^

my hands were made of
bone & pulsing sound
i was a red wagon
black crow / blue bottle

^

dark wings
beat 3 times
& then
a queer
suspension
darkness &
pin hole
illuminations
no landmarks
no compass
tracks roads
intersecting webs
rivers —
a rushing turbulence
a sinew & pulse
dark marrow
blood & barren plains
shadow rock & fire
an iron railing
& time
seas rise
boats capsize
swallow water
turn & drown
dark waves erase
the passage
down
there were lights above
unmoved
while lamps below
flickered & burned
vast & deep
broken glass
stitched into dark blankets
of sleep
rocks aged
cyclones circled
a bird's
slate eye

^

raven feathers splayed
across the indigo cloud
beast or loom or cliff
a spider scales glacial walls
a radio tower pierces the sky
clouds gather
a transmission
low & hurried
static —
the machine itself
begins to speak
electrical pulse
vibrating plates of glass
wires intersecting
red black white
barbed wire transmission
an orchestra concert
from Royal Albert Hall
before the bombing
commercial interlude
blue coal white appliance
red letters steel borders
cargo train trucks
& planes
knifelike wanderers
a sign 2 roads
voyage of goods
to odessa
to new york
to madrid
to portland
past abandoned farms
fallen towns rusted track
past incinerations
past temples & bars
iron horse iron lung
combine turning
gold fields blue smoke
under the high bridge
birds & ghosts
dusty hYmn
white gray
paint
concrete canvas
fallen feathers
splintered caws
a cavern of birds
ceiling of birds
bridge of birds
coat of birds quick silver
cloak of birds
dark & trembling storm
the boats were green blue red
pale sails
anchors heavy
& iron & braided with sea
ropes
slowly plumbing the depths
anyway there was a map
industry!
progress!
we had a plan
we had time on a spool
or wires on a spool
or a snake skin with a map
or a spoon
we had a shiny spoon
a wheel & fire
machines wheels talking wires
fire
& lots of things to burn
rock & roll factory
spoons & knives
axes & lightning
lightning on a spool
a voyage of goods
timetables & maps
& silver roads
silver snakes
& a rope
a pulley a rope
a factory a boat
a plane & sky
skyscrapers
windows like birds
higher than birds
higher than gods
high as stars
higher than stars
we had skyscrapers
& planes & windows
& stairs winding up past clouds
stairwells & lights & vast landscapes
of asphalt
roofscape fire escape flashlight
a stairwell a window a street
fires below & stars

^

wings & dark mountain
shadow mountain — a cliff
perilously close
a breath a moth
an illuminated distance
a stillness before raging nights
wind gathering force
a spring a wheel
rain factory sleet factory
lightning on telephone wires
gripping the kite — a static suspension
the key aflame
wings beating
toward shore
distant gray lines
taut heart beat swift

^

3 birds
laughing
whose last laugh?
3 birds last bird coughing bird
anyway the factory was going well
conveyer belts burning rubber
tires pulling freight past trees & signs
& swamps
highways roads & concrete bridges
golden arches
music on the radio
a bottle of coke
the marlboro man
red & white package
tightly bound
white shirt sleeves
rolled up against the heat
a swollen heat a humid sea
of green & gray & grit
radio smoke rings
smoke signals
drowsy black asphalt
yellow line

^

whispers
pulse
shadows moving
frozen hands
a clock
arctic stillness
ice
a blue darkness chill gray
& steam through grates
a silence
chalk on slate
blue window
red chair chrome feet
a fluorescence
stairs ascending
dim yellow light
dusty rays waking
tired sun
clouded
incandescent
sun
pull-chain-porcelain-filament
sun
it was like this every morning
same train
same chair
same window
same tap water drip
or brook
& rusted bridge
iced metal thrumming
same bus or concrete sidewalk
trash can alley
aluminum percolator
stained glass bulb
brown liquid
blue blue morning

^

chalk & black slate
a formula or system
deciphered
a bifurcation
group theory
a flaw in the arithmetic
vectors differentials
copied into black books
a slight variation
parameters altered
a solution
sought
to simplify
3 things
hold up this space
a basis for turning
a transformation or mapping
find
a simpler set of lines
a stable state
a zero
or one

