we kiss on the mouth

poverty seeps into my dreams
and soley screams
budget! budget! budget!
live without it and you could even live with it!
fist full of green
bury it.
watch your monster grow
angry red in the cheeks
i could live without it.


98


you enter slow
get up quick.
you go away.
alive, but swollen still
in the belly of the beast
baby falls ill
wind stands still
and the salt sends my love calls
through the roof
through the heater in the walls and floor boards.
ear to the soil
hear the tick tick tick
earth quake thick
so loud for a fate
for the love of
could be.

please
try to stay alive

the friends i have now
are approaching on the longest spell
and i feel the spin
the shift is swift stiff pin turn ajar
encroaching on the time i should be far

as i reject you
reverse
yet respect you

know this

i do not want to
it is not you i repent but i
for my own reflection in your eyes tells of something wrong in me.


to eat alone.
clanging glass down ,
"one." she repeated in hesitation
his eyebrows rose in quiver then nodded ground-ward.
he was young,
no older than i.
Yet, seemed to be running the place alone. Besides the allusive cook sending clash pang cling clang out through the swinging doors of the kitchen.
a cloth tulip slink ridged at the right corner across from me.
i fiddled with a long rectangular box containing chopsticks.
retrieving a pair i admired the fresh hinges and decorative pattern of trotting elephants trunk to tail. Making a note of the blue orange combination clashing in sharp compliment of one another.
...


when you wake up
wipe the sleep from your eyes
ages to take up
one day at a time
dont lose your stride
with a warmer, a wool
slide
youll roll the clouds out as blankets
till the sun comes down
and flourish with the flask 'til shes up again.

drunk driver
wobble home
no drink will calm you
no home can not
make haste
its worn off your face
you are oh so see through

wakeful beneath
open umbrella
silky as dew
ever for not
the evening forgot
morrow may not
reach relief
from foreign woe
bent up as wires
on the counter top
dust in the sink
there's an angel
in my bathtub
i do not recall
inviting in

whom will you go to tonight
where will you make your home
wandering cotton sock
bring me here but love me not
your little one but know you are not.

gagging sick
your slipping thicker
weaker than a paper doll
playin like you stand up tall
your ice is thin Atlantic cold
melting on and growing old
the depths descend upon you
core quacks within
pulling bones colder sinking pin
oh whale
sweep in beneath me
bring me back in
bath me in the light air and wicked winter wind

do you remember
the rage of late November
or the swollen woe of our first drought
upon your fathers vessel
other seas you have
sailed away from me
while the winds swept you back
in
to my sleeping socket and sour limp

the black eyed Susan is the mother of the daisy
weeds may be but they've grown fruitfully about the tar 'n all over town

i still recall the sigh as my wake grew eager
my separation meager
i melt as butter in your pan on high.



language for the days when
we righteously thought we knew what we talked about,
our world the one true sane
with wooden wings we've flapped in vain
the mocking bird of mundane muttering of Missouri

first baby teeth fall out and again they must grow
mine chomp down like sky scrappers
can't close my jaw quite right
always grinds together
i'd take a bite of the pope if the Bishop hadn't stopped me
i'd chew up your dear aunt Sophie and a little bit of everything you know
but i will not eat it.

yellow flower by your bed side
the kind my mother used to grow
shrived plucked and lifeless
but, my, it still does glow
as the glinting of your iris
as your ever present woes
but you lovley when you smile
as i push you down the road.


I'll try to separate what you did take from all the things i make and all the things i've made.

it is not that i no longer love you
it is that i no longer will
you treat me like a live wire and you wonder why i wont creep close
how can this monster approach a prince
your gaze gives me gal of a girl 3 eggs tall
yet claim i tower down over you
and ah it seems this rope were tugging on 's tied at both ends
where is that dangerous hunger that drew me to your drunk swollen face
so long ago
and now
how content you are with the rolling on of time
in your prime caught motionless
while i just cant resist the cold run through hot rain
anxious throbbing retreats
while reading words not for me i feel your eyes lock mine with a question
that you will not ask
and I'm filled with white rage again.

lonely Edan wakes
rises straight from tomb
and flings
cold damp body
upon asphalt
tenderly in tune
she whimpers out to grasp
empty, her out stretched hand
limp wrist'd and quiver
she descends
as a sail- a crumpled paper bag
dull of drug alleys
hazy silver smog
the drizzle of wet wax
from the candle of a table over turned
stitching the hem of a dress never to wear
she slips to him
salty with symmetry sliced lemon
and a subtle tarnish glow.



the break in traffic
where the man must cross
do not fret little limpin' one
the light often will change
but you will be above the bridge
knee deep in poverty
sweating out this weeks full meal.

i give all my quarters for the pay phone
to an old dark man jingling a paper cup at me
my head aches and i could cry but i do not
every passenger on this subway glares forward
eyes glazed and lifeless
with the stiffness of a Greek god cold and gray
the lines hint life but all forms undetected while core deep in earth
yet i could cry, feel it burning up behind my eyes
but not a drop will roll
is it frozen in the eyes i try to reach and hold
or is it eternally growing
with in me
adulthood
so lonely
so lonely.



washing clean with ambition
frothing foam raising esteem
in the clean coastal air
rich with autumn
wipe the thick condensation of subway stench
sour solid luminous from my stewing flesh
at rest to be beneath a sky
lamplight
shine through a jet black net
and again for now
be clean.

meet me at the mortuary
jingling the keys
we'll wander through the doors
and dance upon the dusty beams

for we grow with abandon group with abandon
have our green and run with it
learned to lose it too
on certain things no healthy body could ever truly need
its just all the speed concrete and dotted space
s t r e t c h i n g out with fates grace
so you can run on your heels
leaving your trace
that slowly
fades
and fades
and fades.

i can no longer care for the dieing
i will no longer take death in stride for a pay check
i know and love each man or woman i care for and i can not will not pretend i do not take this home with me
i will not hide in the bathroom to dry my eyes and stabilize my shaking fists before packing up their rooms
the very rooms they released their last breaths
i will not smile at the family of these elders instead of yelling they should care for their mother brother father
and visit more than once a year...

but
i will miss them
each and everyday
and i will feel the guilt of my steps while i run hard and fast away.