she crosses herself

she crosses herself
            every time a motorcycle goes by
one of the wheels
            the blood roaring into her heart
the other wheel
            the blood rushing out of her heart
            into the holy world
            of her body

from Oedipus' First Lover (2009)

Re: Frigerator

            death is the
            last
                thing
            in the freezer but
            it's stuck
            on the back
            wall
            and you can't get it out
            without your fingers getting
            awfully 
                cold
            and the freezer getting
            awfully
                bent

From Oedipus' Firt Lover (2009)

The Battle Approaches (cut up after Huelsenbeck)

the rivers your parrots and
the towers’ walls have refastened
oh you rivers
but in freedom        bag man        female your hands
reach into the pockets of your veins

gigantic high silk hats
the shapes of angels

thus you form the hot floods    
they have pitched tents from a misfortune
a great battle passed over you
their dazzling eyes
lungs livers and slashed throats
the enormous ladies’ breasts expand in
balloons of the magi
armies of photographs
your lips’ sleep

gigantic high silk hats
the shapes of angels

from Oedipus' First Lover (2009)

It Adds a Lot to the Handshakes

my mother brought my two heads west to california
there was an oil on us

quite young     have     in my hand
a very narrow definition of bridge

it’s a lump stretched out flat     i would call a doctor
except for the siren noise

which room was that?     hieroglyphics?
did describe apparition any?

people were living bed in trance experiences
bed was terrified

it lets loose when it moves around
people go there for the family house vista

from Oedipus' First Lover (2009)

Around We Go O Western Civilization

never eat anything small
about a painful dilemma

at first was interested
a vast dome from their 
many
three hundred years of
kept      company
trading      themselves
like them themselves brawn
abandoned      
for centuries

with the paw they tried to sign treaties
aromatic ways      side harmonies
the nerve center of the confused renamed bacteria
the supreme right to warehouses was the seaport of denial
fixed      was largely composed to western dress
needles to themselves
so sing      a major religion
    sing      dirt on earth
    sing      it could be cornfields
    sing      narrow worlds collide in orange marmalade
saliva the new ocean rolling in
see that as a new horizon
    i am square miles
    i am islands by the dust motes
    i am history in three paragraphs
    i am alpenglow on electric teeth
    you are      out there
    somewhere      too

from Oedipus' First Lover (2009)

Manufactured Dreams

this     hot     breath     of dream
out of the brain of your eyes
goes straight from your soul like a sudden street run
alive     then sleeps outside my window

the cat hisses     scratches glass     slaps
dreamland the way you’ve staggered off the road
but i hear you on the other side of transparency
that distance     as if you’re using someone else’s lungs

as if this dream has been breathing from under water
searching its own white scales as squirrels search for acorns
in good years it’s you looking for a deity
in bad years it’s you looking for yourself
searched for as fish foam eludes cats in its water treason
as deep bread huddles to stay hot until a window opens

from Oedipus' First Lover (2009)

End

            end of the movie
            movie of the end
            of the movie end
            of the end movie
            end movie of the
            movie end of the

from Oedipus' First Lover (2009)

The Moon's Influence Completely New Tests

to be kings of          pork
sat
it was even from somebody's radio
medical knowledge of dinner trays
sometimes now it          we
had teeth          very raw
you had it on your hands or it's an echo
than more terrified garbage

neither of us without the ability
to work the taste of this arm

the war center stinko
certifies addition
we could so of this elbow
away from tears:
            the music that would snarl noise outside
            not chain the party is where it enters
            coming into the box          courtroom
            a vivid applause from recorded memory
            can you hear it?
            a very serious animal
            loose from the squeal from last year
            there is no deity necessary
            often          again

from Oedipus' First Lover (2009)

Tarzan's Twin

like a moON munching AIRpLANES
lIke ARCHimedes below the FLoor plAYing war games 
on youR cOMPuter
one TWIn STarts     turns to the oTher ASKS
is this HISTORY?

only if you beG fOr it after it’S HAPpEned
onLy IF you’rE numb to the tOUCH of the twine
that YOu Wrap around your knees before you RUN
SO THAT YOU CAN CATCH THE PERSON 
WHO’S FOLLOWING YOU

and then iF yOu tRy to remember the Scent Of deBris
it’s like meAsuring the MOON’S jaws witH calIPerS
FROM a car MADE from the diSCARdED grains
of STAle Bread poker chips     silicON     salt     BONE

LOrd greysTOke where in tHe jUnGlE is your mansion?
can I See it thROUGH the GHOSTs of umbilical fACTORieS
BrokEN Time tunnels ape meMOiRs lEonine preTENSIONs
hypoTHEtical CIVILIZATIONS SINGING BACKpacks?

from Oedipus' First Lover (2009)

Poem from a Photograph (for Adam David Miller)

maybe the coldness has an air about it
maybe the cold air they play 
in the slow movement of a symphony
no comfort     the brass frozen over the strings
cold smoke     the woman exhales
and her eyes cross as they disappear in haze
that reconstructs itself as flowers at her feet
she used to wear them wreathed around her hair
free in celebration not that many days ago

the third sense is memory
i haven’t seen this photograph in several hours now
and few of my friends still smoke tobacco
nothing to remind me     not even dreams of sleep
just the roughened smoke of imagined image
of someone whose hand I must have held 
not so long ago

from Oedipus' First Lover (2009)

Three Dictionary Poems

I  free:
            a political of speech
            being able to
            ease
            frankness

II  ice:
            damaged
            come motionless
            cover with to preserve
            formal or
            ice cream

III  fragile:
            to break
            it
            and staring

from Oedipus' First Lover (2009)

Structure

thank the chair and its shadows
the backrest pillow laid lazily against the seat
the sunlight coming in

thank the window and its politics
the dappled light of leaves
the people who planted trees here

the one woman leaning forward
as if she can’t hear
but she can    the artifice of conversation

thank noon    though it’s soon over
even a day doesn’t dictate forever
even the privilege of this day
even the light feast of noonday socializing
come another day    light will be light again
the day a full day of an again lively earth