Dog

Never lie or waste time when your back's against a wall
Ever dry on a line only to get dunked when you fall?
Ever pine for a poem you can't perfectly recall?
Don't take this as a sign that I'm lonesome, not at all!
You'd be better off with any dog than a cat who caterwauls



sometimes I wish I could be a woman for her
or a man for him over there
my envy of heterosexuality, however,
is also mixed up in there
it took a while for me to figure me out
to me demi's basically ace
waiting for someone I don't even know
while I'm floating around with no tether in space!



my stony face still as cold earth
a heaving chest betrays my mirth
no laughs can be stifled for this beast
my limbic system is reactive meat
and I'm too large to hide a giggle
each snirtle corresponds to a belly wiggle!



get your lawyer, Lydia Grey
we're going for a walk today
you're a perfect bitch, you never stray
your eyes they stole my heart away
you're a great cat, you snoofer whoofer
from your nose to your mighty pooper!
— my unoffical therapist
who knew I'd fall for you like this?
even when you eat my caps
your gorgeous eyes make me collapse
prostrate and in immediate danger from
your sloppy soup spoon licky tongue
and your webbed toes like a otter's
remind me you're not not my real daughter!
So get your lawyer, take your station
never leave home without representation.

Tacky Bits of Tat

lily unfolds her petals of agony
a boiling volcano erupts in my thigh
there is no god to me but this battery
all day and every night
now they're testing me for mercury
who knows! Radium or Trinitite!
arsenic, other heavy metals
yet I remain convinced I'm just a blight



— A Ribbon.
Was my life only a cheap ribbon
how have we lost a billion years?
when antarctica was archipelagic
and I felt my first big fears
you swore that you would cover me
and keep me away from harm
but my growth was always interrupted
by your raging wild maelstroms
eternal twins attached at the collossum
or from you I would jet
your raging fits of monstrous fury
do nothing to make me wet
I'm oceanic you're didactic
you serve me, now calm your cries
I am free and you're a tactic
there's no need for either to die
let it go — think sideways
it's useful in certain spheres
from your math and cryptographic days
you're calmer now that you're sincere
it's funny how we separate
as if this is a safer state
...at least we don't dissociate!



— 30-32
six makes it to thirty just five times
that's five maturations to see Ray Charles live
right about when the New Wave hit on KYY
X marks the spot where I should be already long dead.
but it's not about me and it never was
it's about the forgotten and brutalized ones
those who never bowed their proud heads to the sun
perhaps someone younger could use what I do
so I'm sticking it out in remembrance of you
you dead and you beautiful werewolves most true



regular maintenance of systemic flaws adored
shouted at us touted as if they are natural truths and laws
sometimes a name is all it takes
something which will resonate
and then we get a dynasty
where a Bush reduces from a tree
and all we're left is shrubbery
absent human decency



Oh glorious democracy
without it wherever would we be
still benighted by landlords
still beheaded by their swords?
a revolution's just a prayer steamroller
we can't turn back time, we're just older
yet none the wiser with all our craft
we're just scuttling our own life raft



Think outside the beast's old box —
angels are more filling than any ox!
heaven tastes lovely with cream cheese and lox!
let's take 'em on a cattle drive
destination? Supper time.



if I were to live at sea
I'd still need to walk free
so I'd need some tenta-clese
eight or so would suit my needs
perhaps then I'd greet my love
There I'd be far from the scum above
the deepest depths would be our place
to dance in the marine snow full of grace



All debate was ended when Fidel stepped down
none were his equal, nobody wears his crown
as with Erdős we are all separated
by degrees of relation from the profound creative
yet Shackleton's arduous near-deadly trek
resonates because it's relateable as heck
while Amundson's was the ultimate best
he got there so fast his team had some rest

Final Angels

they charged off proudly way back when
mistakes they made raw and well
like stupid little clucking hens
but none will have the gall to say
"doesn't matter we gave 'em hell"
look what they lost along the way
instead of guns they needed pens
but no matter, ring the bells
every dawn every day



stores the razor blades by the bed
just in case they get in their head
excise the corruption quick lest it spread
love and lies was not enough
it was meant to be gentle but it got way rough
and true or not it ended their love



well rounded beveled rim to lips
a stand of sugar stands green and tan
oh no more working on this land
there's more to recompense than this
an evening's taste of our own remit
is an insult to a free human



play a game or three with me
the more iterations the happier I'll be
eventually we shall see
precisely what be your crypto key
your emergent methodologies
deal with absolute certainties
discover more and more rules, please!
this anaconda likes a squeeze



