"Paper takes Rock"

Sometimes Paper takes Rock,
but Rock loves her,
so he is glad to see her win —

plus, she’s sensitive
and listens to him,
and she understands a wound is a thing.

Magic to him they're still
each other’s best adventure,
even just playing the same old game.

It’s not the have, it’s not the want —
it’s just the thank-god-at-last feeling
each time they can finally touch again.

"Telling, untold"

I’ve eaten rope – it helped me get by..
but you can only take so much at a time.
It’s not how you’d have it be,
no, but it helped me keep both feet.

I know that I’m someone who could kill someone,
but I’m less certain I could again..
–well, unless the guy needed me to,
or he surely had it coming.

My beard’s changed color and –
straight – there’s a bull's-eye under my chin;
it probably won’t come as a surprise when
what befalls does for me, done.

You’ll get killed or you’ll die,
the only two ways to run out of time.
–No shining here, it’s private property,
but 300 feet over there'll do fine.

One day entropy will tear up things, and sense, too,
but it’s not angry, it’s gentle.
Until then, flowers and gingers and Ruth’s Chris-es,
or at least the brief cool breezes of thoughts of..

"The rusty staple"

There’s a lone telephone pole in America

that always stands in full sunlight,

but those who know never speak of it –

just another stray unknown miracle.

Deadfall ain’t done by a longshot, 

and a poisoned well’s still good for some things;

there ain’t a spare part been made yet –

everything can’t help but be in the final will-was.

   How often is the seeming what the meaning is?

   When is the whereat just near enough?

   Watch out, we might get what we want.

No gift forgives a theft,

nothing known can untrespass;

nobody can feel when their last chance

to be forgiven slips, falls, and breaks its back.

   How often is the seeming what the meaning is?

   How often were the reasons when we needed them?

   Watch out when we get what we want.

If it's coming, it’s never too-late –

and it’s on you if you’re in the middle-of.

Some things shouldn’t go unspoken;

even if, back then, you had to do it

"The monster on the left"

There’s a uniquely beautiful tree

in northeast central Ohio I want to see

again before I die..

He’s a champion,

a vegetative dragon

surrounded by misplanned communities,

endless faux-farm white plastic fences

of bland ignominy.

But the johnny-come-latelies

don’t matter so much to him —

they will end;

he stretches in the sun

"There is no enemy"

A grilled reuben cures many ills,
and I like it better if the locals built where I’m at.
Since the trusty Chevy truck got old, now his
lettering says we can just call him Chet.

Guess I could use a little more nothing,
got too much cluttering built into life —
busy representing ourselves with things that we keep,
tipping scales, keeping now off-balance.

Stripped books get judged by their covers
and come to be kind and say hi to each other and
sound-off like the mirthful sarcastic brilliant loving windbag Jews
my rented flat was under, but over here we learn slow.

Guess the opposite of something ain’t nothing, it’s something-else,
and don’t you dare try to change that again;
even if I wasn’t much scared of anything bad
until someone told me I could be.

"Advices"

Don’t need to own a pickup truck yourself but

best that you have a friend who do, & you

should know accidents leaving the strip club

tend to involve a bigger tip with the tow.

The word ‘widdershins’ still means something

if you know the right nerd to ask;

and out of all of them, glaucoma sure is

a better kind of coma to have.

A 2-litre of soda-pop chilled down to 10 degrees

will freeze solid just when you open it:

like us humans, when the pressure’s released 

it becomes what it really is – and then makes a mess.

There’re so many lists you don’t want to be on,

from no-fly to alien grocery;

so out of respect I keep my shitlist blank 

using shinkicks immediately.

(sigh) Remember, the money isn’t the work you did —

it’s ship’s scrip for the crashing starship Earth:

there’s an outside to each and every thing, and

mistaking means for ends soon enough’s evil itself.

—Aw shucks now, gone done’n got windy, son, 

y’all take care now and tip well for your Miller-time Bud…

"Tricky wisdom"

Some bits of wisdom are hard to come by,

I mean they’re whizzing past us all the time:

plastic bananas help spread Lyme disease,

eat chocolate only from its starboard side.

Clark Kent needs his fiber because if he pushes too hard

his boom-boom puts a hole through toilet and floor.

There is a best way to milk a cat,

but that nugget’s not a thing to be told.

Baby telephone poles only grow in salty soil;

and here’s the straight dope: I’m afraid a jar never is the door.

Real old-fashioned homestyle meals are

traditionally cooked in diabetes shoes.

If you don’t have a jesus in your heart

you might-should wanna keep one in your shoe —

he’s small and’ll fit for sure, in case you need him

when things get tight and go to Where-They-Go-To.

The teacher’s an ass and keeps all the points

the students miss on their tests and homework,

but one day he’ll get his – and at least he taught them

that, fuck yeah, sorghum is the camel of crops.

—So to everyone out there in Radioland:

Don’t touch that dial, it’s very sensitive…

Maybe start with the treble and bass, and then

work your way over to fader and balance…

"Census"

...Like many before me, I’ll pass the day,

     we have a long tradition...

many do for this or that, but here for me

     it would be children —

Be polite and civic responsibly

     best as you can contain your conditions

babysit for some friends at the stray brood-having urge

     (which we, fiercely listless, slow abandon...)

"The magnificent sorrow"

you mustn’t yearn

–it won’t help you here or keep you good or warm

you mustn’t yearn

–lose it within the wind like the any-words of a coward

you mustn’t yearn

–perish it parched in their dry endless disregard

you mustn’t yearn

or rage or bellow, you mustn’t make a sound

you must relent that lurid rainbow gleam 

— the yearning for — and

come-still the draw

far and well

down so 

under

ground