hanging out

definitely used up 

the quota of 

hanging out

with

no one special

thinking of

me/mine/self

probably going to

keep this ship up

hidden still

in

those old shoes

making me

done/over/through

hardly thinking on

that empty space

waiting for

some

one real special

hanging out

too/two/together

the con

there's a line in the sand

like the ones on my hand

always out for you.

though we haven't met

i would never regret

what i've meant to you.

others tried to replace

but lacked so much grace

i wished and waited and wept.

the ringing goes on

no time for the con

my name's not been called yet.

deadline

I love myself a deadline -

love it to the core.

I can usually juggle 

up to twelve deadlines or more!

I do my little workings,

then just set it free

when it's done enough to send it off

to someone else, not me!

sure of sunday

 sure of sunday

full of rest

alone and occupied

unimpressed

maybe one day

i'll achieve

super and amazing

i believe

for a fool

so many things i have done

for some great implied return.

and though there's been some satisfaction,

mostly i've been burned.

hater love

the peaceful people love a lot
including of course themselves
plus trees n nature n animals
other folks n everything else

the haters don't seem to love a lot
by definition this would be true
but maybe they love the way they feel
when passing judgment on you

fodder

notes and quotes and sentiments
stacked in files high
I won't know what you meant
till you put it in a pie

hollers through the canyonland
horses drawn up tight
they can't tell how i can't stand
giving up the fight

right

the songs I thought I wrote for you
turned out to be so true
how else could I have ever said
all that stuff to you

the words i thought you heard me say
passed by you like the wind
I had to ask you time again
just to be a friend

the things I thought I felt for you
still haunt me in the night
I don't care, it was there
despite the wrong or right

Folks on a Boat

Jimmy crack corn, I don't care
I'd kick that kid anywhere
Ask him to fight
Every night
Do anything I dare

Laura Ann Sue knew what to do
to get that old prankster in line
She kissed his forehead
And took him to bed
Told him everything will be fine

The two agreed not hesitantly
that they would stick together
They left us behind
Made their own world divine
Two folks on a boat unfettered

food nerd

If you want to know all about
the things I like to eat
You could ask real easily
what I think of as a treat

Some macaroons, or little spoons
of almond peanut butter
A couple of cherry jellybeans
yes please I'll have another

A huge delicious hamburger
with a side serving of ale
Crispy bacon french fries
next to a Ceasar salad pale

Jamoca almond ice cream
with a chocolatey fudge swirl
that's the jam that takes the hand
of this consumalicious girl

Maybe you want to feed me
something like truffled goose
with a rare and agéd camembert
from the deck of a caboose

Or pick the peaches off the vine
then slice and serve to me
pistachios, figs, and avacados
olives right off the tree

Mix it up in a great big bowl
with a huge dollop of mustard
smear the rest with spiced hummus
and call me a big food nerd!

laundry

early morning laundry
add the extra bleach

make the stubborn spots come out
before applying heat

take the streets up in your hands
lay them out elsewhere

just a different filter
in a wholly different air

all along

along the way I promise you
I will not leave your side

all the things they said to you
mostly they were lies

you couldn't tell from where you stood
but I knew all along

so now it's out and you can shout
maybe put it in a song

west coast daylight

the sun will find me, I am certain

around the bend, behind a curtain

laughing and looking up at the sky

I made this for just you and I

the pinks and purples coming up

the lazy blues for better luck

pastel hues so fair in morning

yellows to orange, colorpools swarming

a gift of some freckles and caramel crisp

no sky shines any better than this

escape

we'll make our escape then, you and I
beyond the trees and past the sky

around the lakes and banyan trees
somewhere just for you and me

we'll walk for days through thicket wet
and speak of hopes, but some regret

will find its way onto our path
(despite our almost perfect math)

perhaps we trip or lose our way
maybe you forget my name

never matter I will say to you
I can tell your heart is true

I'll negotiate a way back home
and never leave you alone

Al Backwards

"LA is Al backwards," he said with a smile.
(Well trimmed and cunning, he was known to beguile.)

"Al is a nickname, named after the poet.
Though to look at me now, no one would know it.

My mother read Tennyson like it was her air.
She inhaled all his words as deep as she dared,

So of course the biggest one would end up on me!
(Including my brothers of course we make three.)

They are not poets with names borne of prose,
wordsmithing their way to rhymes we all know.

The youngest is Roy and the other one Ray
their lives have gone a somewhat different way:

Tiny confusions seem to eat them alive,
the same old fuel smells in the brush fire.

Hours in courtrooms in hateful dispute,
losing or winning in spite of refute.

It's hazy and glassy to be full of fame
But no one ever forgets my name.

options

"I'm drowning in options!"
the pretty girl said.
"I'd really like the white one,
But I also want the red."

"Fiiiiine, just fine!
I'll wrap them right up.
You can take them home
in your pink pickup truck."

"Wade's got the truck today,"
she said sweetly as she smiled.
"That was the fare he gave to me,
I'd rather just walk a while."

sweetness works

laugh a lot
throw the dice
look for it
don't think twice

put the words
into the air
sweetness works
everywhere

trash

if i fail to complete it
i really dont care
it was here for a while
then flew out with the air

where of course it went nowhere
but i was already on
to the next big great thing
to put my thoughts upon

this leaves a lot of incomplete
once the big fun part is through
ninety percent completed
but then what should I do

perhaps i am too afraid
of the solicitation part
i cannot comprehend
the selling of the art

i dont do it for you but its totally true
you could defs make some mad cash
if you went through the drawers and collected the hordes
of papers i thought of as trash

Chickens

count your chickens
let em hatch

slam the door
by the latch

watch it fall
to history

place your bets
but not on me

mistakes are now
like second nature

we don't belong
anywhere near here

Fine

This is the awful choice I chose
When I saw few options left

It shows how much we all know
And now we won't forget

All the knots and points and ties
Placed in clever time

Pretty sure I took the wrongest one
Don't worry, it'll be fine

the Wire

Sometimes it's really so wrong from the start,
You just cannot make it fit.
Still you go on thinking you're strong
Til you get sick of it.

At which point, it's all up to you
Where to go on from here.
Or whether to pedal on back to it all
In light of a future unclear.

You may stand and steadfastly proclaim
"I sure know what's good for me!"
I've fought all the fights and stayed through the night
Even in uncertainty.

It's all the same from different sight.
They cannot contain the fire.
Feet locked down, don't leave town,
Just be careful on the wire.

Start Here

I'm a fool, I know,
You said so long ago.

It'll hurt for a day,
Then it goes away.

I can't see from here,
You said it would be clear.

.   .   .   .

A way to retaliate backwards?
I'll keep it in my heart.

How are you mad at my ending
When I didn't even start?

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.

Final 30

Everyone gets really sad
When things come to an end.

It's never easy to say goodbye
To a time, a thing, or friend.

But part of the beauty of the whole deal
Is watching as new things unfold!

Most stuff gets yucky after a while,
Let it go, it's too much to hold.

Except for a few most cherished items:
A bauble or person or way of being.

One day it hits you, "Has it been that long?

We've been together through everything!"

Cake Monday

Pearls are pretty on lovely ladies,
But they're nice on ugly girls too.

If you ever bring me a big slice of cake,
I will be happy to share it with you.

Sometimes I wonder about the hours,
And to where they've all departed.

I can only recall the best times of all,
Spent with the lovingly goodhearted.