^

people were saving daylight
small blue squares of light
small extinctions
3 then 2 then 1
rungs marked off in notches
fabric of millenniums
fossils really
carbon feathers muscle
then stone
an empty cage
a hollow ocean
but anyway
i liked color & light
the way shadows held a sound
textures frictions
joining of pitch
horse hair & wire
scraped across the chest
eyes split by light
light hYmn
threads & loom & glass
broken places
a wooden room
resonance
box
echo chamber
hallways
old cathedrals
warehouse caverns
holy spaces
sound
a silo of birds
a bridge in flight

^

i always wanted to be my father
wooden hammer wire nails
the smell of gasoline engines
wool shirt boots
asphalt shingles
clamps & glue
old metal tackle box
hinges & screws
pliers & saw
a rasping sound
small town & farm
the smell of oats
factory of oats
river industry
warehouse & tracks

^

blue bottle wooden room
4 white plaster walls
worn building
a painter
a radiator
a sink
it was like this every morning
blue sky
pale sink
rusted drain
glass window
worn boots
city streets
waking
aluminum
coffee
percolator
gas flame
brown liquid
small
wooden room
4 white
plaster walls
blue bottle
gray cat
painted
iron
radiator
it was like this every morning
rain eyes
a window
sound tunnel
coffee
white steam

^

practice room early light
rosin & morning
wood & light
fragile dusk
fleeting blue vision
hands in wool
worn boots
black jacket
walking
brown eyes
urban sky
shock of hair
wind or rain
black road
red thoughts
a line or thread
string or note
heart beat
pulse
vibration
sine waves
colliding
tides & winds
turbulence
rip tides
& gale winds
layers of blue
& friction
blue green pitch
plumb line
lost anchor
horizon
drowned
tilted
white foam
where sea
turned to sky
turned to planets
invisible orbits
slanted axis
mast & sail
3 moons
plankton & clouds
one lamp
turning

^

sound is produced
by the collision
of two bodies

^

there was a man
bending circuits
in the ancient barn
blacksmith of sound
with rope & pulley
wire gods
bending gravity
into light & heat
& pigeons rising
from blackened iron
black horses
concrete
& corrugated steel
direct current
clouds of horses
rain on steel
over battered stairs
frame & joints
in a crucifix
on thick blue glass
in the silo
a cyclone
of birds

^

sanctified x
hovering x
circling x
we were looking
for something
the post & beam
the underlying force
light or electricity
vector spaces
the basis
a fixed point
a dynamic or web
fluid or particles
our hands
our bodies reaching
the mind grasping
or releasing the failures
there was a vector space
an algebra
the senses struggling
with the mind
you could hear
a far away sound
a siren or hYmn or
evening light
angels & birds
clouds & horses
bees
vibrating ether
xe
equals
light & electricity & silence
or light & pitch & rocks
or water & glass & iron
or noise particles colliding
not knowing
if it was simply
clusters of energy
inflection points
fixed states — a stillness
gravity pulling
poles repelling
webs colliding
the number zero
dancing
to a jukebox
on red
checker board floors
& beer signs
this radio this night
gleaming neon & rain
reading the directions
seeing the signs
blue quaker king of oats
a book of stamps
cigarettes
broken kite
melted wax
quixotic flight
night crow scratching
lost translations
typing texts
black ink
parchment
a stone
scribbled texts
formulas illustrations
footnotes histories
calculations page numbers
corner of the world
taco stand & map
we were there or
you are here
a location a focal point
a certain depth of field
in the midst of
the vast eternity or
7 layers —
infinite skies
couldn't just count them
or it would take a long time
an uncountable number of years
to count the layers
so many possible answers
so many ways to measure things
to count the objects
to list the objects
& often they dissolved
into clusters of light
staining
the surface of things
in a radiance
that made you
lose count
lose your grip
forget the citation
a transfiguration
an illumination
that left you standing
with your heart
like a hat
in your hands
stammering
and the window of zero
irresistibly compelling
glorious sanctified
eyes of a crow

