Step

Slide backward
connect and break
shift and step

Swift and silent
cut the edge
a blade that sings
leave the stage
hide in the wings

shift and turn turn and peel
the illusion of surface
where a droplet melts
inert but free from
the violence of then

unable

the infection of silence
wafting in over water
time now to dissolve

A Cent and a Half

All obligation left
behind a trail of
deservedness
cruelty unbuttoned
potent mystery crawled
out to hide under a
momentous attention
diverted by jewelry
all the stained clear glass royalty
a tax over tribal austerity

Unexpected

an escalator nobody knows they are riding
to a surface where nobody can find your doctor
where symptoms no longer exist to be treated
but the causes are now your costume, where
your omissions are now included
and the victims of your cruelty
get to wear your jewelry

Along the River

Lost under the moon tales
of rain over that valley a dozen
prayers to the city

overland

seek that partner for crimes
of commitment

Worship the future their
clean rides through panic

distant when torn from
the top

that list with
segregated seasons

variable vision corrected
by a lens dust corrupted
and peering through this murky
cloud gently laid down
by the Gods, never cruel
but their laughter poured out
as they sailed on by

this insanity forged
in the pits of the disfigured
a new disease to replace the old
that vanished back to the rising
arch, harsh fear over lands
muddled by decree

Horse Elves

the glass delicacy slender muscled thigh
and animal they revere emits light
and stumbles into the city
its hoofs clip the stone
fingers tug at harp strings
slowly release the vibration
in a ritual of expression
and the crystal horse
absorbs all taking
the towns thoughts
as children sleep

poisoned bullets

the leading is stacked neatly
resolved by years of toil and sweat
perfection reached inked and a test
nobody is perfect but the page must
tell the truth we trust what we read

and we listen to the words of a sooth
sayer of tales that spin us out of
our safety zone our diplomacy with
each other our rabbid songs and the
bashings in the street being watched

by glass eyes and feet that lie running
deep into the wet dark night lamposts
their long stretched out shadow imposing
sentence upon our future keep us locked
up behind your fury iron bars dissolve

if we find the right chemicals our brains
will explode more than average we are told
and we believe the unseen makers of the
eventual drain as long as our hair dont fall

out or the wasted years spent on roofs
are kept secret they wont know
the times we tried and we were the only
ones who could hear ourselves sing

they were not to know we were going
to bring them to joy and tears
just by being who we is
just by hitting a drum
just by doing it again

we see it on the screens
news reel so badly filmed
we hav to write in suggest a director
to make it more convincin
to get a better vector
point them cameras this way
not that way and get into the
action do not be concerned it is just gunfire
them bullets are not poisoned
just protect that damn camera
its expensiv

the army of faded typewriters
the wheels of printing majesty
all folded up neatly into a
3 line bullet point
brief message on your
personal head console
before you think
erase erase erase
and are free of it

the captain shouted into his megaphone
but the sea ripped his words astray
the lives of real men at stake
and he could not quite clear his throat
the waves buttered him about
softening his grip on the wheel
and the ships collided at sea
and nobody heard from them again

when it arrived it was not what we expected
a parcel from space full of lists,
some old family photos
and a device
but nobody could place that family
the device remained untested
and found its way into a museum display

and space remained the unknown expanse
the museum swallowed by a nuclear test
back in the fifties and the rest remains
history witnessed only by the alien with
three heads and a job at the Whitney

30 seconds to go,
before the next load of old souls

his hands and their dry scratchy noise as they rubbed in glee
those seconds were long and the hunger of the old demon
was an unbearable repeating dead song.
The pain was uncontrollable.

In what seemed an age,
hunger took its place
in the pantheon of hate
for the aging evil survived
through ice and storms

it had waited for the news of the belated
and now after what seemed a millenia or two
the wars over that man
that said the fight itself
would make them dead
if they ignored him and put up his head
as a banner for victory
it only meant their childrens blood would run
and they would lie in wait for the
day they could not longer be held abay

and untold numbers of them
would be released to feed the beast

down below

25 seconds to go.
He felt terribly old.

it was going to be a
long dead night
as time itself
lost its sense of
being connected
the wires were frayed
and the bills were rejected
quantum collapse
was the final headline

nothing much happened after that
it was the end of time

A Spell of Harsh Weather

You, under clouds of winter storm
armfuls of folders stacked neatly
become a spreading anarchy
attempts to bring order
have papers flying

The glowing orb demands worship
and finds every little crack
in the logic of night time

Calm and naked in conference but
hesitation when woken up fully clothed
drained of all resolution
explained away the nature of circumstance

When it is like this, who can you blame?

Who can fight the treason
of the faceless?

Looks from above form
modern justice has many reasons
that will not convince

Bitter jostling at the surface
who is to feel the bite of crisis
as it's jaws lock down?

The Logic of Modernity

under the soft clouds of a winter storm 

you carry the armful of folders to the 

spreading anarchy of wind from all quarters

the glowing orb that demands worship

and the passing seconds that 

never return even after a search light

finds every little crack in the logic of night time

dreams find us naked in a conference but

hesitation when we wake up fully clothed

and explain the nature of circumstance

looks form from above modern justice

   reasons that convince nobody

the bitter jostling at the surface

who is to feel the bite of crisis 

      as it closes its jaws?

Who is going to fight the treason

  of the faceless?  

economics at sea

the tide came in for years

and people felt warm
and unlatched their positions
drifted out to sea a little
trying to get traction in the wind

the time went out
and they fight
to keep their homes from sinking
down to the level of shoreline
and anenomies clumped to rocks
their arcane inspection of drifting particles

at first sight a handshake is more important than the facts
revealing the self is a faux pas when advantages
became reasons to be eaten
the pack of needful people starving
wander the streets looking
not for the empty
houses but the ones with food in them

they keep them out with
dogs and razor wire fences

a war with hunger its mediator

but the man is coming to be paid
and the money evaporated so away
he takes the wires and the alarms
and the dogs are now hungry and
they close the doors on them
barricade themselves into
shells with concrete walls

and pray 

for the

good old

days

Between Space

Just a minute while I turn
the volume down a little more
again

just a minute before you paint the wall
white, paint it black
and we may notice you

the green lit exits are brighter
he strikes strings making the wall louder
the audience riveted can't leave

dah dah dah he says he can sing
the man on the drums can be very annoying
so we know it is going to work

Time is a dream

From this moment, on I look
See the face of time backward
and Live for the moment

the moment

this happy meeting place of then and to be
nothing here except a point to view from
and all lack substantiality

all is moving like the melting ice flows
rivers bend eventually but saffron flowers will
forever be wrapped around like a halo those
who have the sense to persist

nothing but memory
nothing by fortune

look now