Leaky Eye Valves When You Read

I look down Rudlin at the last of the sun
in the clouds above the buildings below
the trees as you let the dog sniff around,
taking his time. At home you and cat are
lying there the same, both voluptuous,
both content and not content, both really
loving me. You say you're glad she's had
a happy life. My olive arm is on your rosy
skin. We laugh, alone here as only we know.

For years I was a writer with one reader,
you. "I don't need to read books anymore,"
you said, "I just need to read you." And
then how my skin looks nice, in a soft and
quiet, peaceful and loved voice. Today I
say goodbye to the third person and accept
the fourth wall. Even drink water like you
now, in big gulps, wear your fur-lined coat
upstairs where I go when I go to write.


2011

Burn It to the Ground Tonight

Sunday news is the worst. Getting questions
from a hoot owl tonight ladies and gentlemen.

Prove yourself to me, be real with me, be
cool with me, play with me. Roll the dice,

move your piece. Tried to control it, fix
it myself, not speak my needs. The onus is

on us. In the end we played duo no-board
game show secret trust double-card Trivial

Pursuit, final answer is termites, final
answer is pelican. No I actually know, can

make an educated guess. Nope, I was wrong
wrong wrong. Is was and always will be.


2011

Castles Made of Sand, Eventually

What if there were caramel flowing like
a river? It's sticky and would pick up
all this detrius. Giraffes and daffodils.
Owlaphants. I don't know names anymore.
They're meaningless and interchangeable.
They could be anything. Like a good fire
rat in a tank. She made the best fire rat.

"Let's try and communicate using our eyes...
I see this big old rifle, double barreled
shot gun... I see you as a person, I'm not
making stories... I haven't blinked yet..."
Big eyes, like deer about to be splattered
in the windshield eyes. "Are you thinking
about other girls? Making music?" Only time
an eye looked at me, for me, so intently.

We fall asleep like accomplices in sleep
that first night in the new house. Then
the cat jumps down from the windowsill
upstairs late. I'm thinking something
is on the roof, not sure what upstairs
sounds like yet. We sit at the sofa window
making sure the town isn't circling us.

Remember that all this is happening because
we're more aware of our emotions, slowly
sewing the body back onto the head. This
needs to happen, these needs to be accepted.
You sketch a house after an earthquake as
Chile falls to pieces, scaring Hawaii and
the whole coast. The robins have returned.
You hear them like I heard them ealier.


2011

New Brain, Old Brain, Spring Summer

The days of half price baked goods Friday,
lemon square, Mississippi mud, peanut butter
and poppyseed at Rocky Mountain are done.
Now square pegs go in round holes, the
USB goes white-left, black-right. Jenny
sends a quick note at five fifty-five that
makes you cry. Catty's feet under the fence.

Forget about the downspout, the dirt by
the hose. Give her some turkey and she'll
sleep while I pack the stereo. Tumbleweeds
of hair blow through the empty living room
and you proclaim: "Dirty people live here."
I find the gold Chi pin, puzzle pieces of a
fence, an old popcorn kernel, some nuts
and this pen. Then I do indeed leave a
hole in the floor when I drop the box.

You wait by the flute and duck from
your lawyer, get turkey at the Roost
and fling buttertart flakes from your
'78 sweatshirt. The ladies take silver
in curling for Canada. I freak out
and smash up the kitchen trash can,
dance to "Blame It (on the al-a-a-al-a-
al-cohol)" and you put a wet towel over
my puffy eyes in bed. Neil Young comes
out of the ground singing, wearing white.

We watch The Descent with the lights out,
imagine a cave monster sleeping on the
book shelf by the aloe, hiding in the
laundry room. You dream your childhood
friend tried to kill you with a scalpel,
then get jumpy thinking the police are
coming to take us away. Faith takes Hope
to the hotel to catch her husband with
the Chinese violinist. I head down to
the hydrant and swear I hear airs.

Impulsive yet overly cautious, predicting
unrealistic threats to react to. First lives
and then souls on the line. You arrange my
Faulkners in an aesthetically pleasing fashion,
I keep Cornel West but let them take the rest,
eat cold pizza from a box on the ground and
chug OJ from the carton. Finally Harry Crews'
tattoo "How do you like your blue-eyed boy
now, Mr. Death?" starts to make sense.


2011

You'll Know Everything About Me in Five Minutes

I believe the battery is dying. What we have
here is a failure to, uhh, batterate. Hey
when you saw the driving car what kind of car
did you saw? I didn't really see a car, I saw
the road. I said You'll have to forgive me,
I'm a writer. Bird screams. Woman flies away.

Holiday House Motel, U-turn at High Street,
Trans Canada to nineteen north to four west.
We went out for a wicked salt cup and shared a
red wrap with fiesta cheese and bacon tongue,
saw pumas lap water at Shadow's and watched
the cross country kids, one with a crown, one
with a torch. The porch lions were together,
one behind the other. Boswell and Johnson.

When you're limited to your one road then
it doesn't matter if I'm the man who dipped
his fingers in the lake, or in the ocean as
though to stir it. When the world burns to
hell you'll be seeing that gorgeous napalm
until the big bang takes us from our living
sleep. And that's the real problem, we don't
dissipate. Nor make it easier on ourselves.

So go ahead and touch that lake with your life
if that's what you desire. If the sun's out, it's
quite pleasant, quite pleasant. We create, and
we revel in each other's creation. Come with me,
there's a van outside and we'll take you away,
you'll only wear this blindfold a short while.
On the twenty-fifth day they'll say what do you
remember. Say nothing... just peace and love.


2011

Are You My Baby Love Dragon?

It was the day they shot the spy sattelite down
that made you feel doomy. A headache that spread
into your whole body. We watched the yellow moon
turn blood red after seven. You said, "I am awash

with memories that take me out to sea. And we
float together there peacefully, 'Me' and all the
other 'Mes' until we remember we can't swim...
And then I panic until I realize I can float." We

caught the magic show at the food court. You
remembered the open market there before the five
burger chains moved in. At Zellers it smelled like
microparticles. You said I was your magic horse.

Waved bye-bye to Hillside, goodbye to plush turtles
and donkeys, changed our address twice at the bank.
I put Frogamander in the Dutch chair, the dog in his
cage. He raked his claws like a cup on the bars.


2011

The Five Obstructions

Cloud light through the transom
like whiskey from a wine glass
with my eye on celestial seabirds
making rainbows, not marking time.
From the doorway you said, "There

are some songs that never go away.
Like a photograph, like a book, a
possession you take with you when
you move. Some you leave behind,
Bob Seger is one I took with me.

Night Moves, getting wasted alone
in Tofino after I met you. Expansive.
Running on the beach, standing in
the ocean ecstatic. Crazed talking
on the cell, picking up hitchhikers,

some lady thinking I'm a mother
earth surfer, like I've been here
all my life. That relaxed and calm.
When really I'm just a hippie redneck
blasting Canned Heat on the road again."

Wish on a star, two names in a heart.
Finding love like peas in a pod. "And
if you don't like Walk on the Wild Side,
there's just something wrong with you."
Now to see what tomorrow will bring.


2011