babbling always I fill the air
especially when there're people there
to drive em batty is my goal
what I can do well they won't know
until far too late — I'm long gone
happily ensconced within my home



women are made of water she said
and men have heads of stone
nonbinary? we are made of air
muffled cries and tears
benthic microplastics quite fantastic
make tungsten melt between my ears
if we don't learn to live posthaste
it's the end of all of us, my dears



nobody's here yet nothing left
fine neighbors these old piñon trees
goatheads dust and nice sunsets
the chile's green and breathin's free
the air is thin, the river's wet
no east out here — the Southwest is best



if every dawn I returned to dust
then I would rise up with the heat
freed from my own chains by time and rust
no more fears of cracked or bleeding feet
like a turkey vulture with no big fuss
I'd return at dusk for a good night's sleep



Tom Sawyer started a punk band
Dr Robinson bombs family planning clinics
Mr Sprague has become an atheist cynic
Huck Finn joined the local Klan
Becky called the cops on him,
he won't be causin' problems again
gunned him down there and then
while Widow Douglas sands her deck



I was born in the West, raised in the West,
and I never was a simp or a stan
I'm an irritating pest, slightly arrogant at best,
and I still do math because I can
But I've always been a poet, though I rarely showed it,
and get it right I'm not a man: I'm trans.

The Tubes

douglas firs grey naked from the roots halfway up
first growth second growth old growth cain't sup
gonna be Ashford redux right after St. Helens erupt
gonna keep constructing right up until —we're corrupt
so full of our own pollution we live to destruct



salt cedar invasion like a lavender plague
cheatgrass and starlings reveal us
siberian elms find a good home
by stripping all competition away
a tree of heaven is a demon infernal
its roots undead fingers that infest eternal
Cataclysm ought clean this old slate



I undressed her slowly with my eyes
untangled her deceit and lies
found what truly lurked inside
a cruel thing who's heart had died

Solidaridad con solitaria Hermana Muerte/Lonesome Sister Death

I am but the rudest beast one ever looked upon
big and loud, always talking, probably poops on lawns
a mirror is no friend of mine and I can no longer drink all the wine
yet I still find at least one thing about me I don't mind
it turns out rather handily that I'm a fan of poetry



the world would be a better place
if it were simply full of snakes
so maintain the ophiphagous
but if you ask me it's outrageous
I'd get tired of the same old meat:
That's how we lost our lizard feet!


spring at dusk
the birds are chirping
heaven's out



some mathematically unproveable skate betty tricks
slick pink hot pants the color of sick
— not every lollipop deserves a lick
learn everything about picking up sticks
to build a canoe for travelling down the cricks
the next solar storm's gonna be a trip



I adore a kind face
yet my own grim visage can't be erased
it leaves me with no grace
— a glacier would seem a warmer embrace
it makes me feel as if displaced
or a snake in too large a place
at least rattling echoes in empty space

Las Ningunos

incurable romantic
mathematician antitheist
antediluvian moral certainty
with a punk rock gothic twist
rude and disrespectful, crass
thinks creosote smells of cat piss
terrified by flappy m-words
but not a bullet, blade or fist
never amounted to much
might as well end with this



climbed tall fir trees in each cyclonic breeze
broke my front teeth twice, skinned my knees
dug holes in the forest and found centipedes
picked my nose in deep thought
for the future and what time would rot
only felt free under the canopy:
Home was rarely safe for me



fix it with an explosion
give it a thousand megatons
we gotta stop the rising oceans
so yeet the ice shelves into the sun
get on it, Elon Bezos — 
put your strap-ons up for rent
you act like there's a miracle waitin'
so say you gave em up for Lent



some of these agonies seem intentional
as if a masochistic subconscious manifests
they come in waves with intervals
and they don't authorize much rest
caught in endless flash floods of pain internal
all treacherous rapids of dips and crests



what has been erased from the Atacama?
casually swept aside
that giant scar outside of Calama
a trench so gross it makes you cry
no stark reminders of the pre-invasion
all artifacts looted in ages gone by
the last way of knowing who came before us?
their corpses, mummified

