Diamonds

i just read about it in the society section 
of the newspaper
diamonds chandeliers white tie and laughter all around
at the year's opera gala or a reception 
for the latest fad actor
i forget which    but the gowns cut low 
the docility of jewelry
the besotted people trying to look suave i remember

i just read about it the next morning on a side street
diamonds chandeliers white tie and sounds like gunfire
at the year's opera gala or the caliber they used
i forget which    
but the gowns his mouth open 
his eyes open wide
the besotted people    
the stars    closed above him

the neighbors found him in the society section 
of the newspaper
they'd been afraid to go out earlier    laughter all around
the children could even guess a reception 
for the latest fad actor    but he'd been dead cold for hours
cut low the docility of jewelry
as if screaming at the windows    
trying to look suave i remember

the neighbors found him the next morning on a side street
they'd been afraid to go out earlier    sounds like gunfire
the children could even guess the caliber they used
but he'd been dead cold for hours    his mouth open 
his eyes open wide
as if screaming at the windows   
the stars    
closed above him

from Purgatorial (2004)

Remember the Maine

remember the hooligan
remember the mars remember
the cat's whisper
remember sweaty skin beside yours on a hot humid night
remember french fries remember spanish rice
remember turkish coffee remember swedish meatballs
remember danish pastry remember irish stew
remember    countries    that used to exist 
remember the shopping list remember coupons
remember the car remember your pants remember
sweat remember    laughter    remember the cat's whisper
remember the maine remember the bus schedule
remember your mother remember your anniversary
remember the twist remember the beatles remember the night

remember your lines
remember patriotism
remember the flag
remember the trash
remember to take it out
remember the cat's whisper
remember all of us

from Purgatorial (2004)

Approaches (for Judy)

i dream of you because I want you

i saw you once in another dream
in a coffeehouse in a storm i'd imagined
to keep us both waiting there

i dreamed of you later through a telephone 
device to call
warm voice on the other end but only a voice
walking a wire

i dreamed of you later a major event
i wasn't paying much attention to it
clowns hanging from my tongue
i walked out on a unicycle
robots painted me grey
my rigidity    freezing
my vocality    true
til i walked into my own mouth
and the teeth shown like lights behind me
and the mouth closed
and i sang your praises

The Ground

i would see the new town in your eyes
except that i see it in your teeth
rows and rows of white houses
grown thin and translucent at the top
shark's teeth    except for the wear
the grain above jaw the grinding
the decades of hot and stormy winters
the slush and bake of never giving up

such a peaceful face    the bone beneath it
going harder and harder    brittleness not cramp
the hard long swim in one's own juices
the wetness of gaze    the red-run field
behind its center    feeding of blood
the grind along city streets newspapers being delivered

from Purgatorial (2004)

Tug

you're in a tug of war with this man death
strong and young you pull harder
but your body tires
and you drag closer and closer to the line and over
where    now you can see him pulling too
pulling too    drooling
with his eyes ready to open for the first time
pulling too    ready for birth

    and you pull him    
    back
    on that umbilical cord
    wanting this birth for yourself
    yours   
    to complete

from Purgatorial (2004)

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)

How To

this is how to read
two books at the same time:

    one in your paw
    one in your hand

Training Session for the Manufactured Community

pauses for the pre-articulate:

slobbering into his teacup
king kong wears a tie and
uses airplanes from around the building
as electric shavers
all this right in public
for money

when struggling to conquer
jump
get your markets straight
make a million
you're a
i'm a
we're all
just the ticket to a great performance

the woman in the t-shirt that says ha ha ha
takes half an hour scraping tea leaves off a table
after the photo op
that lasted ten minutes

that fly
buzzing around her
won't go away

the traffic sign    outside
says    pause for princesses

we're not training frogs here
we've planned our miracle

from Purgatorial (2004)

Nocturne

at least when we die
we won't need to hear
the horrible violinist at the bridge
at least in our lifetime

he thinks he's brilliant
he's out there every day
during the hours that are light enough
not to be spooky

crossing the bridge at night it's different
you can't really see the town
except what's lit by lights

the horrible violinist may be asleep by now
in one of the buildings you can't see
fiddling with somebody's dreams

(written in Salzburg, May 2013)

Up (for Frank Moore)

i've always wondered
and nobody's ever told me
if ourobos has his eyes open
when he swallows his tail

and how far down his body he goes
how far down he dares go
and the scales   how they feel in his mouth
how they taste

and how i don't know these other people in the subway car
as it begins its arch into the earth
past your house   ready to go back down again
i wave   in my moment of light
then down again   into my sports section
two more stops   two more stops to go

from Purgatorial (2004)

Fox Eyes in the Night Sky

they aren't stars   they're bright pairs of eyes
looking back at you   packs of them
the fox ears and black noses hidden
in the night sky

but where are their paws?
is it one of them we're walking on
or do several   half-hid in water
move the planet?

when they see me
i wonder if they're indifferent
thinking i'm too small to eat

or if i'm somehow growing   as my ears enlarge with age
and my teeth lengthen
and they're waiting   for my ears to point
my teeth to grow longer and sharpen
the skin on my nose
to moisten and sensitize
and for me   to one morning awaken in darkness
look down   fascinated
and be part of the pack
part of their pack
part of a pack

from Purgatorial (2004)

Change Poem

money changes hands
into what?

