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