Film Script

time later he just ran
time later he just ran
ran time
time later he
ran    just
just time
ran into time he just
end of the film

he had taken off the
could not find

he only knew    through history
punished himself for his brief pause as a skeleton
      film stopped they
      this should have ended the story
but suddenly the mist lost it
barrel teeth
gods someone had told him was a rich yellow ooze
beams stained blackish green
for almost fifteen continuous centuries
amber horns its husband
      moved    he said to it
      gone
yes    another    blanket then

he woke up sometime
      empty in a bathroom
      flushing
      the inscription away
      then    film eyes
      another shudder running
      the endless loop    one atop the other
      ran    just
      just time
      time later he
      just ran

from Purgatorial (2004)

This Vision

otherwise the egg was broken
he set out in a three-wheeled cart for the sunrise
rocks rolled out of his shoulders
and his gaze fell on the snakes coming out of his ears
stop here
this vision is being sold to you
on some level a structure i've learned
in thirty years of writing poetry
it isn't easy giving you this half lie
all you do is open your head and use your skill
and people think you're honest
what lies do guys tell themselves
when they're trying to sell their services to some deity?
is it worth    the fear of soul death
to afterwards    ask
if there was truth in the transaction at all?
does a beggar    care    in cairo
if he looks pathetic in front of you?
the door opened the light shrieked the horse grew two legs
and a guitar rumbled in his lungs
a giant mouth appeared on his bedroom ceiling
he prayed
rivers rose in his words
none of them impressed him as bullshit
he thought only of dreams
and of morning
outside it was dark

from Purgatorial (2004)

Converts

also the insects
gathered in their small kitchen
in a hole    near the hall
each growing rabbit fur
each learning   esperanto
each professing its own nationality
in thunder through its
air tubes
    this strange pronunciation
    i make
    am i the only one
    who hasn't got the accent right
    who still sounds like
    a rabbit?

from Purgatorial (2004)