Treat + Retreat

A tiny percent of the population
is whom I want real close.

I'll happily exchange ideas with you
while you're breathing down my nose.

Our eyes catch the spark of the very same sight
Come closer, you can't see it.

We'll stare and wonder the hours away...
No wait, you just retreated.

My Town

Cleveland doesn't want me,
Savannah thinks I'm rude.
Jacksonville in general knows
I'm too obsessive about food.

Manhattan may have missed me,
Portland knows I'm broke.
Cheyenne watched me standing
outside forever like a dope.

San Francisco's way too cool,
though it's flawless in its theory.
Iowa's lines were drawn too tight:
it could never really see me.

Georgia won't forget my flaws,

but I still keep her in my heart:

the heys and y'alls, flights and falls 

from every running start.

Each road 'round there remembers me
from before I had a clue:
where I fit and where I fell,
and those things I said to you.

LA doesn't seem to notice
my presence in this sun.
Perhaps its too busy checking in
recent arrivals of everyone.

Wunderkindland

Another place in a better time,
With breezes alight and colors fine.

Faces filled to the skin with hope,
Drenched with joy and tied with rope.

Running towards what you always imagined,
Straight up ahead in a confident fashion.

You never thought to say "Wait up!"
One wrong step and you're out of luck.

No one will wait and no one will care.
That thing you thought wasn't ever there.

The road you tread is in your head,
Your mistakes are just make believe.

It's so much bigger than what we know now,
Too lush a landscape to conceive.

Southern California Bees

Who's the busiest person?
You can bet for sure not me,
but every other blighted soul is
biz biz biz busy!!!!

It shows that they're important:
so many things to do!
Working on facts and arranging dates:
you wish they could explain it to you!

"This production that I'm coordinating..."
"This screenplay I'm working on..."
Wordless drip! I'm sick of it!
Every sound they make is wrong.

Sure, they'd elucidate if you could relate -
if you had any power or pull -
but a silly little bunny who don't know the game
could sure make you look like a fool!

It's astounding, the kind of expertise
that creates this high demand:
you say someone picked up your phone call
and almost patched you through to the man?

And then what happens when it finally works out
after the years and effort they've spent?
They're all alone, their friends have gone
because their work was abhorrent.

Further Review

Mice tarts are nice, in fact they're divine:
better than game and sweeter than swine.

Sizzle them up in a tarragon spread
eat the whole thing, then go straight to bed.

You'll doze off lumpily on the couch again,
staring at the door, emptying the pen.

Retrace all the words you never meant to write:
a mumbled and muted, horrified delight.

Spending the time you've only been lent
in guilty, needless, wanting repent.

'Cados

I've put two avocados on the sill out in the sun
Hopefully they'll ripen - or at least just one.

The other can catch up later, as I would wait for days
to taste that smooth, green goo in a dish made three ways.

I'll chop it and mix it with some ripe tomato,
A little garlic, onion, and of course cilantro.

Then I'll throw it at the wall real mad and cry,
"How's that for living now, little green guy?!"

Just kidding, I would never be that insane
(to waste nature's treats is really just lame.)

I'd love it and lick it and probably get sick
from eating them throughout my day!

Skins Beneath

At a certain age, it begins.
Time finds a way straight into your skins,
and stretches and wrinkles and fades in some places:
mocking, miniature lines all over our faces
that serve as a proof of the years gone by
(the quotes round the mouth, the feet at the eye).

Am I proud of the story they tell so loud
to often a stranger and never a crowd?

My history is richer than what could be shown
on a plane less dimensional than my own
thoughts and hopes and ideas and loves -
the determination that will rise above
evidence of hurt from decades past.

I will become myself, at last.

Promise

Beneath the porch in the rain,
I will ever be hiding.

The last one to blame is me,
but I can take the chiding.

To fight for you is inevitable.
I promise to take good care.

Groceries, laundries, and chatter
I'll always be right there.

Meanwhile, birds mark the course
of my flight out to the sun.

The words are just the first part
it has not yet even begun!

Plastics

Things don't work sometimes.
Replace the batteries as you like.

The blinking blue light indicates
a source of anger that retaliates.

Throw it at me, it still won't work.
Then who will be the big fat jerk?

Keep trying at it, it may give in -
(at the cost of peaceful living).

Free of worrying about trivialities,
anyone can do just as they please.

Frames

I've pretty much gotten my ass kicked like every single day
since the moment I thought of the great idea to move out to LA.

"Just so close" and "Not this time" always echo through my brain;
The looping thoughts I think here would make anyone insane.

I picture the life I wanted and this is nowhere close.
The plan was to take this stupid place by storm and then to go.

It's hard for me to care because it doesn't make a dif
Whether I get a speaking part or just a walk on bit.

I'm not fighting to find a frame for my freckled face to squeeze in
to redeem some greater ghost or justify some obtuse reason.

I'd rather spend my quiet time alone in my own home
with my dirty hair unseen and my history unknown.

Sometimes Annoying

What a total waste of time it is
to think that folks are honest.
It's façade and bullshit,
mine-not-your shit,
break every single promise.

And such a stupid futile effort
to read these folks as true,
They're insincere
and really weird
with the mess that they exude.

I only have few to which I relate,
as so many seem amazingly fake.

To stay here I know is my mistake,
but maybe I've not had all I can take:

I'll transform from the pressure
like a diamond in the rough.

It could be annoying,
but really not tough.

I am here for a greater reason,
and forge my own way to a better season.

Poetry

The only thing
you ever taught me
about poetry
is how it can mean

absolutely

nothing


at



all



 

Twenty One Forever

I would never near someone of my stature
to say, "I've got drugs and it don't even matter

if you have money now or at the hotel.
(I hope your night has been going well.)

Only seven dollars for a hit of mescalin...
It's the part of this town that's really a sin."

What is it about me that makes him feel okay
to approach me in the sunset on the street this way?

No mescalin for me, mister, thanks a lot.
This isn't a Phish concert, and I certainly am not

twenty one forever, nor even twenty seven:
I lost the fight, died, then came back home from heaven.

Which makes me three thousand and twelve years old.
Stupid child, you've already been bought and sold.

Left

Lights and heaters that plug right in,
A silly face with an awful grin.

Bottles, liquids, solutions, and rods,
Habits so old they now seem odd.

What you should have thrown away
Comes back to haunt you every day.

You say you're done and leave me be
But it's all already left so quietly.

Tuition

I changed my mind, it's fine.
I do it all the time.

You changed yours too, you know.
I thought we'd sit and watch it grow.

You jumped the ship, no I did first.
You were the best and the most awful worst.

I've filed it under the 'tuition' tab -
further thoughts on such things just make me mad.

Winches

I'll pick you up from the airport
when you come to visit me.
If you've got something smart to say,
I'll listen repeatedly.

Two grande lattes please,
one for you and one for me.
I'm always happy to buy us treats
when I have the money.

Want to collect the years, my friend,

and talk about how days have passed?

Pull up a chair next to me, 

I've got the wine, just bring a glass.

Got something you're working through

and need some time alone?

I'll let you be for how long you need,

I won't even call you on the phone.

You'll come back, I'm sure of it.

Our bond's too strong to break.

Losing your friendship and laughter forever

would be a terrible life mistake.