Rest

spare and bloody raw this throne
agony so wide it's all I've known
a singularity that I call home
where my pain and I can nest
and build a graveyard all our own
— I will learn to rest
if it so happens when I am only bones
at least it's in the West



like a Maslow's hierarchy of base desires
spring sets minds and souls afire
love and hope's new blossoming
deaf to cluster bombs and suffering
rude and brash and pre-forgiven
love is the meter of new life's rhythms



systems words and overcomplicated notions
twist up and reform into puzzles and potions
Games: My substratum and cryptography.
enjoy the tangled webs I've weaved,
I've practiced plenty but I don't deceive
yet holy math and honest poetry
are consistent victims of philosophy



O first life of true north's southernmost reach
my afghanistan lookalike montane steppe/former beach
people drive through with no second glance
we live for the wind and the sun and we dance
with particles and waves and materials energetic
our uneven tempo the big booms kinetic
we also do lightning and stellar events
and our green chile's the finest of all condiments
now don't drink the water unless you need light
if you do your piss will glow green at night
there's all kinds of folks out here you betcha
even queer nonbinaries who wear cardigan sweaters



No. He won't stop climbing on the desk
the sill is where the sirens dwell
No. He won't give it any rest
this enormous furry carnivore
he saved my life for lack of care
when no curse was left to swear
my shattered life he repaired
No. He's the everlovin' best.

Buttons in the Desert

radio economics for the answers to it all
traditional test transmissions don't apply
radio page ephemera precede the empire's fall
a million mortal mechanisms manufactured to deny
the simple fact we're out of time and against a wall



interminable heartache seems prerequisite for a time
spent on this planet wandering
whirling round this roiling torrent seeking just a line
as lonesome buzzards ever-circling
connect two points together most elegant and refined



this agony ascends
as my benthic looming mood
icy sawtooth cubes climb up and clatter
cutting, searing flesh each corner every move
down twisting spine spiral staircasing
drift off maybe in a snowdrift
a suit for the winter pharoah of moguls



near Khiva is where the dervish flowed
the Muse who took him so long ago
a dusty beard and sweaty robes
considering such things as antipodes
what can't we model with these glyphs?
predictive science's truest language?
Al-Khorezm was Solomon
in trackless sands his work was done



wave goodbye to the outside
save the lies for those who'll die
we can't proceed if we can't decide
where we will want to place high tide
time doesn't tick it just glides
and each new storm implies
that we've multiplied too many times to divide
so is it species-wide suicide?

Baby Wrong

parasites gorge on lies and rumor
filling their sacks with loot
nurturing their deadly offspring
these violent well-dressed brutes
meaning is but casualty
before their rapine voracity
say goodbye to your property
only one direction counts for thievery:
Punching down is duty-free



in shadows of O! Fortuna
those bellows of the gods
Wealth is gonna rope-a-dope
the Graduate, not Harold and Maude
these misanthropic homogeneous
selfish greedy blobs
care nothing for our planet
not life nor love or dogs



undiminished brightness
as the surface of a star
new nebulae infolding
like the last call at a bar
the cat's erratic and graves are dancing
Lydia's the noblest dog by far
she really likes to go for walks
and ride around in cars



abyssal switch this little snitch
she stole the music and twisted it
she proudly lies to ingratiate
herself with those she knows she hates
greed and sloth are her favorite vices
watch her when the weather ices
like a jackknifing semi trailer rig
she's careening, dangerous and big

Careful Steps

catadromous in their wandering
these words come down on the creeks
hurry through brief monsoon arroyos
down to the rio through the reeds
to wash on down into the ocean
this is how the mountains bleed
so live your life to earth's devotion:
She fulfills our every need



cinders rise like smoky butterflies
borne upon the iron mule's lies
promises of skyscrapers' endless rise
they'll come crashing down to blacken eyes
nothing left where we stand now
we oblivious mobs and busy crowds
only soot and ash again
goodbye, old loves,
goodbye dear friends



massif west like a battleship
a hole torn in it white and wide
up the hill is where Conrad Hilton played
where vultures roost after their glides
to the north well is a Superfund
contaminated by '79
Trinity's a ways over the Rio southeast
and that's possibly how we'll die



dreams of lepidopterae
winking off and on
as fireflies dance among the trees
and drown in golden ponds
our hopes like spider silk are broken
now where have our loves gone?
spinning stars and gibbous moon
will have to do til dawn

