Saturday, May 23, 2009

Carrying On


Eddie Pancake waited on the bar stool for
a personality transplant that wasn't coming
anytime soon as a bucket of kangaroo spit
kept the red ants out of reach of the piano
lesson that raged down the greasy stairs.
On AA meeting night, Eddie kept pigeons
under the armpits of his dented dreams.
Over the years, the sweet debris of indifferent
sex was swept into the corners of a conceptual
life that was very Danish modern.
There were ghosts in the upper bunk
heading for Cairo on a drunk camel.
Eddie was left wearing army boots and
a party hat as a piano was crushed by
the power of a million frantic butterflies.

Tijuana on the Half Shell


The girls stick to the bald guy like Elmer's glue.
Burgers buried in grease sizzle on a side street.
20 arms stretched out behind a plastic curtain
donate blood for some sex money.
While a laid-off bus driver downs his first drink,
the bald guy leans on a sticky handrail and fingers
pesos like they are being devalued on the spot.
The girls bust out laughing as they each
grab for the arm of a pressed white sailor
who has testosterone calling the shots.
Slices of yellow cheese bubble over the
horizon as the laid-off driver stumbles into
one last strip club for the night.

If I Were ...


If I were a caterpillar on page one of a children's book putting its fuzz to the grndstone, I probably would not stop believing in the power of camouflage to keep me safe from the scrutiny of an English department that feeds on Foucault and Derrida.
If I were leaning over a hospital bed mercilessly murmuring about misplaced meaning with the spark of dementia setting fire to the drapes, I probably should not lead an invisible crusade to fire up a camera full of family brushes with delusion.
If I were hyperextending myself into ultimate fighter mode in front of a rowdy Vegas crowd, I probably should not be leaving a cab with the meter running on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
If I were rummaging through a trailer home for my childhood and I found furniture floating out of a full-length mirror, I probably would not break out the Yahtzee dice and roll up a storm of sixes.
If I were channeling Charlie Parker on a Saturday night with clouds hugging the mountains as a wind tears through the valley, I probably would not punish the babysitter who taught me about nakedness in the chill of my parents' bedroom.
If I were riding on the back of an Indian elephant through a national forest with my feet talking trash, I probably should not shock myself into believing that my ATM card is home building up an empire of nondeductible debt.
If I were listening to the White Album at midnight in bed with the covers over my head, I probably would not want to be grinding my teeth down to the source of the Nile with the clocks running backwards up Victoria Falls.
If I were flipping through a reference book in search of the year a German novel was first translated into English, I probably should not be expected to remember that I need to pick up a new supply of filters for the house ventilating system.
If I were curled up in a sleeping bag on the beach just south of San Felipe in Baja with a big wind blasting snakes out of the rocks, I probably should not take the time to relive the Thirty Years' War and how whole patches of ground were denuded by careless armies.
If I were standing in line at the market with five items in my basket, I probably would not have enough time to run down the list of all the girls whoever made me lose consciousness with their earthshattering French Symbolist kisses..

Not Losing Sight


Eileen's eye focused on

the sea and not

the arcade that was

morphing into a hazard

for everyone in

the extended family.

The day was full of

vermilion petals and

feathers that floated down

from a previous generation.

She watched the ocean be

transformed into a palace

full of fragrant myths, and

a gallery ready-made for

swimming away from

the geometry of dread.

A New World Order


The gulls carry whiffs
of salt to the suburbs.
A small boat is beached at
the on-ramp to the freeway.
Three coins wash up at
the doorstep of the governor.
A can of tuna shimmers
in the candlelight.
A schoolboy reaches for
his shoes at the bottom
of an aquarium.
There is a new world
order many fathoms deep.

