an oncoming train
sister special sister
threadbare summer dress
keens and sighs and fits of laughter
your eyes a riot of tangles
court and spark, sister!
we slept
you followed
women down
to where they shed their skins
"the object passed
the die was cast
the truth unmasked
held between one and another"
one moment luminous in moonlight
the next in front of an oncoming train
my sister
you sang so loud we all could hear
everyone's favorite disguise
nelson's wearing everyone's favorite disguise
he's shinier than the stars we can no longer find
he's a satellite sent aloft without a plan
asleep inside a big canoe
kate just now in the city
never seen anything like this before
"take as much as you need...
don't take too much...
it might be pure..."
andy purses like a lizard
replays his favorite 45
diddles another cool black jesus
the news sites say it's madness
that everything is scattered
that the world has never seen anything like this before
who knows
there is a time for everything
big jazz drummer
nelson kate andy
and we step in time
elephant centipede feet hit the floor
stand on one leg don't deviate
higher pheromatics of the mind
we know they're screwed down in damascus
in chicago we've seen lepers shed their faces
fiddle with the treble
fiddle with the bass
so the children sing
"yeah yeah yeah"
she painted a bloody arrow to the stars
she painted a bloody arrow to the stars
so that we might see them
she drew an arrow in the sand
an arrow made of blood
she pulled an egg out of the earth
the warm earth between her legs
she buried the egg in the air
she danced into the sky
nodding off in the concert hall
the aliens got the best of her
at the top of the stairs
she froze me there
froze me with her eyes
i thought i'd die
wrap your troubles in dreams
i.
a balm. a salve. a miracle elixir.
a drop on the tip of the tongue.
trace the play of the blue day.
live inside that single thought.
a miracle. a balm. a savage elixir.
pushpins into the slow blue sky.
and you thought this would help you trace the play of days?
ii.
"do you dream in color?" eyes ask.
i could write the book of eyes.
the eyelids: rise, fall, feint.
iii.
riots of silent idioting.
garish colors splashed across a wall.
a mural by the damned.
pussy pastiche whips a henchman's daughter while i
i and my marigolds lilt on by.
iv.
woke up underdressed in a sunflower field
mona lisa tramp stamp on my forearm
grit between my teeth
smarty dust in the air
it felt like christmas
until it didn't
v.
self-mutators
bring us your nervous flowers
your tectonic handshakes
we'd like to shine a light
mirror no mirror
you look divine
dum dums
in coats made of fur
your cities await by the sea
your limbs grew up and long in their streets
ancient city where you lived
alive with birds
rorschachs alighting from trees
framed against an orange sky
their songs your mantra
now grown old
still
you never forgot
in all songs, a place for mexican trumpets
vi.
love grows on trees
courdoroy has something to say
bats collect in bethlehem
haitian thought police have no jurisdiction here
our haircuts go on joyrides but never tell us where
trace the source, hobo dan
"don't worry, i've been velvet proofed"
lean into it, billingsly
if you're on the periphery, we've a place for you
vii.
and so it came to pass
we built our own shrines to zeros and ones
information cathedrals
these voluntary second skins
submerge-emerge-submerge
viii.
changing rooms for changelings
locker rooms for specters
powder rooms for tricksters
devils steal babies and leave stones behind
trolls take children for fun
inside the forest, the bloodletting begins
an ice cream social for the damned
you're the guest of honor
a tea party for the honeymoon killers
we've a seat set aside for you
a bowling league for the soulless
and you're invited
a factory for the senseless
you'll be the foreman
ix.
pull a card from the pile.
dance like truman capote.
neckties and martinis.
who writes his novel from the backseat of a two-tire ford?
mass romantics leap into polluted city rivers.
and so it goes!
x.
native american mainframes.
gilly and wiggles fried the autodoc.
veronex cyper blacks the sky.
glass cities reflect twin bright suns.
baby flamehead, don't you know?
they say vid feeds steal one's soul.
xi.
fell in love with a wisp of a girl
out past the treatment plant
where rivers carry pollution into the estuary
summer came and went
we asleep in the sun
xii.
suicide notes no suicides
barking slot machines
blinking dogs chains unchained
baby's nightmares set to henry mancini scores
cry baby, cry!
aloft on stickery fins
coke machines. unanswered questions
shrugged
maybe my death my answer? maybe love?
cry baby, cry!
xiii.
you dreamt you were a grim fandango
you dreamt you were a meter maid
you dreamt you were a shadow
you dreamt you were a carnival
you dreamt you were a cranky robot
you dreamt you were a portrait in silk
you dreamt you were a star of hairs
you dreamt you were a bank heist
you dreamt you were cracked asphalt
you dreamt you were a sailor's wedding
you dreamt you were a gunshot
you dreamt you were a pencil factory
you dreamt you were a fender bass
you dreamt you were a game show
you dreamt you were an x
you dreamt you were a zoot suit
you dreamt you were a lazy afternoon
you dreamt you were a tree-lined street
you dreamt you were a cowboy's fugue state
you dreamt you were a fistfight in zero g
you dreamt you were a color
you dreamt you were a religion
you dreamt you were an unnamed comet
you dreamt you were a cartoon shut-in
you dreamt you were a dashboard figurine
you dreamt you were actionable intelligence
you dreamt you were someone else's nostalgia
you dreamt you were a paper route
you dreamt you were a bashful junkyard dog
you dreamt you were a waitress on a smoke break
you dreamt you were a mexicali commando
you dreamt you were an unbroken wedding vow
you dreamt you were a shadow moving across someone's lawn
you dreamt you were that space wherein contradictions live
you dreamt you were a photo album on a divorcee's houseboat
you dreamt you were a plastic saint inside a vending machine
you dreamt you were a dream's dream
you dreamt you were a mad heiress
you're the invention you know best
xiv.
the future lurches in fitful stops
the future belongs to non-binary mulattoes with angel-poise lamps
xv.
riding with mary (after x)
9:50pm on the dashboard in her car
rides a sweet powerless figurine
10:10pm new treadmarks scar the road
fast ballet of brutal metals
casually handed me the crash photos
she and he splayed, intertwined
last embrace of fall-apart bodies
xvi.
radio hula
created with skill
our skin is full of wisdom
what the radio does!
birds slowly growing
xvii.
fox in the night
married to the fog
follow her with your one good headlight
xviii.
when i am gone my vibrations will live on
night vibrations on the roof
my colors growl on the roof!
10,000 volts shot through
guts spill steam and secrets
my face fixed that silly rictus grin
xviv.
that next year she bought a new stomach
a liver made in detroit
our faces went dirty and grey
xvv.
falling
indeterminate
in the midst of time
i did for she
she did for mine
xvvi.
deathbed epiphanies come tumbling out of me
lullabies and sonographs
i think i'll give everything away
poems for imagined women
i.
jaqui has lifeboats in her eyes
peeping out from under dark bangs
jacqui's voice paints the air
like a synthesizer's bright sheen
jacqui looks down at the crowd in the rain from the 11th floor
sips, sighs, says "it's a shame there's no more joy"
ii.
girl in the record store wearing the banana album t-shirt
we locked eyes, my nerve left me
where's my goddamn time machine?
iii.
do it once
do it twice
every single time it's twice as nice
iv.
had it in my head we met with a spark
but it's like me to forget
i'm marginally attractive from afar
v.
"eeek!" the girl screamed
"it's love. get me off this train!
it's moving way too fast
to destinations unknown
powered by a volatile brew
the passengers are devils and saints
who all look the same
don't have a clue who i'm waking up next to