^

red star
black night
or lucky strike &
bus stop midnight
if there were 2 or 3
they were ghosts
a rising city
endless flight
heart or sky or cloud
canvas or road
low blue smoke
a railroad track
stretching miles
across bog
& grass
& trees
slowly reaching
dense fog
cattail & sedge
early morning or dusk
night drifting across the world
a bridge — still water
a hush
soundless turning
or wind listless through
yellowed grasses
history rising
a story winding past distant rails
a low vibration
past the heart
taut strings released
silent bird
lonely stream
last light
dark blade of water
night
black wing buried in clouds
echoed in rivers
an infinite & far away sound
broken & falling
hYmn of birds
far away ship & endless sea
adrift or in flight
the sea the dusty sky
stained sea & bleeding sky
rising or falling
blue gray longing
reaching or belief
hYmn or wish
or cry or breathlessness
a sound or line or word
great heaving or loss
reaching towards vast ends of sea
haunted eyes
scar or wound or wing
echo & ghost
etched into caves or body
river eyes
the sea or boat or bridge
a road & sound like light
dusty light & window
glass or wire
silver nets yellow fish
light gleaming
light threads
luminous
and haunted
not close but far
not far but here
in this room on this bridge
last bird
if we never had this place
emerald & blue
holy dream
cloud dream
or depths of sea
light drowning in layers of sea
eyes straining through
murky depth
a dream of smoky bars
neon & rain
only ash
a cigarette lit or drowned
holy dream
holy redemption
i walked there
or i was stained
by that river that light
now this scar this wound
holy imprint
a railroad track
& grasses
bending

^

luminous failures
wax wings & falling
an orchestration or book
film or loom
or simply a crow
& shiny red wrapper
degenerate opera
endless screeching
scraping sounds
& pitch salvaged
from an auto junkyard
forgotten words
torn bits of labels
abandoned bottles

^

in fields of sage
whistle &
drowned rhythm
wheels tracks &
pistons turning
an iron bird calling
through brown
sagebrush yellowed stalks
limestone & flooded earth
heavy snows / late spring
flooded tracks
gray horse
cloistered rider
fallen stones & rusted silos
industrial wasteland
abandoned warehouse
fossilized grain
skeletons of steel
vast plains of destruction
raging forces
empty husks
industrial cyclones
& rusted dreams
cattle strewn across
devastated plains
& lost souls clutching
suitcases
battered frayed
broken masts & shopping carts
dark & empty malls
hollow ringing vacant
vast & violent sea

^

red shirt
black hair
slender blade
night-laced trembling streets
shadow of crow
window or sidewalk
boot lace & worn denim
edge of drainpipe
black with soot
red with rust
white slice of neon
cloudy night
drop of rain / dusty glass

^

green monastery
or cloud
damp blue mist
gray silence
black rock
jagged white mineral line
memory or place
near depths
shadow canyons
blades of light
dusty filaments
taut lumens
holy dissonance
chords of silence
hallowed bridge
web of light & green
& stone & rivers
spilling across forest floors
& rocky cliffs
trees lifting past lifetimes
into infinite blue nights
the bendability of time
the synthesis
of rock & sun into
green & sinew
transmigration of mineral
& water
shadow & light
a fluid dynamic
a cluster of cells
electric photo
transmissions
criss cross of
migrating elements
shape shifting forms
elemental forces
bound fused & released
makers of air
air looms
weaving invisible ribbons
falling maps
marked by temporary arteries
monastic green tent
ocean of birds

^

my hands were made of
bone & pulsing sound
i was a red wagon
black crow / blue bottle
suspended
between sound & water
or notes & sidewalk
there was a word for it
but it was far away
& people kept moving
bridges arched above
silver streams /
rushing cars
loud / relentless /
tunnel
sound & gravity /
echo
metallic scream

^

a moth throws herself
into the closest street lamp
lines transect darkness
into silver threads
voices along wire webs
float into stars
the world grows close
human rivers dry up
into 3 strangers
gaunt & worn
frayed & dissolute
mapless wanderers
with sandwiches or hope
seeking mission signs
red neon gospel signs
hot coffee
steaming paper cups
the cool night
washes away
industry
commerce
suits & deals
angels mend wings
in dimly lit bus shelters
jesus saves!
the endless circle fades
death all around us
whales & bees
& mary / red heart
& outstretched hands
blue veil
blue blue sky
an alchemy of blue
one last bird
electric wires
& sea

^

language of knot & stone
language of birds
shadow cloud & wire
electric filaments
night's blue lantern
flux & green mist
white horse or silver cloud
angels & junkies
degenerate streets
artists of chaos
falling opera
broken book
wire quartet
groan of wood
snapped mast & waves
a mapless sea
red star weeping
dusty windows
thick plates of glass
an opening so slight
a vision so fleeting
only a line of chalk
or a crack in the world
a breath or glance or
fever
fallen feather
floating fish
wooden skeleton
& black ribbons
a ghostly day & arid noon
strobe-light sun
& asphalt steam

^

watches for sale
broken hYmn
broken planet
sirens of commerce
one last bird
& sea