What Saw

art is large floors
brought to crowds and workshops

three exhibits attract films   seasons
art along influences

it was heart orphanage

yet another canonization

calamity of downtown royalty

survivor house

   and you must walk through the showroom
   grew up to be a new york journalist
   thousands of immigrants arrived
   i see their eyes   through eyes of my own
   the long deep line at the edge of the sea
   a young divorcee called civic duty

from Purgatorial (2004)

The Ancient Wine After Forty

being representative of than you expect
the flying pig demons?
the mouth goes middle age
overpassed     its roar off the top of your head
where they raise     on your back
sophistry

animal are you?
naked

have to do with alcohol
have to do with sex
over all the twirl

for paranoids
romance is stolen by young couples
whom you subliminally hate

the mouth left of thanatos
someone marked taking knit flags
someone else
love built as strong as
nation     at will
will probably never find that house

are sold with streets
imagining a curly forked tail
growing off your ass

at will     not ghosts
in love with forked and twirling streets
will find     yes     will find
that house

from Purgatorial(2004)

the cowardice of sleep

the cowardice of sleep
the bravery of dreams

from Purgatorial (2004)

Blues Sonnet

i like it     it becomes you
like sainthood     like a hangover

draped over your shoulder
over your eyebrows over your smile
a sense of inside your soul

the bus ride of theory
the laundry traveling to where you live
skeletons at the bar     playing dice at dusk

   so show me it doesn't have to be bleakness
   the wink of sainthood
   it becomes you
   like a silvered     shadow over your shadow
   like a drink of water
   like the glisten of wet teeth

from Purgatorial (2004)

The Terror

beware of bridges
voles    elephants stampeding around them
men riding on the heads of delirious tigers
feel bitter    uh    feel bitter    uh

people can't bring themselves to fly    around this wreck
past large guards    who carry pitchforks    watering cans
the blueprints of post-siberian walls
the living caskets of eggs
and wish only for a radiator sandwich
an air-conditioned malt

    what if    yesterday
    you saw everything you ever loved
    riding the soft spikes    of a dandelion?

    would you dream which river of wind
    would carry them and where they would go?
    would you wish for a small    small    canoe?

from Purgatorial (1994)

HP Lovecraft Views the Mona Lisa

a year ago that smile
i thought they'd painted onto you
seemed stale
like breath trapped inside a museum

i thought it was paint
but months' obsession abscessed in me
and i felt unwhole
unholy

    as if pieces of my soul
    were fitted into your mouth
    with chunks from souls of other centuries

    making your smile fuller
    deeper     more mysterious
    and hungrier

from Purgatorial (2004)

His Story Lesson

why should i
identify
my salami with the ancient romans

when i can identify it with italy
beautiful peaceful italy
all the many many miles of it?

from Purgatorial (2004)

In My Dream I Threw

in my dream i threw
the alarm clock away

it went hurtling through space
at my head








from The Troubles (1993)

Gangsta Nietzsche

you can not conduct yourself in sanctuary like a saint
the blood goes off in your ears like bullets
your hand muscles squeeze
the neck of your newspaper's brain
to incoherent wrinkles
you     the anger cocaining you
you are superman without philosophy
your flight     you would have
is under the earth
conducted chilled without breathing

i dreamed
last night
that from the sidewalk i dove and flew
above the heads of businessmen
that gravity did not stop me
that friction did not tire me
that i looked up and saw the sky and soared
amongst its blue and the clarity of its clouds

you     who would die in this
pile of superman shit:
that your whole trip
is to learn to fall down
that your death
is rapidfire and energizing
is bullshit
you     who will be present
at your own funeral






fro The Troubles (1993)

Your

j'annuary
fay brew airy
m'arch
ape rill
m'hey
jeune
jewel eye
a gust
say ptember
oxed over
no vember
this ember





from Purgatorial (2004)

A New Ring

last night the phone company came to the door
they were twelve hours late and at least a century behind

dry hay     opaque
grew out from under their sleeves

they lined up along the walkway     down the street
rings came out of their ears     tears out of their mouths

down the street     under a car     church bells rang
lost pinecones fell asleep
the doors in my head opened and shut
all the voices i'd ever heard in my life
rang in the new year






from Purgatorial (2004)