rambling buttons

  the button has evolved into 

a noiseless vacuum for sound 

spilling out unconscionable 

silent lies           twisted in fabricated knots

                         clinging to the pasts of the

                         world    they are in nameless

   ways a detailed map

of the future rot of post-

cyber-space frontiers

the plastic encased        forests of the afterlife

                                     conceptual landscape 

                                     forbidden in un-digitized 

                                     scripts  

   the button has been transformed

by formidable lies arranged by

present visions of mankind

wrapped in napkins and placed

rather lovingly in the trashcans

of the once bountiful regions

formerly known as the silicon 

west.

Heavy

 the last episode of a particular chapter 

                               translated

I buried it

in the remains of the backyard

under the violet sky

as the moon looked down

disparagingly 

                       I tried not to picture its eyes

glowing against my back

I tore my hands at the digging

I cut the ground with my tears

I placed a stone upon its head

as the moon fell behind the collapsed roof

as the rising clouds peered up

I took out my hands

I drew a corpse 

into their rusted breath

uncertainly

 I wonder when times moves across the trees

dragging the clouds I wonder what will become 

of the hours it takes to erase the grass I wonder

what will be built upon those memories we have

almost forgotten I wonder how the glass will break

down and becoming sand I wonder what will the plants

be like that take my place

time to write a poem about covid and false memories of the past

 you could swim at the far end of the tent.     at 4am the temperature was steadily

falling toward the floor.    it would be hours until the sun rose about the spires 

that stood in for the trees of our past.     there were no sounds that could be made

into car engines.     you said it yourself      we are truly alone.

 

     there was nothing beyond the lake but the wreck of the next several years.

they reminded me of the isolation I had grown to know in the past.     where we

were going would we would need to swim.    downriver. we only had left one 

change of clothes.

 

the seasons worked in reverse until they were children again.     when the world 

would be faded at the edges with the liminal fragrances of the cathode tubes.

something haunting and safe.    to scare their shadows into abeyance again.

 

     to find what was lost they plunged their faces in.     they bit and tore at the veins

 

we drank until there was nothing

 

you wept for any thing else left.

on purpose

I am upstairs

looking like the leaves

falling from those trees

I can see outside the window

the motion of branches 

blowing in the wind

draws my attention

to puddles of red and yellow

in the street

 

a ups driver navigates 

a gray circle of concrete

the dead end turn

the bleak future straight ahead

he doesn't touch a single leaf

everywhere

Hidden away in the bathroom

the tiles are left wordless

Cold and lifeless too

Evey poem is a failed self-portrait

I am here too

making it up as I go along

Kept from the stars by windowpane

Kept from reality by the door

mime

It is in france

the mimes have all gone post modern

You pass them on street corners 

defaced by alleyways

unable to grasp their age

without makeup the face has melted off 

they stand there without lifting their cane

they don't give a shit about your change

House

 the shadow that the floorboard casts

across my feet.

yesterday's coffee stirs

in the breeze sneaking under

cracks in window

leave broken faces staring into the sun

cold

my hands have no age

i dont recognize them

no wrinkle forms a memory

no scars are a thought

my dreams have transpired

they have become more reality than not

a neighbors lawnmower purrs

the grass is already asleep.

A Collection of Dream V

 blocking the exits

a man dismantles a typewriter     door frame

I walked down using the back

of chairs

                 it was to escape an theatre with 

no screen     I should have asked him to move

but I didn't want to bother     ruin his

concentration

my hat is on my hip when I mean to make

sure I didn't leave it in my seat

the film flips at its end black white then black and white

two huge metal doors creak and

the theatre exits and an escalator like metro

removes     takes me outside into a city 

unlike but it feels like generally

DC

A Collection of Dream IV

 leaving.     i'm here for some reason 

stopped being a student

but i'm in hs again. in the building.

someone i know is hanging by the visitors entrance

the other side of the ropes

i lie and tell them my wife is working late

but that's        a lie. i don't have a clue where they are.

around the corner. i am entering my old neighborhood

childhood. in a field there's a holed out barn     burnt up

the building held some importance long ago

to memory or youth possibly.     i cannot hold back.

crying. 

beyond the barn the structure shifting to this kind

of soft smooth neoclassical structure  a kind of 

bottle   behind it rising above the sky 

there's a larger horrible copy 

engulfing the earth my eyes     my mind

A Collection of Dream III

I am at a thrift store.  My brother slipping 

something in pocket.

we're outside looking in cars. I am not aware.

We may have been seen.

Inside the car my father looks out. His eyes are bulgy under lids.    they are gone.

He says they are getting better.    better.

but his eye lids are stuck together. He forces them open as proof.

the thin skin tearing at his lashes.

A Collection of Dream II

 I thought I was 

                      trapped in a dollhouse

but the trees

they recognized me

A Collection of Dream I

There's a blind cat with a clown mask walking on hind legs

a dog attacked on thanksgiving leaving diarrhea in it's wake

the movie on tv is a romcom  but like super heroes married gore

the main character like a boy but after every world altering event

he likes another boy more