naked
altogether
not bored

reading

There are still dirt driveways
in our fair city,
and when it rains these
driveways turn to mud.

Just beyond the parts where
drunk twenty-somethings
climb in to their girlfriend’s cars
to drive past twenty-five shops
that they’ve never seen, only
heard of, there are Dead Tracks.

Foundry coke liters the lines,
the detritus of the pinnacles of
modern achievement
fifty years ago. Meanwhile,
all-but abandoned, mostly-
forgotten two-story buildings
set a frame for unused, overgrown
infrastructure to cut through.

I felt like an Aberration,
ghosting through the unused
parts and counting railroad ties.
Kicking the coke and rubbing
my chilled hands together.
Setting a pace over uneven ground.
Breathing deep the decay of
seemingly ancient modernization.

There are still dirt driveways
in our fair city,
and when it rains these
driveways turn to mud.
I shudder to think
what happens to
the rest of it.

nights like these used to be so romantic
there was always something better
that could be
the food was terrible and the weather
just right
our hope for what was to come
probably in a chair nearby
and we hoped and dreamed
that this was misery we were experiencing

somehow making each moment more
worthwhile
telling ourselves this was suffering
and perhaps it was compared to the ecstasy
that was to follow

i cant help but wonder
whats it called when everyday is
exactly as wonderful as it should be?

when my job is to think about
furthering your kingdom
and here from another part of the world
living in another part of the world
doing another altogether similar thing
one more rejoicing over similar confusion
at just how lucky we are

will it end?

A restaraunt
on Michigan.
people eat there
now and then.
Heard it’s good,
but never been.
Driven by but
not stopped in

Handsome shop
from what’s been seen.
Giant windows,
quite serene.
Menu prices,
though, obscene,
and not enough
to split between.

Fast food joint
on Portage road.
Pizza’s cheap,
the wings, so-so.
Not the best,
though not most low,
So grab a slice.
We gotta go.

The sun rose again
I called on the Bodhisattva to carry my weight
the fanfare sickened my heart
with its volatile emotions
and I forgot my name.

Bathroom’s scribbles
Jena has got siphillis
Alice h.e.a.r.t.s Jack
L is a fat lying b#&*
politik suks.
Incontinent unhygienic bastards
with their pink blue black ink
let their minds defecate over bathroom walls and doors
The stench of the 21rst century emotional discharge
permeated my skin
and I lost my mind

Puppies scrambling for existence
their blood growing thinner and toxic
screaming at each other
fucking looser
retard
fag

The sun hid again
the Matryoshka doll sounded out my soul,
and called me shallow
real flowers lie low, she said,
true worms rage down below the trash can
and I broke the mold.

when in doubt the answer is yes
but then again, the doubt usually arises because the topic is alcohol
if in doubt
and the topic is not alcohol
the answer is no.

you said it’d be 100
i talked you to 50
given the way you drive
we’ll make it 30

pizza goes so well with
turkey melt sandwiches
you’d forget and forgive all (most)
woes

Something is not right
about the state of affairs

Something must be done.

Hire a new hitman to
kill the old hitman
and let’s be done with
the whole charade.

I’ve seen far too many Bond films
to die like this.

doesn’t mean it’s not happening
and I’d appreciate
if you could give me the benefit of the doubt
lest you should end up in the same position

put on your shorts
here’s one more
day of summer.

stress relievers
come at the end of flights
not in pill shaped form
(although if the hallucination was strong enough)
and when i test you
i know all the more
you were what i needed

sun at my back
hope for a future
and healthcare
i trust

hospitals without
piss and blood on the floors

its here i belong

for now

The best way
to prepare for
a busy day
(or so I’ve found)
is staying up far,
far too late
and reading up
on History
(and on guitars
specifically)
while two loads
of laundry
bang around
conspicuously
with washer and dryer
doing all the work of
two good housewives of
yesteryear,and
in half the time,
I might add (though
one would think it goes
without saying, but
then, not a lot of
people take the time
to realize that something
as mundane as an
electric washer
would get you either
burned at the stake
or drowned at the river
only a few hundred
years ago),
But I digress:
the buzzer buzzed:
I think I can finally sleep.

everyone tells me
that I’m justified;
even so, is it worth it?

Ending white awning
And nothing to conflict
Against the conjecture
Fresh windless
Nor a sparrow
Nor a falcon
Nor any geese
Nor contrasting mote
In any direction
Imperceptibly skimming
Pallid smoke clouds
Sighing to rupture
On skin like stone
Shaped smoothen
But refusal to break
A continuum of fault
Moving too fast
And fast forward
There is nothing here
But desolation

the worst part of living in
an apartment complex is that
when the man downstairs yells
you can hear him but scarcely
what it’s all really about
and, you can hear the man
upstairs at all times but
the more you listen his
words seem to mush around
into nothingness
(maybe his thoughts are
getting absorbed by the
carpet)
but the man in the middle
(this is me)
we all know what’s going
on with him as you can
hear his words thumping
through the apartment
complex like some sort of
heartbeat or something.
this is the conclusivity
of morally disapposed
positions lying on top
one another in direct
proportion to the sun
or the neuro-pathways in
the brain that they call
“timber creek”

appearantly my
sleight-of-mouth has
got me in some trouble, as
some people near this
atmosphere can’t
stomach me and mine
(oh my)
so given oppor
tunities I’ve
made my rash decisions
and I’m getting on out
so make sure you clearly
label all your mail to me:
I just might change my
forwarding address

All of my childhood memories
are getting a
fresh set of paint and
a new surveillance system

But Mr. Hugo remembers
when all us dumb punk kids
only lived six blocks from
the middle school,
and any given hour of
any given night, you could
probably see somebody
you knew, or who knew you.

Even going so far as to
dragging out a glow-
in-the-dark football and
charging it in the headlights
of someone’s beat up high-
school car so we could play
five-hundred for about four
minutes out between a
backstop and an old pink wall.

Well, they painted the pink
wall purple, and they
tore down the tennis courts
(that nobody had any
use for anyway, but
Damn it they looked cool)

But the field my old dog
ran through is still just
as big as ever. And the
hill I used to sled down
is a hill that can sled still,
so I suppose, all things
considered, the fresh paint,
it’s not so bad. Now we just
have to put up with Big
Brother.

and i talked
and talked
and talked;
i couldn’t stop,
lest everyone see
how incompetent
i felt myself to be,
covering it over
in misdirection
and subterfuge,
hoping to fool all of you.