few characters

knuck tats
vanity plates
good poems

so few characters

if it's going to deliver
each one
must count

the races

the car you bought
so many years ago
you pulled out of that lot
onto such a straight road
sun was shining

in grey dusk it's clear
the road is too, too straight
it only leads further 
so many signs promising to fulfill
just up ahead
they must be old
cause they lie 

and somehow it's also
a dead end

if you can get out of that car
onto a couch
it is a joy to watch the races
the deadly speed
peeling roars
a circuit
the perfect repeating circuit
no empty promises
just speed and repeat

the beautiful relief
from that straight-ahead

shop window figure

center of town 
on the corner
waiting for the signal
so polite

confronting so much
by simply being there
lights faces shrugs nods glances footsteps

cross and
along the street
so many vast
shop window mirrors
in which to regard the figure
from some foreign mind

trying to forget reflections

feelers

i've been a very hungry squid

faintest smell of a meal

and i send all my tentacles

in all directions

hard to swim this way

now i will float through slow

enjoy the purple sun of depths

hear the ocean echoes

rest my feelers

be hungry while i

consider the best source

of nourishment

channels, shades

i'm sorry i'm an open channel 
i'm sorry it goes right through me

and that I don't believe 
that I am concrete 

we are glowing
let the room be lit
if we're blinded
we'll feel our way

i don't want you
to wear your shades no more

work

if the police came and
took me away

i would not have to
work my shift.

just sayin.

pictures

all the little branches 
reach skyward
on a tree
off my porch

sky has some blue
between the winter grey

when my words dry up
i could always get back to
painting pictures

it's more direct

ghost of the cafe

i sit on the side stairs 
at the ghost of langdon street
and hear the voices of so many
singers 
talkers
travelers
poets
puppets
magicians
showgirls
kids
joy parades

the echoes still sound on this corner 
5 years later 

someone's got a zoning permit
on the window 
we'll see

today on an almost silent
late winter morning
town sounds from a block away 

no coffee
no paper-reading regulars 
no bakers rushing past me down
these side steps
with big pungent trays

look through the window
empty as the day we brought the bartop
to dan's barn
and closed her down
i got a free rocks glass I still drink from

langdon street
i grew my heart there

perfect coat

it's a temperate evening 
no urgent words are needed
above, a glowing crescent 
that I can really see

spindly branches between
don't look lonely at all
my coat's perfect for the mild chill 
i'm wearing my tie
writing by moonlight 
i'll be singing later

valentine's day and i
have love
i guess this is contentment

t shows up with the van
time to load up

it won't stay started
and 

crisis time again.

the fight

at my worst 
the world 
revolves around me

spins like a big ugly boxer
towering, sweaty, lump-nosed
circling in
to take the title

when i'm okay
i'm ringside 
drinking in the heat
of the fight
celebrating

the noise of
primal life
the joy of it

and i'm just one of the crowd 

driver's ed

there's no reason to hold a glance
that's how you get stuck
in fact 
like driver's ed
keep scanning
side to side
up down and around
regard, continue

colors 
and so many speckles and shapes
to take in
no time to swim
in just any set of eyes

Knayte and Amy's 2

bowie mug in your kitchen 
i'm there
the boss loves
and we get it
breasts on the wall
just celebrate them
we ain't built for guilt
narragansett
spicy guac
classy brass
hearts on fire
let us laugh

for real

i don't want to float away
but the thing is
i won't

it's just two feet on the ground
until the end
so i'm going to do
what i like

different results

passenger tire
flat again 
stranded SOS again
something about 
you do the same thing
expect different results

well thanks
alcoholic folk wisdom
but it's no news
that i'm insane 

though i did enjoy the meeting today
and i'm sober as an AM woodpecker right now
2:18 in my broken car
behind the bike shop 
scene of tonight's punk show
smoking through the 
half-open window 

in stark, crisp post-blizzard sun
the dash clock ticks away
i still have the soul of a loon

nemo

the snow burying that subaru
so much
so dense
pure white
thick, windblown
and untouched

see a mountainside
in country where no human
can live

what are we doing here

interrogation room

on the sidewalk

in the blizzard, smoking

i'll pretend the window

you row of stoolsitters are behind

is a two-way mirror

come to think of it

i often behave as though

i'm alone in an interrogation room

having my thoughts 
hit my face
with as little impact as possible
considering the onlookers 

well, so be it

breadcrumbs

gotta make that little book
elizabeth was talking about
breadcrumbs
and signposts
coins
1 ups
and extra guys
there's no game over
and there's no witches
i hold the sword
and the key
and me
and my love
will always make it
through dark woods
and into
a golden meadow

End of bars

end of the bar
the dim hanging lights
the made-up ladies
the labored composure 
a semblance

this music may be relaxed
but it can happen at any time
I've seen movies

the beams fall
the fires burst
some die
us here now 
are the only ones left

stuck in this barroom
for our short traumatic remainders

we oughta practice being real 
while the lights are still on
and the taps are flowing

Ajar

twice in my life now
i've fallen asleep 
drunk 
with the front door wide open
i don't know what i'm asking for
i swear it's an accident

Haikus for Champion Ravens

-

just in my head deep
i can see out very sharp
lenses stay put though

-

view finder over
a falls which paints some picture
i never go there

-

i believe in you
want you to have ale and fun
just remember dreams

-

girls kiss down the bar
they're looking for looks or fame
i don't care at all

-

this periphery 
it does things i care about
super bowl sunday

-

it's ancient, this care
take drink and let the game go
it's only living

-

baltimore takes it!
eat my balls other cities.
confetti for blight

-

lone stars

on new year's day something changes

at a sunday morning bar

with your hand on my thigh

it's tuesday

your neck right there for me to kiss

the afternoon is infinite

all the stars laid upon the road

before us and

pulling us to drive

through space 

and land in texas

when we park outside the broken spoke

snap up my pearls 

with your feral fingers

under a lone star

let's go dancing

mannequin 2

i'm not not looking at you
i'm just not looking at you.

turn your eyes inside for once
behold the space.

vacant, and i'm not renting.

go home and say some words at the mirror
maybe you'll become.

lost it

the night took my full notebook
the morning gave a blank one
i'm an open channel
i shot one
i sank one
i knocked one back
everything went black

except for you

blonde burns blue
blonde burns blue

sad sack

sometimes buzz gives way to muteness
shadows behind leave you fruitless
adhering to rhyme
stifles images
throws the pen 
to vacant scribbles

pulls the heart out and leaves you
an empty barfly
a sad sack on a stool
absent-souled
cheapbeer-swilling
trying to write out a heart
that isn't there
effectively making a list
on a fucking post-it.

bills

in worried mind
stepping in my front door
i saw on the floor
through the panes
squares of pure moonlight
white in darkness
as bills or
eviction notices
literally

RB's

wart remover to tongue
it contains ether
pellet flames warm orange
young heather graham
coreys and pabst
carrie's shoulders swing an 80's 50's

giggles live next to somber sighs
i live next to these guys 
practically
so much good can come
suspenseful synths
let's drink
but opening tomorrow
like they say sleep when dead

small town hip hop

the open register
the gold light through a pint
the sunken eyes everywhere
the MC continues
not noticing his song falling away dead mid-line

and no one cares
just let me have my thursday
i'm in my makeup or button-up
i want beats
i want eyes on me
i want to spit rhymes
or spit
dirty beer-covered beats
dreams of warm sheets
with anybody

make some noise