wretched mind

undone with forgiveness
the eleventh hand
outside my window
still the bird song
the electric chair,
seated upon my heart
boring the hole
right through
blow away the sawdust
that was me

the dog wagging
gaping mouth full of cops
laser beam Sunday
robot faces, as
we read the paper
you, clipping
snip, snip
toggle bolt
broken zipper
the jar full of coins
a rusty hacksaw blade
and the grand dark

we drink the last of the wine
long red tongue
and the cat paws the door
she wants
inherited peacock
we lie unhanded
unabashed
by the ripples
huddled with the sermons
endless devotions
recite thy anthem

magic wheels
they eat at the heart and soul
telegraphic brain
scrible the words of eternity
beyond images and cheap reproductions
satisfy Hollywood
invisible murder
 frail machinery
reading Chicago's magazines
today, we open the door
the police want to search the apartment
abolished street images

nameless skyscrapers
landslide inheritance
another human message
don't tell the neighbors
 making plans
fingerprints everywhere
tarot card billionaries
seeing through all the death
the whitewashed room
blurring death
you went out for crackers
brown paper bag menu
green door
knock three times

your shoulders
our pills
an iron hat
that short little nazi
dragging his buttocks
thin brown legs
she was feeling her way
anoher asphalt night
moonbeams
among the bastards
on to Jupiter

new stuff

it has always been you and me kid

you were a call girl first responder
kicking down my door
I thought you were here to set the fire
not put it out

you did
we did
they did
everyone cheered like at a wedding
a politician made a speech
and kissed all the babies

I heard the girls say they were looking for handsome
while I had a heart attack in the bathroom
lost my last twenty dollars
I'm glad I called

staggering home from death
the blue motel rooms
magic stars, consciousness
lost to the strange
the vision
curled up

lopped off and wriggling
the creature feels once again
my pain
my redemption bought at Kmart
30 dollar bag of love
the universe is cut in two
laying in my arms

on the wing
my nostrils infinite
I believe
laughing dog
invisible revolver
drive me crazy
into the earth's eye
between truth and being

creeping soul
don't remind me
let me sleep inhuman
dusk on stoops
I rise with the beasts of dance
and sing my song of freedom
anger, beware
slowly sanctified
black sun ecstacty
grieving death
mother's ghost
no more speaking

bell tolls
cafe tables
spilled milk
reborn in sunshine
it never comes
city hall with its broken doors
overthrow the man
against the wall
vomiting tail
3rd street slide
instant coffee
little cigars
and letters from home
10 more days in this universe

scratch my balls
red coat girl
imagined radio
psychic dust
skeletons reading lips
searching for their chicken soup
another plastic jesus
straight from /chicago
long hair three days beard
an image scrawled in the back of the mouth
take me home

ignorant patterns on the Denny's menu
the smell of perfume in my room
I forgot my name, all over them
politician tongue
disgused as a pelican
we shoot our guns out in the street
today we think large thoughts

she was dreaming of the lottery
prophesy, glad tidings
town square flies
hot dog stands and my mouth
me face in your dreams
perfect circles
flop house blues
imperfect combustion
a little more choke
piss on my hands

eternity takes the bus
three blocks to the library
looks up the book on Bobby Hull
high sounds on your tape recorder
the blonde reminds me of her
a gracious bunch of murdering thugs
neglected by their mothers
the cosmic eye spreads

saucer of milk

grunt, maybe
electricity on the beach
all the balls glow
the shark tooth preacher
hide my shadow
I can't find the light
can't fight the light
maybe I'm wrong and maybe it was spite
huffing and puffing
a love balloon
eye contact
getting out of town
trader head
beach electric
seaguls in flames
this is charity
this is my mask
rainbow moonshine
tell the princess
a little tiny cup

I was so tired

I watched you climb up the tree
you climbed it to be saved
looking for the damages incurred
listening to the voices that you heard
between swallows of beer
you are the star that we sail our ships by
you are more than this photograph
between my dirty fingers
as I steer my ship into the night

just call me lucky #4 - in progress

unintelligible sinner, questioning
joining in with the crowd
I am sitting at Tmes Square
holding a piece of cardboard over my head,
trying to keep them out

hey, nice dog
"nice ass"
can I bum a cigarette from you?
I'm new in town
fresh off the bus last week from Tulsa
I'm just a lonely guy
can you help a guy out?

