Thursday, December 9, 2021

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.

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

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

Monday, December 6, 2021

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

Friday, September 17, 2021

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

Sunday, September 5, 2021

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

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

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.

Friday, April 9, 2021

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

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

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

Friday, April 2, 2021

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