Friday, May 22, 2009

On the Clock


The sanguine answer didn't come to me
soon enough to make a difference in
the big picture, but I was there when I
said I was there and not any later as has
been rumored in circles that i refuse to
acknowledge for purposes of this discussion.
The ticking continued as I spoke up for
myself in the center of the fray that was
not of my making in any sense of the word.
It could have been resolved in duplicate but
no one was pf a mind to carry through to the end.
Things were left to fester and my reputation
was left in tatters by the shabbiness of it all.
There was not one scintilla of truth to any of
the allegations that piled up at my door.
I merely paused before entering the building in
the back and could not have been standing
near the melting clock after lunch was served.
To make matters worse, I banged both knees on
the banister that was bulging beyond usefulness.
Although not trained in the law of diminishing
returns, I surmise that bald face lies should not
be left unanswered and that I am well within my
rights as a jester and a rube to take issue with
all the unsubstantiated accusations hanging on the clock.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

And as I Slowly Turn to Walk Away


The blood work will tell the tale, will run the wires from here to there and back again, will fill the deep end with meaning and a sweet, sweet refrain.
The royal rube goes to the doctor to get rid of his rubeness only to find out that it can't be removed, won't wash off, doesn't respond well to medication.
The strange girl with the bum knee waits for something tumultuous to come to her on a Tuesday in broad daylight near the pet clinic.
The hardwood floor takes a deep breath before prodding the Greek gods to take their debate outside.
The tragedy in five acts between mother bird and baby bird is played out above the slanted driveway that winds around a cedar tree.
The mystic in a muddle manufactures a message that all good boys and girls can place under their pillows for a future reward of monumental proportions.
The razzmatazz boys take the softball game into extra innings humming a little Benny Goodman and inhaling some sloe gin fizzes.
The rehabilitated cousin stands in the street with his pantlegs rolled up and a crude smile plastered to the middle of his face as a spaghetti truck loses speed at the top of the hill.
The garage sale goes into overdrive by putting on the market some really cool dark matter and slightly worn winged spaceplanes.
The king of the avenue of oaks faces a flickering globe of light that rides the back of a painted turtle.
The circus clown with adverbs for shoes reclines in the metal chair that has dug into a flower bed full of adjectives.
The ocean takes issue with the river and the river is not happy with the stream and the stream is no longer on speaking terms with the puddle for allowing humans to muck up the works with their waste and religious fervor.
The crickets start up a band in the bathtub and keep the spiders up all night.
The film crew lights up the evening at the period gas station on North Lake Ave. while the starlet does her best Marilyn Monroe in the backseat of a vintage Rolls.
The sidewalks are sagging under the weight of horrified buccaneers who have been given shovels for swords as dazzling dirt clods fly into oncoming traffic.
The mad scientist flips some cosmic flapjacks for the extended family on a mid-week morning with a pack of starlings taking over the power lines.
The hapless young husband attempts to dig a trench around each rose bush before taking a beer break as his gallant young wife climbs the ladder to the highest point in the galaxy of weeds.
The waitress in a leopard dress spirits away the empties before her partial unraveling in the parking lot with the dessert chef from Fargo.
The family picnic is dismantled by a swarm of bees and uncle Joe hitting on the Goth girls hanging out by the restroom.
The retired schoolteacher flexes her tattoos on Mother's Day under the shade of a gazebo with ghosts gardening in the geometry of family.
The paper cut conversations between interrogators and messengers cannot be contained at the edges of intersections that ancestors find divisible by sky.
The juggler dumps her bowling pins into a duffel bag and brings out the chainsaws to the delight of the middle-school gymnasts.
The petulant gulls break up the monotony of the morning by pelting the windows of the newly renovated library.
The great ballplayer trips over a first base dream and splashes into a nightmare before any peanuts can be shelled.
The three-story apartment building on the next block is moved to a local parking lot until it can be adopted by a needy town somewhere between here and Las Vegas.
The bag lady of Ventura pushes her cart full of pelicans to the fish market where the summer wind pulls its weight in shrimp.
