Posts tagged: POETRY
Inimical demagogues—
these stray bullets of true horror;
black, white, tan, albino, brown—
cancerous cells grinding rows of
shark teeth on a cross
street. circumnavigating
the cultured hate
of red state radicals,
meth head tweakers,
the gang bangers
and the late night lanyard
loving stranglers—
I cannot dance here anymore.
the streets
have swelled up with fraternities
on fire, filled with children;
wolves some say.
I say that animalism has become
a threadbare form of examination,
and I can’t dance to that song anymore—
I haven’t for awhile.
the beer tastes sweeter
the less crazy I get but my
walks home are filled with fear;
any miscalculated exchange
or turn could send me to an
auditorium blaring eulogies.
It’s like walking through
a tornado of gnats, that sort of death
is mostly just a nuisance,
but amusing to someone.
I miss being crazy
the chupacabra;
a methodical mythological
lancer of mole hills.
now, there is no such thing
as a chupacabra; only a coyote
choking on its own fangs.
DIZZY DISCO FACE-PLANTS
contort your cataracts
__
__________
_____ ______
to counter
to sheath
the interaction between
you and your private
turpitude;
that recessive binge-ball
where honor is not an option
and your moral fiber has frayed-
nondescript.
your sacrosanct shangri-la
your modus operandi
crawls out of that salivating slit
you call a mouth
whenever that mongrel
loses his muzzle.
WHY CAN’T THE DEVIL PLAY HIS
FIDDLE IN A DIFFERENT TOWN?
I want to walk on water with you
not drag you out of that swamp
with tied up pieces of bark
and W.C. Fields.
THERE’S A MAN IN YOU
RESEMBLING YOUR FATHER MORE
BY THE PINT,
THERE’S A GENTLE SOUL PRUNING
OVER IN YOU
EVERY TIME YOU GOTTA
YOU GOTTA
celebrate
the glorious qualities of booze
AND I CAN’T REMEMBER ANY
OF THOSE GOOD TIMES
I HAD WITH YOU.
Eat or drink?
the saddest part about any of this
is that every night starts
with the same old hymn
“Sink, Florida, Sink”
or
“The Mariner’s Revenge”
and then you think you’ve got
glitter in your teeth
coughing up dizzy disco face-plants
without glamour
without credentials
to back that hot ass up
you rock star.
you porn star.
you partied that animal
into a dead duck.
I’ll see you
in a month
with my tail between my legs
wrapped around a flask
filled with a fast-
forward smack;
another casual fisting by a bipolar tomorrow.
ALL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
HAVE SIMULTANEOUSLY
QUIT OFFICE TO PURSUE
ALTERNATIVE CAREER PATHS
DUE TO THIS UNEXPECTED PHENOMENON:
ALL FORMS OF CURRENCY-
OF LEGAL TENDER-
HAVE EVAPORATED.
EVERY ACCOUNT HAS A BALANCE OF:
ZERO,
EVERY VAULT CONTAINS NOTHING BUT
AN ECHO,
EVERY POCKET AND WALLET
IS FULL OF WORRIED FINGERS
SCRAPING AT LINT AND BUS TRANSFERS.
NO MORE MONEY!
I HEARD IT ON THE NEWS…
NO MORE MONEY!
I SAW IT ON THIS MARQUEE
WHILE I WAS WAITING IN LINE
TO CASH MY CHECK
IT WAS FRIDAY
NO MORE MONEY!
THE SPECIALISTS
SCRATCHED THEIR HEADS
UNTIL THEIR HEADS WENT BALD
THEY STROKED THEIR CHINS UNTIL
THEIR CHINS WERE SCABBING GOATEES.
MEANWHILE: PANIC HIT THE STREETS
AND THE STREETS HIT BACK
AT THE FIRST THING THOSE HANDS
COULD GRAB
AND THE RECEIPTS RAN OUT LIKE
BLANK SCROLLS.
PEOPLE DIED.
THEY HAVE A WAY OF DOING
THAT.
PRECIOUS METALS
MELTED.
