Category Archives: poems

BIRD WATCHERS . . . a poem

poems
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BIRD WATCHERS

Binoculars resting on the sill
Blackly inveigle us to look.
The luxury of observation
Rackety silk.
Cotton sheets abuzz,
I sleep with a mad bomber
In a bed too narrow
To contain explosives,
Eroding acres encroaching
Shores of receding flesh.
Grip off, I watch

Elfin hummers amok,
Flap-happy Mallards
Swarm a blustery afternoon,
Recall bionic gunrunners, East Van,
First day back from gangster land.
Recoiling at the forecast I fled,
Cramped in a compact car
Child piloting the wife. Blindfolded
Against your scrutiny, foiling
Implicit shame, I skirted
Roadblocks, sculpting my spine
Straight, forcing it

To withstand gales. Tolls.
Lousy steward, I drop
The argillite raven,
Gleaming abalone eyes divided.
I slap my back with hot plasters
So it may bend when necessary.
Fit inside. Repair.
When will listening
Reveal the shape? Scope. When
Will seeing decode the trick?

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TERMINAL LABOUR . . . a dirty job but somebody’s got to do it.

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TERMINAL LABOUR

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Murderous pipe

Snaking though mountains

Rips the century in two.

Calamity stitches, salt

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Rituals, mollifying dances

Distract hippie protesters.

Ransack a few days off.

Sour fists, sweet mouths,

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Boner in the rain.

He recalls her glass tears,

Tongue of flint

Silent in the station

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Shrewd in the bar.

Dunce fat depleted,

Husk nearly ready

For the casket,

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He works with her

To remove obstructions,

Excavate a trench,

Contour the land.

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WET RECOVERY…despite everything

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WET RECOVERY

Mangled post tequila,

Estrangement narcotic,

Longing, withdrawal.

Up from the basement

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Pretty feet restored

I propel myself

With nothing

But will, grateful for the veil

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Of mist, piano notes

Icy raindrops pelting

What’s left

Post hacking

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Into,

Hacking away.

Hmph.

He’s not the only martyr

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Dragging me down,

Blowing me up.

I will sleep with the river,

Esoteric toads,

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A harridan

Sharper than thistle,

Embraced.

Sheltered. Cleansed.

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FATAL INTERRUPTION-the work of forgetting

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FATAL INTERRUPTION

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Pond forsook, shed tippled,

I dodge gusto, the jolly,

Adroitly avoiding east, his

Brilliant mean declarations,

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Confabulations,

Sorry offensives,

Our fractured liaison.

The work of forgetting

Stresses, ER expedition

Lacerating Saturday night.

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Belligerent patients triaged;

Cosmo shill car crash,

Severed digit,

Cocaine addled troll.

My heart is quitting!

Erection won’t.

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Happy to see me.

Stiff you.

X rays, blood work

Revealing nothing

But our deficits.

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“SINGLE-HANDED” and other passages

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SINGLE-HANDED

Strays.

Yard rats we

Shared a railroad,

A yearning for

Burning corn,

A penchant for

Leaving one another

The dead

Of night. Tied

To the tracks.

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Creosote smeared legs

Stand in a deep cove

Now, manning my boat.

Trip charted,

Lovers never quit

Beckoning, inserting

Keys, truncating

My swagger,

Saving me

From this lonely perch,

This vast wave.

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“HOOD POINT”-and Happy New Year!

poems,
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HOOD POINT

Dec. 31, 2012

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Lost in stars

Brave as ash

Wrestling shadows,

Giddy with night,

I lure water taxis

To shore.

Light the oven,

Salt the path

So I may reach you

Cliffside,

Burnish your gleam.

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Eagle’s nest hums,

Voices fuse.

Nearly content,

Neural bridges manifest.

Last night, last supper.

Blue heron spotting,

Tossing binoculars,

Whooping,

Over.

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Lashings, lamb bones,

Bent finger

Pointing,

Steam building, hot

Boxing, fur ball

Hangovers, bellicose

Stroking, novel

Teasing, done.

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News wrapped as fish,

Jesus hair obscures horns,

Sunny fog-ferries, flight

From one another

Post twelve days

Balancing hurt percentages.

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Out with old, year

Of dreary brinkmanship, no end

To the apocalypse jokes,

Lucky 13 new affirmation.

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FLESH POT

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“O, That this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew.”-Hamlet, Shakespeare

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FLESH POT

Born muscle bound

Backboned, map, matrix-

Mother intact,

Into private security firms-

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Families, in slums, manors,

Stables, institutions,

To pirates or the pious,

We flourish. Raw teeth, germs,

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Clubfeet do not impede us,

Rank and garbled speech fleeting

As tin jeeps, Barbie Doll drama.

Our struggle is tidy, tumult banal,

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Pain prosaic, strife fueling ripeness,

Gauntlets passed through swiftly

Until the day we drop. Nominated,

Cornered, required to wither

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Under the gun,

Succumb, for we remain

That tender, precious human

Flesh terminators must aim for.

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WARNINGS SHUNNED-latest poem

Journal, poems
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WARNINGS SHUNNED

I was there

But can’t recall

A blur.

Here you are,

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Transparent, coy, unsullied.

Wet towers swaying,

I admire the dirty gulls.

You land

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On the top floor,

Move the mirror, ceiling,

Unhinge the doors.

Make no mistake.

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Moon resting on a spire,

Limbo persists,

Olive of catharsis

Suspended in a martini,

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Leaving me soaked,

Juiceless, waiting

In the terminal,

You above it all.

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ABBREVIATED GUTS-new poem

Journal, poems,

ABBREVIATED GUTS

Sun dogs melt,

Tuna tins expire,

Honey bees purge,

Headless sea lions wash up,

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Bloat. Drowning hydrangea.

Retreating squirrels.

Vacant towering fir

Hush the songbirds

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With gusts. Ravens squawk.

Telecom tricksters call

And call. And call.

Carbon copied dread

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Routed to the periphery,

Mt Galiano a distant lump,

Inviolate taint in the mainstream.

Traveling vast distances

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My blood will recede.

Limbs tread water,

Garnering muscle,

Mustering will.

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Cranking tunes, I summon

reason, a dollop of pomp,

A glut of valor.

Geronimo!

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