slideshow

erosion before a jewel light
from behind the ogling lace
the sinking Atlantis of showering sand
insecting a fragment to a filtered refraction
a clarified vision in the picture
in humid connexion on the high voltage lines
in humid connexion in just the right conditions
before slipping away the stone in the waterfall
you may want to pick it but the gold will evaporate
better to let it fall and lose its luster

I'm just here to eat strawberries

to be tickled by sound
by the humming of souls
when caressed into trance
when the speech is a blur
in a puritan church
dazzled into space
where the voice is prepared
by reverberant hall
and the daydreaming mass
and the thousands of ghosts
in the spell of the organ
stuck in the spider's web
and lying on your back
when your mom reads a story
and you now know the past
when a teacher bent over
to pencil on paper
and all senses were buzzing
in deep concentration
and maybe they whisper
but I am not looking
I love the confusion
on the back of a horse
who is grazing on grass
and the sun is on fire
and a girl tells her story
while the flowers are listening
or the brushing of blades
and an ant on my arm
and the tricks of the creek
and the breeze in the maple
ever living and dying
to be loved without question

For Prokofiev

will there be any joy
in the last sip of bottle drunk wine
that may contain strange crystals
ice skating over the overthrown
of harmony's passionate end
so not serial
the diabolical suggestions
to lie in a crypt

great chess minds converse upon a mountain cairn
good table and bad table
the flowers are paper
on the big eraser page
only before a storm (and during and after)
there is no quiet in the banshee's heart
mummified dictators
or frozen-dead peasants

Winter Camping DOs and DON'Ts

if some crusty bread gets stuck in your chest
and gives you that feeling

CHEW
your mouth is empty
but when the mouth chews
the chest chews

Actual Problem

Missing:
black and white puppy
last seen on chessboard
seemed to just "disappear"
answers to:
"potato brand"

World Records

78, 45, 33 and a third
these are the current ages of their respective users
the older you are the higher resolution your childhood was in

The French call what the Americans call a grape:
a raisin
what the Americans call a raisin:
a dry raisin
what the Americans call a bunch of grapes:
a grape

An European mummy is called a bog body
they were tossed into the bog after they were killed
now they're fucking mummies

The Bog Bodies submitted but didn't make the cut
that means that they will not be featured on the gold record
affixed to the side of a huge record-player-slash-space-probe
that means that they will not be representing humanity
nope, no Grammy for mummy

After the show the Bodies slouched on the couches in the studio
they half-played their guitars
something seemed odd
the show had been a dud
they were playing for a bunch of stiffs
the band was dead

United Nations Galactica

this pile of wood is a computer
if spring cleaning the papal plane
then tonight is leftover night

the very tired woman's sigh is sweet like modeling glue
like unripe pear
riding in the circle on the patio
or painting the painting with the grandfather
father teaches tools with simple battleship forms
we decorate the boards with hardware

how unlike my idea-dad
but I remember his amusement
letting us swing the tethered ships around our heads
in the real ocean
tripping on the nails and screws and wavy crimple shims

Dialectical Unity

Dear friend who moves through the drapes,
Yesterday I broke the vase by placing it too near to you.
Today attempting repair
once again it was too close;
it tipped but I caught it;
the vase in one hand and you in the other
I synthesize like the letter 'T'.

River Road

the most mysterious pathway
the river
a kind of road itself
only superficially visible from the town
is bordered by a netherworld strip
a regular road called river road
actually uniquely irregular
town nor river
a ghost road
fluttering between
town ghosts and river ghosts spilling out from either side
blowing the gray sky around
onto the only flat road I know
like an ocean pebble
stripped barren by the swarms of spirit life
abandoned sanctuary
with occasional mostly dead buildings
but you can tell a building to be lived in
if it has ten or twenty bird feeders hanging off of it
because people who live along river road know
that it's also where the birds live
because they can hide in the open
the most beautiful invisible place
there are also nature plants
small trees maybe
each one-of-a-kind and never seen before
distinguished by their various seed-pods and such
some fuzzy and bright or clear like insect wings
but all different and all shaking
clinging to the otherwise bare branches
I once saw a yellow horseshoe caught up there like a parachutist

river road meets a highway perpendicularly
a kind of road itself
now playing a purely aesthetic role
a huge museum piece
showing us that all of river road is a museum
the highway is the kind of large, well-funded piece
that makes a low and soothing noise sound
it can be heard throughout the show
while your looking at the other pieces
mostly made of little streams
you can still feel its presence
and if you run into someone you know
also wandering through and holding a child's hand
super relaxed smile
they library whisper
'have you seen the highway yet?'
'I'm headed that way'
and they slowly bob the smile up and down
blissfully squinted eyes locked on your own
so when you finally approach the cross
you've been with it already
and standing before it you are transformed
the sound actually comes from an infinitely long platform
suspended 100 feet above your head
you are alone under its shadow
pondering the sentimental messages
left in graffiti on three pair of enormous cement pillars
you are still
in the center of a necropolis
peeking into a tomb
the hype was not just hype
this is the closest you can get to the spirit of river road

Sandglass Edition

"Alpine-lake-blue linen shelfback
with glacier-blue pattern-paper side"

Telephone

Do you want me to give you a fire
and make you some catnip?
I used my light for something
something I didn't need to use it for
I must remember what it was
so I can find it in the dark

Revolution #2009

Beatles Love; Spider-man's web browser
take 20; Foxfire
Old Brown Shrew; internet pollution
jail visit; Sexist Sadist
skunk cabbage; Magic Mantra
Celestial Seasons; pre-Monkees chivalry
George Martian and the Deaf-aids; harsh mellow
server farm; My Dinner with Sir Paul
closed circuit; Polythene Spam
Fellini; a Phish called Wonder Wall
if you become virtually naked; The Vagina Dialogues
Diamond Eyebrary; the smell of a new baja
death trap; spam blog