Post Mortem (after Vincent van Gogh's "Wheatfield with Crows")

what if i saw two moons in the sky
and they were both light blue in a twilight swirl
that was nearing the black of unconsciousness
and that crows     tiny     irregular     broken     thin
desperately winged for their lives against the whirls
of pure air i saw in the two moons’ rising

and say you were inspired by
the alien light in a firmament going on toward
the familiarity of blindness
and that the birds would flap twice and be gone
tiny lifespans in the sight of the moment
and that the tan grasses too
would go black then invisible in the new night
like a civilization without breath or momentum
like another country fallen
in the buried dirt below dusk

i could still hear the wind through the wheatfields
i could still imagine the crows’ fearless explorations
i could imagine     i could imagine
that the season could come again when the same moons
the one and her twin sister
would show the same as tonight
with the same birds
in the same country in the same nation
i could imagine     i could imagine

from Oedipus' First Lover (2009)

Ake Rp!

yrt eat la keyr n aps rung clean
meht le nsa hf un nelso ake rp!
an taet gnurps     fu lenn foraso
sel en sfore is lobber
de ni t hesko ’ob mat, theo
sehn apwavers
li’kea ade, kal
hooba e rof de ahner m bly wit
h thes nails “( )” was hing

from Oedipus' First Lover (2009)

In the Beginning

int he be n in
giva li ght
devid hew a were
morer ond ay
            det gr herb
            fru it yiel
ding aftind it
was so
            e ert gr as
            li ght less ght
            ni ght me at
go od
rested

from Oedipus' First Lover (2009)

One-Liner

elsa and i decided to have a vital center in a bare commissary
she with her bright full nails
swiped at my clown makeup and started eating

we were carrying on in animated pain and partially blind
her husband          by the neck
sunk in and left his fangs on the table

hey        anatole        how you like it licked at him?
it’s a classic one-liner and he rolled over        begged
stood up        very proud of having said it        

a modern day version in reverse
is now a bare-scrap incident
meant to be leader        a just time girl
stopped dancing and dusted her knees
stand forward
calmly sucked the business partner

it’s the classic one-liner
feed situation from the back of the room
luminescent fingernails in the darkness
intimations of feed me
none of this ambivalence
normal folks might have tried

the rest of the people kept on message:
when I saw her drop to her knees
she had fainted        but she hadn’t
she just said so        and winked

from Cyclone Fence (2007) reprinted after too much Proust

Had To Be Ritual Space

when first faced without god figures
and a very pan angry
ignorance
not faced itself 
the tapes    concert halls    and sports
make a noise
and produce mural worship

at home we come out of the ends of newspapers

a line being drawn

it is fascinating to obtained through our creative discovery
through a chimpanzee laugh
them after
viewing it seems that we do
very fast
but calling loudly

from Cyclone Fence (2007)

War Poem

HEY!    dough wanna fight?
HEY!    dough
HEY!    dough
HEY!    dough wanna fight?
HEY!    dough
HEY!    dough
HEY!    dukedukedukeduke
HEY!    dukedukedukeduke
HEY!    dough
HEY!    dough
HEY!    dukedukeduke    fight?
HEY!    dukedukedukeduke
HEY!    HEY!
HEY!    doooooooo
HEY!    akakakakakak
HEY!    dough
HEY!    dough
HEY!    dough wanna fight?
HEY!    dough
HEY!    dough
HEY!    duh

from The Troubles (1993)

Contact Lenses

where’s my bathtub?
gotta simplify things:
plastic streets of this dream in front of you
bobbing as you walk
a guillotine has a cutting edge
and cold faces

walk again
like a fat woman inside a skinny woman trying to get out
like a     huge
simplification
like poverty swells each time its name
is turned into ceremony

has pinball been invented?

where have i been
looking for your knees?

contact lenses 
dropped on command
biplanes ascending from an emotionless sea
bubbles bursting beneath your feet
one lifetime obsessed with the flying dutchman
is one too many

who inherited
this paper
command
that they cover     an entire ocean
in plastic

and ready to walk
no bathtub beneath them
on water?

from Cyclone Fence (2007)

Five Dictionary Poems

I    round:
            the rump
            a circular case

II   name:
            as we called him
            reputation

III  fare:
            to be in a well
            eat transportation 

IV   fate:
            to be incapable
            and the blue dye obtained

V    favor:
            to help resemble
            approving

from Cyclone Fence (2007)

Romance Is Relived

old who joys      death
could criticize the woes that go
with trouble

and particularly a spicy romance
calculation of shirts
tonic
would have recognized its making

brew:
trouble no

will     reached     and     are:
 1) always be too much for us
 2) heaven and it was syrupy
 3) because it says the discussion is over
 4) are not mine
 
no devil        will roll and stare
no roll and stare        is possessed
no devil is
no is possessed

someone i love? 
speak to me for weeks
has large eyes        hourglass:
one in joy will always be live enough
    

from Cyclone Fence (2007)

Sno Ring

s leep in glik e a
   cor psesno 
      ring
   allth e air
  in toy outh 
   en back
  ou tag ain
   emp tyno
      w

from Cyclone Fence (2007)

Bull Tin

fessiona
memorandu
corpora
rsonnel
utsourc
ganizati
ccess
laid off

from Cyclone Fence (2007)

Forward

a small fuzzy dog
checks out the lamp post
sniffs a little at its base
then decides against it
goes back to the task
of pulling the famous author
on her leash down the street

From the Fog

the surviving fragments about fog:
 couldn't understand why fog
 very direct to fear
 surviving an angel
 the word peace
 expected to from my fiancee
 was fond of oratory
 died in the enclosure 
 others are humorous a hundred miles
 i was not yet asleep
 approach life force triumphed
i recognized a rock        a tree
that long-windedness which was to be avoided
a crumbling mass of something i did not have
that vision immediately returned
 of the living
 a kind of light near me
 a vast luminous halo
 the mist spreading it beyond shape
  beyond treatise
  beyond predictability
   to his lips
   this secret
   i can see
   as i drift
   apart in its coolness

from Cyclone Fence (2007)

Four Dictionary Poems

I  see saw:
  
  up and down
  contest
  or struggle

  site ends
  of the other goes down

II security:
  
  being secure as
  fear or anxiety

  freedom from given

  pledged to make an evidence

  ownership of cures

III sampling:

  technique pose

  a small part of people

IV revelation:

  communicating divine
  humans

from Cyclone Fence (2007)

Cats and the Moon

a full moon blue in a blue sky
invisibility holding its wonder from itself

a cat claws at it despite that
does a blue moon taste like cheese 
or like chicken?

consider that string of clouds 
that hold the moon up
you can see those    even in an airplane
though to passengers 
the string looks like cotton
and you can’t hear their song 
for the engine noises

i love the sound a jet engine makes
i love the noises i can’t hear
from planets rolling like kittens on a blue carpet

on another planet 
they make up stories about earth
about their own moons they can’t see either
about their own cats that fly from roof to roof
trying to find a way to hypnotize each other