They’re talking away
nothing urgent, nothing Earth shattering
but substantive nonetheless
like an old idea worked around from a new
vantage point. Did you hear about?
. Amerikkka is a mongrel insensitivity to empathy
. A capitalist concept
of man
exploits man
our mouth of grapes
a profile at a bar, again a sigh and cough
have a heart
forgive my sway
I’m done now.
We’ve got Fritz, as always, to guide the way
for our philosophical jaunt today
and to remind us all, though it is grim,
that God is dead and we have killed him.
poultry air raid bombastic
missionaries regenerate scabs
sore momentum badge
constructed wholesale bee
The answer is: may plasma be a state of nature, may my aisle be flooded with fluorescence, may there be a balm in Gilead and may there be an inferential estimate in each machine.
Injure life support of the other species
and slowly disable your own.
Perceive redwoods as greenbacks shivering
and shrink people into coinage.
You pick up your body like a dirty cloth but no one listens to you the sheet is a square placed on the table like the square of the window like the square of your madness the memory returns in the flame we are no more
one can climb
to dispel the laughter
to add the ocean
to the ceiling
and the birds
to the trembling gown
Les gentilles femmes de Vandenesse take no cell phone calls while cooking ratatouille in kitchens open to the wind, protected from wasps by strands of colored plastic pegged to ancient doorframes of stucco cottages with red-thatched roofs
The police in my country are on
the warpath, going into the neighbor-
hoods to teach those black boys and men
a lesson --
mess with us you get shot, don't
mess with us you still get shot
Glorious and inglorious, both
All a matter of perception
Of those she cared little about
In her journey from obscurity
I write magical runes on the ice and poetry for humpbacks, which animate my tattoos, and create a restroom for celestial beings trying to get a heat in their bones.
This verse will be picked up by crows in the morning
And they will be thrown from heaven
On icy concrete heart rocks
hallowed be the whores, the sugar babies, strippers, porn stars, cam girls
escorts, freestylers--hearts of gold, cold hustle, whom i owe by the dozen
hallowed be the word of the whore, for i believe her over anyone
hollered over too-loud new wave or whispered in the bathroom
“Do you have a minute?” read the email. The Editorial Specialist opened Macrohard Community and saw that he had been assigned a Community Task, which was the same as a regular task, except that its assignment did not require human interaction, virtual or otherwise.
now that he was crisply re-figured at a bus stop on the same gravel shoulder, now that he had earned the insignia, wore the uniform of red and gold, a gold peaked cap over still tangled hair, now that he was raised
Tonight, fatigue’s grim flower unfurls,
but Gandhi, gunned down, had this to say:
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
Americans live on a hair-trigger,
ready any moment
to depart life when
they and a bullet might collide,
and so they die,
either the one shot or the shooter.
I’ll be sorry to leave,
sorry to move onto
the next plane of being
to slip into the new skin
decanted in smeared dots
I was going to throw away the water
bottle then the river spoke: DO NOT
SPIT GUM INTO THE URINALS.
I was transformed. Red bumps rose
along the collar of my hand and I
Standing in the moment, a diamond
Reflects, the romance in waves
Of enjambed ideas, free contours
That do not restrict, but let flowing
Rivers and hearts full of innocence
Meld into a melody of flowers!
my eyes never healed so I may see it all and that I never forget there are those who could use a hand with alms a line we’re human beings for Christs’ sake and some of us are not at home but we’re still here.
They won't say: how did the snow lie on the streets?
But: why did the lie so beguile?
They won't ask: how loud were the feet on concrete?
But: how did the poison taste when imbibed?
The art of listening is fading,
the way light fades at the end
of the day, when we need
lamps, candles that erase
the shadows of the lies
we cling to, and separation,
Twilight bodies, alleyway tramps, hide among
trash cans & apple barrels; hoop apparitions linger & we
become invisible as nights grow longer & memories fade.
You knew me once. I knew you. Now we meet as strangers.
She’s always had teeth why so violent
Now-why shouldn’t she be? The laws of
Nature dictate that she kill, pillage
And burn I saw her as a pup
I’m IOWA pariah. I’m heterodox writer. I workshop Twitter, they says all. I brought shame. Esteemed institution happen. I’m IOWA pariah.
back into the clinic under the guise of seeking treatment, a shrug
when asked why, when PTSD is offered as cause—a bruise,
a mass metastasizes, seizes the rest. Like shrapnel, shame echoes,
scatters; a stain his brothers can’t evade; an angry, unhealed wound.
I am awake late,
watching a screen in awe,
as courageous women
throw their head scarves into flames
I’m getting kind of surrealist
you said quoting from the psalm
After the weeping comes the murders
of the infants and then comes the weeping
Time was taking a piece of him,
Piece by piece he would disappear
Not made of anything permanently enduring
What once was most alluring
Vanishes to dust
Risk here: a muffle
and choke
and silence introduced
risk here overwhelms what was
sound, a levee between us
She took the fury whole
filled her gut with it
she doesn’t follow where inkling’s gone
accepted every slap down
like the commonplace custom it was
I shall not unclench these fists
if doing so means carrying destruction.
I have never close another’s eyes,
cut the twine that tethers him
the nightmares tell me the same thing. They tell me I will be the last poet who will write the last poem before the world ends.
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