money shower

down the drain
every penny
this liquid money 
wash over me

i get dry and hungry 
but clean at least

pull a cloak from the laundry pile 
and out to town 
to dowse for money

and sitting behind the bar 
open doors
i see right through it 
to the street 
just like i do a vapid customer

under the road

in the river

that land was our land

with my raw honey lady

and my brother in arms

and his bandit beauty

and our friends

climb into mysterious metal river tunnel

through the dark middle, going slow by feel

and out the other side

story of my life

and back over country dirt road

down the little slope to reconvene

with our divine youth

their monday

leaving my love's neck 
the kinks, beautiful furniture
a viewmaster 
and conversation i care about 

for what i don't know
to smoke i guess
moment to myself for this

down b and r's old staircase 
i've descended countless nights
but pitch black now and thick
with wet first summer air
of a new decade 

wonder if an ecstatic weekend
has to ever end
for their monday
nah, just keep saying yes to good
no to bad 
alone against the dark

freight

then the train fell truly silent
power down
movement ceased
windows sealed, air stilled
the smells came up
the strangers sighing
babies crying 

dreamy moving church 
sheds it's collective serenity
becomes an overstuffed pen

and this is how it will be
blink of an eye 
all systems fail
these pulleys holding
these veils marked as
alive and free
gone

the vermonter

the all but silent car in coach 
only sounds so long, withdrawn and calming
all facing forward 
all in our dreams
demanding nothing of one another
all tickets have been paid and collected

spattered sun on green
soothes us each in turn and privately 
in this gliding church 
in this common car a spell
each on our way to our better

breakdown lane

you build a life
while i demolish one
a future piles up and piles
technicolor yellow brick road laid
as mine peels back and back 
til almost negative

your eyes on emerald city
world blurs by on both sides 
i will be as little as possible
right here

reptilian surfer

for one redeeming moment 
this afternoon at work 
felt that reptilian quiet
everything what it is and
as it should be

then desire came 
and my heart missed the ocean
living on its floor back when
or sitting seaside with neon salt air 
gulls and ease
boardwalk and breeze

jonathan

jonathan let me be your roadie 
jonathan where are your eyes looking
maybe that glare night after night 
skews perception
mutes short-range vision

jonathan don't play emmet kelly
in a lonely spotlight
jonathan spread smiles with hips
and homages to old painters

jonathan show me that view
i'll come up
train my eyes 
out from stage
past the dirty bar
through daylight window back of room

thanks jonathan 

accounted for

easy as pie
just keep track of your belongings 
two being mind and heart

okay it's not easy
but it's sure simple

000

if my heart must live somewhere
rather put it in austin two months ago
at some bus stop bumming a smoke
to some fellow down-and-outer

than being bounced around this 
fucking pinball table, points to be scored

rather you don't know my name 
tell it with my song and
hopefully it becomes irrelevant

cold coffee

cold coffee
tobacco shake
tired heart
wince to wake

end of party
argument haze
residue mind
overcast days

nimble fingers
refuse to rest
can't find pencil
to take test

greasy hair
talk radio
eat some food
on with the show

no orpheus

sing at the wet gray
all morning long
every one i know
still can't find the song

that stills the wind
that holds the birds 
that says the words
that stop my soul
and leads it in
a box to go
to a museum 
to be displayed

got lost there 
anyway, i'm no orpheus

graytown purgatory

walking down to hazy graytown
pollen floats slow i'm in a spacedrift
or warm snowstorm of a dream

the haze suits my purgatory
waiting to hear
car in the OR
could go wither way
same as my tour
i'd be listening to things behind the sun
if i hadn't run my ipod through the washer
making a record is not in my job description

still i sort of see the road
cursed to be born a serious soul
blessed to be always composing a frame
know everyday is the last day

like the wrestler

one more shift in the deli
and i might just oedipus this shit
can do this monkey work blind anyway
and i'd rather not see what's in front of me

or better yet keep my eyes
go out mickey rourke style 
bloodied and screaming feral
fiercely flinging nicoise tuna  
on all the conventional bystanders
lumber out the auto doors
into the silent sunshine

drinkin and smokin

drinkin and smokin
just tryin to get to the bottom
with these crutches that 
don't actually aid the walk

temporary deaths
not ready for the real one 
yet

just let me say my piece 
before i'm taken

6/1

amy - "I really wanna paint my door blue
before it rains"
and pete lightly slapped katy with the
martini duel glove

stripe of bench shade too narrow even
for my narrow body
and the clouds 
wisps too small to be pictures 
regardless, laying I tried
to speak poems free to myself

pete and butter rode the current in dog river
backstroke trick of world's fastest swimmer

then clouds came 
auggie cut his foot
so we left
did UHF in two minutes
screaming espresso in a compact car
on the way to the bar

flannie's lavender gimlet
the perfect drink 
for a slowpaced soul summer june 1st