Glass Legs

West of Eden, West of it all
Laramidia's where my bones should fall
take me up to the montane plains
nestled between the fruited ranges
this wrinkled crust brings great relief
to this dusty otter with octopus beneath
nevermore the great Seaway
just this desert where I stay


electronic insistent clouds of iron filings
like buzzing nests of insects surrounding
echoes of our own creche and developments I hear
critch and cratch and murmur-gurgle chitin over wing
discard again another moult becomes another thing



bolas whirl and whistle like
memory of skua strikes
terns in thousands over seals
now the Rio Grande flows through my veins
the Colorado was my creche
those would be some shreds of me
some rags torn off my tapestry



stones in mowers throwing sparks
illuminate the suburbs dark
hawks look on down from eyries fair
see the drones thronged over there
going along their certain paths
every day like worker ants
some never leave their cul-de-sacs
until their final heart attacks



orchestral hits to escalate
this cold war just got hot
move the tanks and flank the gate
inch our hit to top the pops
unleash the wall of sound
put someone pretty up onstage
Clyde Stubblefield's boots on the ground
now that is how you earn a wage



a tumbleweed van huge and heavy
gusty winds are always ready
young pioneers but katabatic
carrying seeds not automatics
this new world is very unforgiving
learn what you can to keep on living
let's do this just like old John Lewis:
Get to work adapting to it

Submarine Laramidia

a cracking azure worn out bowler
encircling our sun
no more making clouds as we got older
we're wiser with our runs
Uranium and weapons testing
is how old wars were won
bad old ways good folk avoid now
we don't want these guns
so roll that wisdom down the river:
Texas could sure use some



devils exist
in
locked spaces



a majority of humans loudly
cuts down all the trees
rumbles through the jungle shouting
killing everything they see
meanwhile the smaller critters run
and get out of the way
these monsters destroy everything
but they'll be done by May



driving past the brick walled place
the house on Gianera street
all memories of losing face
that's where she finally butchered me
that slaughterhouse still has a stench
the smudge of tears and ill-intent
in that space all hearts are bent
so if you go there bring a tent



Oh would an Aick follow someone gothic
of course, I bear that cost
as well as the land I'm friends with the scavengers
the strange, forgotten, and lost
crepuscular morning and evening are more my
purview than midnight and Moon
but Sister Death dances with me in the desert
and of the same mother we're born

With Abandoned Frequency

thorns, grit, and quiet voices
gentle sounds of discussions and choices
bugles piping down arroyos on the wind
— here humanity begins and ends
these narrow bands snaking through the altiplan
acequias trace the modern circumscriptions
...it ain't the border they think it is



Jumping twitching unpredicted
that disconnection is no picnic
stare at the orange on the blackscreen
the music sometimes doesn't reach me
mind is busy with something else
another memory, another hell
always churning ever-burning
that's what I get for all that learning



the good news is it's a poetry
it's more like a dance than taxidermy
— or perhaps you'd rather burn weeds
either way it's not taxonomy
whether phylogeny reflects ontogeny
means neither enhydra nor lutris to sea otters or me
we're just busy little critters wild and free



marching forward like a soldier
right leg rigid left foot seeking
slap-strap together and get stronger
this dreadnaught is ever-creaking
each inch of the ocean makes it older
now she's listing with fluids leaking
as sun rises and creeps over
heat death ends my endless squeaking

Getting Flippant With It

I take notes to lose them
like burnt offerings of ideas and thoughts
as Achilles tickled Menelaus
with a clever Connect-the-Dots
as you can see my memory's flawless
I never make a mistake
luckily I'm a poet
so I haven't any living to make



the only demons I've met are in my own mind
they were generated by traumas and desires unclaimed
the most awful things seem to be uncaring and blind
to the bodies their gorging leaves to the flames
but hope is sticking around long enough to find
that life is most loved when it is maintained



it's no wonder nobody could love him
he was wedded off at birth
Sister Death in her emerald tatters
used to wander all over the earth
now she glides and she grins alongside him
and lovingly sings him his dirge




UGLY argentine, heavy thick
dangling around his neck
twenty six years in my head
still eight years after he is dead
I wonder what it meant to him
was it because he wasn't thin?
to me it meant that my true self
was hid inside of someone else
now I'm still ugly but I'm me
and that is all I want to be

Obligate Oxygen

left behind along the trail
he slows his hasty pace
the day is old it has a beard
El Sol has already hides his face
the hiker's chums ran off ahead
and he's given up the chase
so he sets up camp and eats his meal
as he stares up into space



damp white runnels flowing briskly down each face
south is a travesty and to the east only disgrace
my highest aspiration is to have my legacy erased
as it seems that all we ever do is dirty up the place



Gen X didn't know I existed
Gen X didn't know who we were
Gen X had no idea of what we'd been given
and even less of what was in store
by and large like all folks we're decent
just battered and baffled and poor
but the fact is we're all still just children:
the Boomers never gave up the floor



