There was a Murder

He and his friend were John Lennon fans
and on a rare visit to his home, we jammed.
He was tall and ill dressed, the type
that dropped sheet music in school hallways
and ran like a girl, but no one said anything.

His brother had stayed in his bedroom
next to the music room almost all the time.
Later i read he had pornography plastered
on every inch of every wall -- slept with it,
comfy like a womb.

I saw the one that got away at a track meet
still with rope burns around her wrists.
She was the quietest silence i've ever seen.
After all these years, this is still-life
like old photos.

litter two

Tom Waits curbside crooner underbelly
wit of Hollywood Boulevard, racing forms
and New York Times littering graffiti
all in oral magnificence.

To those who look, the striptease
has a Babylonian logic, a Neanderthal charm.
That and a shot of Richards for the change
in your pocket.

Since the big bang of the twentieth century we've
been anxious to make peace with what we've done.
Shaded by a Stetson, serenading a bottle
is an honest place to start.

99th

i'll bring the same dish
sauted, skilletted in France
peppered, egyptian spiced
hand me down, blessed
by those in tibet

offer it daily
for a month, two, seventy
plus seven days, everyday, a look
will tell, 99th is one
too many

as if

the man
with tinted glass in his Beamer
finally waves
and wonders why no one responds

the skrawl of a troll

i find this edgy. the optimum
investment in word, maturing in division
and excitement, crimson and red.
a weathered sportsman knows
the time damp moss is flirtatious,
desperation fragrant.

this is the time of Ulysses
his run on the waters.
fish,
living fish
worthy of the line,
fight him this hour. fish
strutting struggle, those
a danger to the net

Shelly

She said she enjoyed my poetry, exuberance, my zeal.
Sensing her instability, I agreed. It's just a hobby, I confessed
and what a surprise to the canister is the flare.

You see, this is what I expect from you, this!
and those who swim in your water.
There has been effort to rearrange words
before they become imperceptible from rain.

There you go again, again! You see,
this sparkles skies, umbrellas
attract harmonious drops.

You couldn't have requested a better corner, I exclaimed.

She did turn,
she did walk away, although
awaited some kind of goodbye.

Parakeets

plump candy canes run aerial reconnaissance inside my sunroom.
the plan has been in effect since their unceremonious arrival.
every cranny; lodged, tugged, discussed, and then,
patient outpost.

through glass, the objective is plain.
codes are passed in dash-like tongue
until uncommon silence and they look on.

congregating at its base, the pair measure
and nip the fish tank. these civilians
will require relocation.

don't let them fool you, through the fluff,
the pagentry, they've made their home;
they defend. still, syllables

are muttered, words
overheard; "these colors don't run!"
while heaven is in such plain view
and so very near.