Wallingford Front Porch/Late Afternoon

Hmmmmm,
While roaming this part of the fish tank
I run into some familiar sets o' fins n gills
getting really auntie ansty
bumping the glass border
between the possible
and the imagined.
Shite howdy.
Lookit the thousand league stare
on that guppy.
Tit's amost like he's grown lungs n legs
put on a moustached sweater
a stiff upper lip beret
n is sticking El Alamein
at the end of his first, middle and last.
Oh, O O O
says I.
'Cause I'm a Golden Champion-fish n that's what I do.
Some of the shiny things streaking through the water
turn out to be the omega to our alpha-spawn.
Hooked on a line
that becomes a sinker
that guppy's gonna squirm n squirm
cursing the grandma driver pace
of evolution.
I'm afraid he's gonna pass up
the occasional tasty flake
dropping to the bottom of the tank.
I'm afraid he's never gonna know
the mundane pleasure
of watching the plastic treasure chest
belch a school of bubbles.
I'm afraid he gonna squirm
and bump the tank's edge
for the rest of his swim
dreaming of landlubber empire.

One Day

Sometimes 

(but not very often, mind ye)

Somebody that isnae meself

has beat me to the paunch

n said the say I were going to speech.

Afore I lay we down to kip

last night

I spun a spin of compact disc

n these words sang forth:

One Day

You are my weakness, you are my strength
Nothing I have in the world makes better sense
Cause I'm a fish and you're the sea

When we're together or when we're apart
There's never a space in between the beat of our hearts
Cause I'm the apple and you're the tree

One day at a time is all we do
One day at a time is good for you

You are my woman, I am your man
Nothing else matters at all, now I understand
That I'm the door and you're the key

Every morning I wake in your smile
Feeling your breath on my face and the love in your eyes
Cause you're the honey and I'm the bee

One day at a time is all we do
One day at a time is good for us too (you too)

Cause I'm the fish and you're the sea
Cause I'm the apple and you're the tree
Cause I'm the door and you're the key
Cause you're the honey and I'm the bee

John Lennon

Shovel Into Spade Kit

Scaught Five
The Boy Wander
and also now Santa, folks
loses his shit
on the East Greenlake Express.
The Shame Train
as Roar-E used to call it.
Reading this Murakami book
I never read this type of book
cause I'm high fallutin'.
No disputin'.
Serve from the left.
Remove from the right.
Anyroad, it makes me chuckle
n then I start
thinking about a series
of laffs that prod me
ta dae the same.
Stone Fury.
Shut Up Little Man.
Amplitude Modulation.
Derek n Clive.
Peoples is getting uneasy
because I can't stop
he he he he he he heh heh
HA!
HA!
Snort n sniffle...
Wottaya lookin' at me like that for?
Steady on, grandad.
I'm Santa,
it's part of me job.
Uh oh...
I'm getting off right here
waaay before my stop
cause I remember this:
"Don't tell anybody what I'm about to tell you,
It's all very Candlestein."
Candlestein?
Wot the fook r you wingin' on about, drude?
Clandestine??
"That's what I said."
Nowt.
You said Candlestein.
Poops! I weren't supposed to tell anybloody about that.
S'okay Roosty.
He ain't gonna come here.
Things at the Last Rung is pretty candlestein, after all.

Molly Visits

Molly

your picture just fell out of Martin Amis' 

Yellow Dog

I don't remember putting it there.

Did you do it?

Good old Sauber

Did you do it?

I miss you

and your nightly rituals.

Remember your effigy?

It's here with me

on the dresser 

next to the Donald Duck 

my uncle gave me last year.

I left Donald in a drawer at his house

in Los Angeles

thirty four years ago.

The effigy still smells like you.

It has your porcupine hairs sticking out

of its chewed arms and legs.

Like Donald Duck. 

Like your picture.

You go away 

and you come back.

I miss you Sauber

I miss you Molly.

The Tennis System and Its Stars

The Night of The Long Knives

played out under a grimy 40 watt bulb sky

on this pissing cold spring day.

The low-self is in the house, people.

I can see it 

coming through the computer monitor

leaking through the receiver 

of the fucking phone

into my squealing ears.

Leaning in over the walls

of this baby vomit colored cubicle.

Everybody's killing everybody

with swinging accusations

blunt force panic

and heroic futility.

I know I know I know

You can't afford to lose this gig.

Believe me, I know.

So, shall we engage 

in a little self mortification?

Let's show them how much

they mean to us 

and live here like Anchorites

in workaday ecstasy

day and night

perched like business casual

stylites 

on this three story

stick up my ass.

Days like this

really get on my tit.

Almost start to snarl

almost start to snap

but there's no point

no one in this world knows what they do.

Build an elevator through the sky.

Ping Ping Ping Pang

It's dark
and the heat vent
whistles one thousand
meaningless songs.
Pillows are stacked up
on the empty side of this bed.
Sleep does not come easy
when every cell inside
is consumed with
omnipresent desire.
Arms wrapped around
tangled sheets.
A leg draped over
a crumpled quilt.
She isn't here
and it feels like
a fever.
The clock on the nightstand
keeps the beat
to a song
the heart
is compelled to sing.
Calling and calling.
Pleading and howling
at colorless night
to relent.
Let sleep come here
in her lithe form.
Let her lay down beside me
rest her head on my shoulder
wrap her leg around my thighs
and bathe me in
rose petal silence.

Mildred Corrie

Mildred Corrie

I saw you yesterday

in a cherry blossom petal

spinning from the branch

to the sidewalk.

They shaved off all of your

beautiful white hair

when I came to say goodbye.

You wouldn't let them 

take out your false teeth

and I never loved you more.

In the last hours and minutes

we were alone.

I did the only thing 

I knew how to do.

I sang to you

and held your disappearing hand.

Then I realized you were there 

in the tiny claws of the 

baby robin I buried 

in the backyard 

of the house on 86th Avenue, NE.

in 1976.

Mildred Corrie.

I will see you again and again

in the veins of a bumblebee's wings

or in the flaking paint of the front porch steps.

You will always be 

beautiful and strong.