ghost town

stretch for time
in the ghost town
called morning

never call
parents again
its tiresome

yesterday
yoga was good
but again?

relative
quiet of mind
complacent

gushing to
anyone who
cares to hear

favorite
pastime of the
poor worker

satisfied/
dissatisfied/
wife/husband

we've got no
place to lay down
and dig in

cattle skull
tumbleweed brown
cold prairie

she said that
he was begging
and that it

angered her
so much that she
punished him

two shells left
cabin creaks sharp
prairie wind

LYRICS TO SONGS UNFINISHED: girls with 'A' names

I sing a song for girls with A names every chance I get
There’s nothing new to this
Lewis don’t do us like this
I sing a lullaby for each one of you I forget
Is there something in your hips
Telling me to take that kiss
I break a bottle every time I get a chance to fly
Don’t waste nobody’s time
Pitiful young concubines
We get down to it, push on through it, leave it in the park
We’re moving in the dark
And stripping down the bark
If you ever find you’re waiting on a moment, girl
That won’t come to your world
In fashionable curls
Remind yourself of every mother who devoted time
Memorizing nursery rhymes
regurgitating countless lies
integrity and mystery abound in you
but nothing that we do
can disconnect the glue
so hold onto the moments where we all look fine
allow yourself the time
to go out of your mind

inciting incident

how much can my insides sink down
pulling at the speed of gravity
ulcers tickling burnt lining
time bomb ticking in reverse
tears breach the edge
of the reservoir and grief climbs
out of my skull hovers overhead
then soars toward your memory
or my memory of you
or the memory of what I projected
onto your creased screen, blind contours in the fabric of time and light
color gels dull by the time we reach the plot’s inciting incident

work

put your nose to the grindstone son
and you’ll have won
self-respect comes to those who
put on the chains by choice
but the kink clubs all fill
with ones who need to
be beaten by strange hands to
find the means to roll out of bed
iron their jeans plug in the electric head lamp
and stare into the heated coils of their american futures

education

what did we learn?
the word that burns
unseen never
heard or over-
turned

flight case of a
traveling fool
waiting for the
departure from
portland to my
fucking house in
the islands i
bought

cash was no way
to compensate
the greatest piece
of fantasy
i ever did
hate

we're drunk now at
the time of day
when i should be
getting sweaty
all times of day
are ripe for sex
or exercise
exorcism
of my hopeless
expectations

salutations
my good sir, what
do you have to
learn from today?