I'm playing all of your b sides
stacked up four feet high
like a madman's face
spinning the night away
one joint at a time

soon you will be married
to cars and electric guitars
sealed lips and  your night mares
before we die
before you ride the unicorn

just call me lucky #3

a.
they are standing still, waiting
pour their coffees onto the floor
the monkey claps his hands
they bring him a tray of excuses
he picks out the sweetest one
and bites into it
pentrating every corner

I am running down the road
my heels drag like petroleum
I vanish like the unborn
repeating the image, the existence
this has never been found
every sadness of before
old dumb moon

specks of dust
hidden paths crossing
all I own horizon
matter and energy
pondering the elevator
my last kiss
eternal footsteps
plexiglass faces
the traffic moving up and down
transformed into another


face of pain
escaped elevator
at the trolley tracks
we visit the innocent in the whorehouses
with a gothic phallus
smoking the gloom
we are all dead
they stack us up next to the bus stop
making waves, I scoop them into my hands
endless variations at the depths


no song for the piano
20 years of love for the junk man
boiling supper chicken
back from the four walls
eyeing the fates
three tricks for the gangsters
a sudden attack against your soul
out to the push and pull
of my belly aginst the void
I made the monster here
I filled it with music
and the screams of the dark seas


god living at the chicken farm
she would holler way after dark
one hundred dollar beaver
cold fish and raw cabbage
purple veins on her legs
her hands would smell of madness
it would color her eyes
with idealism
it was not mine, I had to borrow it
bring it home in a brown paper bag
fed it little by little to the chickens
they were getting high in the windows
watching the sun go down


b.
gone so strangely into the army
nursing my broken heart
we were always on the plot
my soul strarves
escaping the fatal
you were taking orders
from the spies in the front booth
secret police darkness
all those politics

I was a fool with an ache
half undressed and screaming at the televison
they don't understand
staring into my eyes
you said that you felt betrayed
by all of your broken things
newspaper clippings to prove your honesty
one beat at a time
a scar on your head

there is a peace to your eternity
awaiting your specter
raising the ceiling
against the white bathroom walls
she is not a bad girl
though she dwells in the shadow
drinking cheap sodas in her sundress
the crash of wars
rammed down her back
at the window, is her image

farewell, black shoe
reborn to death
million eyes
looking at nothing
being doomed
bloody skull
these are not answers,
only more questions
turned over raw
tired spansish ladies
listening to Jethro Tull

it was all cat crosses
she looks up and says meow
drinking in the chaos that is pure America
a blue bottle and a huge rock
the cop around the corner
he was mailing his love letters again
fried bologna and dill pickles
the cheese slicer lays on the floor
with dead arms, they don't feel
an old shave needing a face

we salute you Seraphim
flowers and communists
you saw the dust clouds growing
a fuck in the battlefield
there is no good and evil
you said, "relative," with a snicker on your face
like you had seen it all before
and still chose to live in chains
making magic prayers in the basement
prayers for goiters and arthritus
prayers for god's little whores

just call me lucky #2

a.
out stars, come and see my dimness
collecting the kings
fallen road, wall shadows
is it you?

falling onto the floor
pop, pop, pop
we have the fear
it is our only chance

Paris Rose,
might I see you again?
a simple pain, a legacy
a sponge in the dishpan
you limped around the moon

collecting the honey
a secret heart thinks
of secret things
being caught off-guard
no despair
only chance

a pinched smile
blinking at new faces
they appear out of nowhere
a little tougher
with murder
and a toothache
demanding a blood transfusion

unconscious oxygen
breaking glass under blue skies
a feathered hunger on the cheek
vanished jaw grinning
my body rubbed metal
bleeding snub-nosed
nerves and guts

up close before
on the empty dawn
giving less of a shit
a next world rag-tag bully
stumps and logs
this one is a problem
maintain your powder
someone will always jump on it

keep checking
come on baby
stop holding your breath
stop thinking of nothing
I am beginning to disappear
the snake runs through my belly
see the scar
a high traffic area
climbing up the brick
leaving on the next bus

b.
Jackson wants to know about perfection
he is smashing another system
as he dances
more than big enough
violent currents
impacting
with my ticket in my hand


he is sleeping with laughing gas
for my birthday
two dead and counting
coming loose and hitting my head
only help from the dead
waiting with hollow eyes
thinking of the altar
I burn my fire
with a sack on my back
I could never see what was behind me


sipping the dark
as I sneak away
covered footprints
my disguise a smile
countryside graveyard and the bliss
the stillness
come to me my sweet
backward through the avenues
giving the landlady her money
a toothless grin
posterity evades the question


Harpo dropped out of the sky
he did a little dance on the page
I waited like a banshee touching the moon
and then smash, bang, clang
he used to worship beautiful girls
drunk, trembling, and happy
waving in all directions
naked scratch, slow hangups
are you thinking of me?
I am under your power
coming out cheerful for breakfast


plucking grass, the wail, the babe
a battle ship left to rust in the harbor
high on entitlement
feeling my bones
as if for the first time
I walk with my eyes closed
yet my fingers are still
more than frost
more than  clear winter moon
a promise not to kill

we all realize that we suffer
weeping for another dream
when the cobwebs have left our mind
we buy and seel the pieces of worship
they are worn, but still work
still can bleed under a cloud
learning the madness