In the Waiting Room

they take your papers
in the waiting room of hell
and use them to clean their teeth
right in front of you

	you are only
	paper to them

then the receptionist
takes out a romance novel
leans back in a reclining chair
and starts tearing pages out

	there are thousands of pages
	in this romance novel

at first the sound of pages ripping
irritates you     then
it starts to soothe you
the medical properties of repetition     then
it starts to sound like ripping bone and flesh
and you start liking it
and start forgetting why you’re here

after several days
of no medical people calling for you
you start to become invisible
and feel that your body
is being absorbed into the wall

	the receptionist
	puts on a jacket
	and leaves

	a second later
	a rough voice from behind the desk
	calls your name

from Amateur Mythology (2017)

The Haunt

there     in the pane of the back window
you see its face     bug-eyed     tongue-bit
that would scream if it could move itself out of the glass
it’s been stuck there     you think
probably for decades now  but it’s only now
early middle age     that you see it
its implied breath takes the real breath out of you
but it doesn’t really seem to breathe
	it’s a child’s face     the face
	that was yours when you lived in a house
	with a backyard window like this one
	you keep imagining the rhythms of its breath
	or its hands     or life below the top of its shoulders
	and soon it becomes familiar     then flies away

from Amateur Mythology (2017)

Rescuing the Deity

someone has to help me on this
one of my favorite gods is caught in a tree
i turned my back     just for a second
and he changed the direction of the wind when i wasn’t looking
or he had a fight with his wife     the goddess
and she changed the wind when     he     wasn’t looking
he’s not that big     he can get blown into a tree
she can get stuck in a tree too but this time it’s him
	i’m always amazed at how our deities act like adolescents
	and why it’s that part of ourselves
	that we put in charge of the cosmos
	is it because each of us     each of us
	feels guilty for something we wanted to do in middle school?
	someone needs to help me on this

from Amateur Mythology (2017)

Cowboy Movie Museum

in the 1870s we were the things and movies driving cattle
recently discovered meadows gathered
their herd held their noses up to summer
do you remember actor or action?
you seem impressionable about being scared to death
mynah bird brass bindings now my words were good
and dressed me in a certain number of style
the cattle outside
circling in their own idea of sky
cattle are remembered gathered back to their pastures
here’s a decorative piece of horse’s head
here boy clean my hooves
and make sure my songs will be featured in the next roundup
battle will be served if they’re not
i’m volved honestly now

from Amateur Mythology (2017)

Years Over Coffee

as i sat at your table the dead cat burst into flame
no more blood pudding    no more red spots on my shirt
over my heart where all my bleeding starts anyway
here in the world of dogs without earphones
where i wear my cup of coffee on my head like a hat

the jeweler had finally found his teeth under the counter
his coffee’s harvested    it’s got its feet on the table
clouds glide over microwaves in their very own graveyard
i could formulate tomorrow from what happened last week
but that guy just walked out the door with my blues in his ears

   eons have passed the horizon
   end over end the sunset of sleep
   sheep come into the restaurant speaking with different accents
   saying wolves cruise this street nightly
   their ears locking onto songs of lambhood

   i can see that    i was in my twenties here too
   your calypso’s music slew me i wanted to stay
   for the rest of my life but the look the sea threw back at me
   made me remember sunset
   and here  i am    sunset

   my coffee talks the dialect of years
   the buses pull by
   they’re like something on a computer screen
   the sheep are home    the wolves are home
   out in the kitchen they’re brewing a whole new generation

from Amateur Mythology (2017)