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