I SAW THIS WOMAN
ON AN ELEVATOR
I WAS TAKING.
HER ENGAGEMENT RING
COOKED HER FINGER,
IT FELL LIKE THE ASH
OFF OF THE END OF A STICK
OF INCENSE.
SHE WAS LUCKY
SHE WASN’T WEARING
A NECKLACE.
NO MORE MONEY!
YET I’M STILL RINSING
EIGHTEEN PACKS OF RAINIER
OUT OF MY HAIR
WHEN I TAKE A SHOWER
MOST MORNINGS.
NO MORE MONEY!
WE ONLY BOW OUT OF
INTIMIDATION AND TO THEIR FAILING
HUMAN INSTINCTS
BECAUSE WE
HAVE FORGOTTEN
THAT WE TOO
CAN INVENT.
NO MORE MONEY!
I never thought it could look like this
but it does, our rebirth is not limited
to dollars, cents
hang ups that drag us out
into temperamental
ejaculatory comas
we can’t forget what made
the colors mix
we can’t forget why we put
the fire out and ran toward beaches
sand between our toes
and sun kissed necks
craning to get higher and higher
to kiss the sun back
we can’t forget the astronauts
the cowboys
the strippers
the bedridden carebears
doing everything but anything
remotely real
we can’t forget why we have tried
we can’t forget that we have tried
we’re all going to make it some day
WITHOUT THE FUCKING VALET
OR A WIKIPEDIA PAGE
we can’t forget that when we’re alone
we have to think
replenish
and relinquish all that makes us
want to be alone.
GODSPEED
WITHOUT THE PRAYER
AND WITH PLENTY OF ERROR.
One minute I am
swishing Manny’s
tapping on an airplane bottle
full of Fireball
in my breast pocket-
a gay senator cracks
a joke at my expense
I am growing deaf to jokes
so I don’t really know
if it was actually made
at my expense
SO I KEEP LAUGHING LOUDER
humoring the funny man and
slapping the knees of my funny friends.
The next minute I am
not surrounded by friends
they have all become strangers
I have shrunken into a shy child
with a supple soul
ducking behind countertops
from Monsters
to get away from Monsters
The next minute I am
a Monster
looking into her eyes,
“Tonight is the only night”
The next minute there is
a knife lodged between the carpet
of the hallway
& the linoleum of the bathroom
no one is dead
it is Christmas eve
there isn’t any snow
just walking into punches of debris,
Jim Beam, Jager, and sex smearing
itself onto my shirt
walking into another fuzzy
minute
channeling dead poets
and wondering if my words
will ever levitate like theirs
the next minute
I am not here.
WHAT DOES LOVE MEAN TO ME?
IT MEANS THAT YOU DO IT
IF OR IF NOT YOU UNDERSTAND
THE COMPLEXITY, THE FRAILTY, THE INJUSTICE
BECAUSE WITHOUT IT HALLMARK GOES BANKRUPT.
there is
such a thing
as controlled decadence;
it is where one becomes
pardoned
exonerated by the macros
for any peroid
of time.
you have been given ways
to waste it, this break:
a choice of space and substance
and company
which shall be left
uncommunicated
it is your secret love
do not hinder yourself
by shouting it’s name
you will be caught
eventually
and it is nearly impossible to explain
to men and women who pride
themselves
on how well
they punish.
do what will make you
wonderful
to be around
and only do it
as if you are young
if you’ve never had the chance
and no-one depends on you,
or if you’re in a touring band
and remember;
if you’re ever
starving in a bunker,
cannibalism must be
consensual.
but also make certain to
never party
on an empty stomach
or all of the problems
you have been avoiding
will find you
and they will be
the least of your worries.
do what makes you feel
GOOD
even if it makes you look
disheveled
so snort the ivory dust
swept over to us
from Blue Monday,
swallow the rasta waterfall
and piss onto the freeway
as discreetly as possible,
fuck like squirrels
until your bushes knot up together
and your tails kink
as your bottle necks clink
just do whatever you want
just be you
and don’t get caught