St. Peter’s Reward

...and there is 

Peter manning 

the gate,

never permitted to

join in.

Within my head

I’d like to be a bird

singing 

but only 

when it has 
something to say.

Holding Hands 2

His pants cuffed up grazed rippled glass

her skirt teased the waters edge.

Their calves cooled in the shallows, 

while bees were lured 

up the tulip poplar’s blouse.

Holding hands

The desert marigold

holds nothing back!

I was there

Kiss, kiss.

I was there with each 
inquisition.

I was the witch, monarch, 
priest.

I was the guy under the hood 

with 

a freshly ground gleaming axe

aiming 

to lift myself & the infidels 

closer 

to that bastard St. Peter 

at 
his pearly gated hell.

How?

How can youth comprehend

an old man’s writings? Where

bone no longer stacks on bone

and eyes water day and night

and grief is his nagging wife.

Universal Knowledge

There is only so much

juice in an orange, yet

I insist that the same

orange give me ketchup 

too.

Pick an Emotion

It’s raining; like a 

factory raised turkey 

I looked up to taste 

the holy gift, only 

to drown myself.

Relationship

There are these small

yellow pomp-pomp 

flower clusters that hum,

and there are the bees

quick as caffeine

that covet them.

(2011)

Asking

What does

the dragonfly

spell against

a blue sky?

Mother’s Thousand Little Daggers

Cutting and stitching

Cutting and stitching

Drawing and quartering me

through childhood, teaching 

me the ways of love.

Cutting and stitching

Cutting and stitching

(2011)

Perfect

Perfect is

an obnoxious 

hungry ghost.

(2011)

The Heart

The vast sky 

changes

from silver blue 

to deep indigo.

Empty, it

holds everything.

Fodder for $50.00

Wrapped in the Tower of Babel

words are made useless fodder

for game shows.


(2011)

Cave Dweller

I’ve lived in a cave for so long,

I mistook my campfire for the sun,

that’s how it goes with love and shame, 

childhood, and anger.


(2011)

Joy and Dread

Joy comes the same way dread comes,

dressed in ridiculous costumes,

both stringed on the marionette call me.


(2011)

Monkey

It’s one thing to acknowledge the monkey

and quite another 

to snapped the vertebrae in your neck, 

twist it 180 degrees

and stare that hairy beast in the face.


(2011)

My Judas Heart

Oh my dearest Hell,

thank you. 

I’ve hated you for so long, 

yet, you’ve not forsaken me.

The Quantum Theory of Gravity

You look pretty. 

What’s your name?


(2012)

ICEE

Once we lose

our top, we’ll

slush endlessly

into Antarctica.


(2012)

Lightning Strike

The first tree (2011)

The first tree.

Was it apple? 

Pomegranate?

Mesquite? 

Oak perhaps? 

Grown from blood 

in an overcast 

chartreuse sky,

shrouded in fire 

branded 

by the first 

god ever born?


(2011)