Will You Catch Me If I'm Falling

on Canada Day on the 4th last year
I saw death with my eyes closed to
the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

an overgrown eagle in a pot of birds
a bowl of fruit at the butcher's table
a white dog searching for truffles

a beer on the porch after the rain
a man in a jacket up the tree
lamb's ears on the doorknob

don't ask me what's wrong
just tell me what I can do
else I'll give you a

straight up substitution
forty-five minutes easy
emotions for details

the only man on the property
and I am not a train
I'm all you get


2011

Greetings You Nasty Nocturnal Daze

I got up early to throw a stone
at the crow in the hanging tree

dogs were braying, yelling bloody
hell at each other every hour

a wasp was in the living room
getting angry and very buzzy


I fell off my bike on the trails
dropped a burger in the coals

kissed your pink slippers goodbye
the ones with the little roses

getting smarter than you were stronger
the man with Richard Nixon power


it's at my fingertips, in my blood
or am I such a fragile thing

"hold your hands in front of you son
keep them up here in front of you"

no coach, I have to keep them down
around here and flinch you son of a


2011

Praising the Fallen

first the needle, then the thread
dismal sin, may thee wed
little babies from a stork
today the spoon, tomorrow the fork

I sat alone on a pedestal bench
in the unforested woods beyond
spooked by trees creaking and
four wheelers roaring

up to my knees in fallen branches
edges cut clean, sliced from the trunk
shifting faces swirling around me
in the hard horizontal sun

I turned away, my stomach pulled
breathed through the breathing
lungs rising and falling
rocking me slowly to sleep

saw shining diamonds in a row
breathing fire from the abyss below
first the stool, then the chair
enjoy it now, we'll soon be there

the schools that swarm upstream feed
our nests and nets, but today I cast for
big dwellers at bigger depths instead --
dig beneath any and there's dirt


2011

Foolishly We Go

the old chinese man with big round black glasses
walking a little boy in an Adidas coat
asked for this much more space

held tight to his hand as though
stooping was not unusual

we caught on and understood
in our own waiting way

you were a hip beatnik in a black turtleneck
that day
and I got my sneakers from your trunk

you honked at the haunted world with me
the german shepherd on the steps
a hummingbird at your side

I said he doesn't want to eat you
sometimes the grizzly just removes a threat
in defense a predator attacks

in those days I learned to fight in
ten steps
leaned on you to accept my crutches
and can
remember embracing the excitement
fully

then it misted like firmament
and the day turned winter cold
up jumped toothed daggers

dark and whooshy out now
baby bison and herds of caribou
roaming the tundra outside

and I'm typing in all caps at
night when the sun
never sets


2011

Total Eclipse of the Cat

sun sets behind the cat
resting in the window
around her fur

cold smoke rising from
behind the mantle
and out

windows and walls

you nuzzle my shoulder
in the theater


then you loiter
and I fall
like
salmon spawning


Thank god

for

space...


Mastery
of helpessless


the voice
out of the quiet



2011

Narrow Eyes

I put on your glasses
looked at you
tonight

set a time limit
as not to go
blind

my dirty glasses

dusty and smudged
obscuring more than they
magnify

Magnificent dust
my god
how

And I see

myself over the rims
long on my nose
like I like

is it April or May again
I forget
This year or last

Men, my cup
try and see if you can't
There, now

stained black
along the mouth
and deep inside
the well

with milk if and when

let's just say
you can't see me
through my glasses

and I say
bury me with
that box

take this and run


2011

Two for One Tuesday

summer poetry
smells like sausage
my scalp
roasting

top down
masochist
shine

full forward
farmboy
raising hell

fire and burn
'til ashes

the work of an artist

the metaphysics of
time
on earth

and how best to use it

wind
on a bike

then you put down your sword
and I put down my spear
and you put down your cross
and I put down my shield

reaching
and turning

two pinwheels
one then the other


2011