The wandering soul of Saticoy gets lost in a seventh hole sand trap and keeps on digging.
The cynical older voter predicts that California will never stop relying on propositions to make matters worse.
The sun goes down on the lost continent of Oxnard forcing the eight ball to teeter on the edge of a corner pocket.
The ice cream truck does a midafternoon spin around the nature reserve parking lot before going for a psychic reading.
The neighbor's dog goes into the dance of the infinite tail spin as the first star of the evening gets a running start at the whole sky.
The ghost with a grudge takes up residence in the childhood home that had kept him quiet at all cost.
The movie starts at the drive-in as the freeway traffic zooms by and young girls suddenly pop out of the trunks of several souped-up sedans.
The garden rat lets the air out of my tires, puts a hole in my radiator, shatters a side mirror, keys a door, and leaves droppings on the hood that spells out how he's not leaving the Republican Party anytime soon.
The pool guy pockets the tips he earned rubbing lotion on the backs of the bridge club ladies before heading for the pizza place at the end of the street.
The Derby crowd with long-shot dreams and domestic beers hunkers down in front of the big screen to watch twenty horses go the distance.
The tipsy tourist with a terrible rash and a tragic sense of direction tumbles into a taxi on a hot night in Tarzana.
The woman with the mesmerizing freckles takes a dozen cell phone calls in the produce section to fill up her Sunday morning.
The Jackson Pollock of main street leaps into the air during a hailstorm flinging red paint with the brush in his right hand and blue paint with the brush in his left.
The excruciatingly bad street musician continues to make up songs on the spot and share them with his public hanging out at the red light.
The uninvited mathematician pulls a formula out of his hat and presents a family with a fresh frame of reference.
The acutely sensitive researcher stays late after work to feed into the computer new variables that he hopes will prove his suspicions to be correct.
The Florida guy with animal magnetism and alligator shoes takes the microphone at the city council meeting and wins support for a new dog walk behind the crumbling industrial park.
The Dorothy Parker of the fast food set opens the day with a breakfast burrito and a brilliant retort addressed at a belching bus carrying Catholic girls down the straight and narrow.
The bourgeois poet with bags under his eyes secures another blanket for the night by taking down an ornamental banner from the wall of lost causes.
The crazy American editor living in Myanmar heads for the border hoping for another strip search serenade to make his day.
The senior citizens lock heads over a game of chess on the back porch while Sixty Minutes gets to the bottom of the vice president on a portable TV.
The exhausted wife sits in the center of her garden and glows while a wayward husband inflicts his wrath on the corporate world and future children remain frozen in time.
The good son takes out the trash without being asked, runs a bath for his little sister, removes his toy soldiers from the dinner table, reads more Edgar Allan Poe, keeps all evil thoughts to himself.
The loitering crow eyes the remains of a sweet and sour TV dinner that had been purposely dumped at the edge of the driveway before the first sprinkle had turned into a downpour.
The young woman who had just outmaneuvered a brown bear is clipped by a passing car before she has had a chance to change her luck.
The family of skunks runs into a wounded possum behind the prison chapel on a moonlit night in July.
The fire victims appear on the network news in order to thank their lucky but singed stars that the winds died down long enough for the water drops to blanket the remaining structures.
The movie people point the bright lights toward the mausoleum and call for action.
The light changes from red to green allowing a well-equipped infantry of middle school recruits to advance into a hapless neighborhood with full carte blanche privileges.
The morning sky brushes up against a battered sphinx that has been nervously shaking off its protective scaffolding.
The local librarian with an imported limp posts teenage constellations above the sliding doors to the meeting room where Earth Day becomes latticework for the undead.
The Santa Ana wind carries all the crickets rescued from bathtubs, sinks, and closets on a new journey across the deserted streets of commerce.
The midnight coyotes rush north to drink from a glistening trench that has been cut near exposed sprinkler heads.
The homeless man returns to his side of the philosophical divide with a skinny dog under his feet.