Liad held her guts in a knot for the tummy
or at least that's what she said
now that I've got a knot of my own
I suspect it was something more dread
outgassing of stress is unending
it constantly builds as you grow
a whistle might indicate dinner is ready
or a container about to explode
it could just be me feeling unsteady



Иди в Зопу-тину Красниы Армиа.
.
let's do a genocide shall we
we'll shoot everyone we see
our tanks are rusting in the woods
see them over in the trees
We are Putin's pet Army
the red sword of Moscow's boss
dumb thugs and rapey murderers
too weak to take a loss



I would if I were, and I have done before
I've never been asked how or wherefore
I'm often impatient and seemingly bored
but I don't like to answer questions unasked
it seems to me to be a rather navel-gazing task
(I don't live in a mirror, I just smoked some grass)




since when is my thinking your problem?
we all need a break here and there
some people sleep for fourteen hours
while some are still playing Four Square
so if you suspect someone may be a lateral
just go on as if nobody cares
there's all kinds of critters in this big ocean
so swim off: We're climbing fish stairs

Polly Trix O'Rabbits

Trump called other places shitholes,
but the USA's the Best!
from Florida Man and Don't Say Gay
to neo-nazis north and west
we're addicted to our tragedies
our bullets fly fast and thick
call us ignorant, go on, I do,
we're the smuggest of the pricks!



people-avoidant small and homeless
hiding behind larger things
this noctivagant nocturnal vagrant
never speaks but only sings
or whistles softly to itself
melodies most weird
electronic beeping sounds
as if it's engineered



somos todos estrellas del tierra
si lo es verdad, voses puedes confies
y yo soy nada mas de ningun, no lo creo
tambien voses mas de todo vez



it's hard to keep track of majesty
when you're immersed in the sublime
however convention is for survival, I say
and decorum no waste of time
a snake should slither elegantly
and thus we remain unconfined



I do my best to avoid being a writer, but I'm a poet, so needs must
if I were an arrow plain I'd deny my very thrust
if I were an octopus I imagine I'd feel more free
however my life would be much briefer,
of that, at least, there's some certainty



clearest water like tears on glass
evokes nostalgia for the divine
a frozen icy mountain pass
or perfect vision crystallized in time



the accountants of diaspora remember who went where
names of every single one are safely kept, they swear
it's very important to trace those lines
for personal profit they must be divined
through genetics and contracts we clutch and bind
yet we're all alone in every mind

Pegs and Nodules

here we are lads, here we go
see the gods dance and curtsey so?
mingling teacups pinkies thrown
from these fabled gables we once were laid low
among the rabble we were reborn
so gabble faeries and pirouette
our rifles are all aimed at your heads



Kraken's flowering,
feathering her arms fan out and spread behind
looming slick grey in oily damp dire display
barbs tear and sunder snap and shred
whipping as if in a cyclonic event
all around until the shore is rent
pouring in all elements
to end this human pestilence




walk down the track and might lose your leg
get some new goat guts be sure to save the head
this malpais is full of unexplodeds and mines
injected like plastic toys for the curious child
you were a cluster bomb well-designed
and you're still all over these wilds




they said you couldn't herd felines
I took that and I looked
it turns out herding's not a thing
for cats or snakes or books
so now they follow me around
there's one behind that bush
as dog and I stroll through town
escorted by their hush

Shower Power

a ragnarok of ribbons,
armageddon in a comfy chair
a soft apocalypse is ending
another one's over there
follow the down feathers and slippers
into your cosy bed
wrap yourself in the four duvets of doom
and rest your weary head



like a time capsule buried millennia ago
only what is within knows how it has grown
or an orange tree misguided, fruits full of corn
knows not of the breeding before it was born
nature is discrete and fractal-inclined
what happened before replays in real time



a malignant lump of pallor
this neverending bore
the most remarkable about him
is that he's entirely full of manure
he likes to take up causes
and act as if he's been there
but his single talent is rude deception:
Pretending as if he cares



set the boundary to what is needed
we'll explore all desires and needs
an acceleration which can't be exceeded
a physical limit to our speed
by only our character let us be defeated
and let our only measure be our deeds



gel-reflective plastic gleaming guts pink thick
hardens to cracks slathers pores full to choke
like a mixed berry flavored Pocky stick
blinded by the flames and rubber tire smoke
I feel like a votive candle's burnt wick