^

birds / no birds
there was a river with no birds
no black raven
there was a river with gleaming birds
green & blue shore
no river
no vibrant threads
no shore no trees
a hole in the sky
a heart or bird or door
broken window / fallen glass
& sky
silver fall
keening hYmn
broken hYmn
icarus & luminous flight
a low & broken sound
dream of life
no sky no planet no dream
radio pluto
graffiti music
river icarus
wanderer icarus
traversals
by boat on foot
in dreams by train
a bridge
& water & sky
a body
broken wings
a gender a bird
a sound 4 strings
a boat
wool coat
& wind
relentless
force

^

always before tomorrow
low siren calls
below the surface
some moment in history
unfolding relentless
human tide

^

resistance
something frayed
a friction
a tension
something broken
jagged torn fragmented
razed

^

close & blurred
zero person
not first not second not third
no map no compass no horizon
ephemeral imprint
sound & sand & rainfall
notes blown about
& dissipating
notes streaming
notes rising
falling
in corners silence
driftless / shady
deep pools
harmonic ghosts
suspended in clouds
across the moon
tonal palette
note clusters
probability clouds
gravitational forces
continuous dynamics
sound webs
rugged terrains
orthogonal chords
a calculus of motion
the dynamics of waves
residue of ghosts
a river
etched into rock
a glacial stain
cave drawings
subway icarus
railway icarus
river icarus
glassy fires
rain & cold
rush of color
sound & city
gleaming city
trumpet city
alley night
hidden streets
darkened streets
starry night
sheets of rain & neon
not a lattice
but notes falling
& dissolving
ghosts
wind & shadow
river bridge
improv planes
free jazz
no map
immersion risk lost & hOwl
infinite between
unbound netherworld
harmonic bird
tonal bird
falling
friction
gods of chance
dark wings
dissonant hYmns
dusty light
threads of light
submerged
gray shadows
illuminated
ladders & & . . .
graffiti tunnel
radio pluto
stereo fields
resonance / reverberation
twisted & splintered
lines bent
& sea's depth
cave drawings
black & red
ink sky
endless sky
horses speak to sky

^

i often played in bars
working people
musicians
poets
inebriated
intoxicated
otherworldly
mesmerized
played the
wooden beast
wild bird
tin cup
drunken utterances
stuttered offerings
thick strings
piercing hOwl
a matter of tension
clouds & cyclones
pierced night
prophets
dark & bitter
liquid dreams
fistfuls of change
folded paper
feathers
sketches
poems
gifts from strange angels
dark & smoky bars

^

between
a vast landscape
sparse or dense
infinite between
a silence
clouds
rain
particles
cluster & scatter
twist & rise
reverberate

^

i was 17
when i first
walked into a gay bar
small dark room
smoke & bottles
hands eyes
sound
the room was
spinning
about some axis
warm & close
juke box sound & street
stained by rain
swimming & neon
late night dreaming
crimson laced
blue blue heart
awkward waltz
dark brown eyes
& hidden glances
pressed close
against
dark corners
slung low
across the night
queer
not a boy
not a girl
bird or tree
walking
pavement lit
street lamps
signs
neon
walking
river
bridge
sailor waif poet
lucky strike
red & black
concrete brick
blue glass &
well-worn locks
the bird
scrawled
red & white & black
graffiti angel

^

saxophone dreams
the man in the psych ward
drugged beyond recognition
close calls
i sang like a bird
masked dancer
hair shorn
notes & words & lines
& graphic eyes
eternity
the blink of an eye
a hOwling
a hYmn
wandering

^

a boat
full sail
keel-furrowed
glides across
relentless waves
itself a wave
water & rocky cliff
glacial depths & seagulls' cries
or slender willow
flint fire glass
illumined — not far
but close
it was so hard in the beginning
rigging without motion
forced scraped awkward
but not a bird
not a long-necked bird
awkward but not beautiful
not twisting skyward
a flat failure — leaden
not grief
but a longing
i first heard your voice
a swan
i reached towards you
my heart leapt towards you
dark angel
mine
wordless
wondrous swan
an endless climbing
hand over bow
wire & wood & sky
storm
wooden mast
splintered against the rock
not you but my wings
bone & sinew
so far to row
endless passage
resistance
a bird
but falling

^

there were maps
black stones thrown
across black wires
& graphite words
graphite numbers
graphite language
drifting smoke
across the worn
manuscript
5 line sea
there was
a room
with wooden cabinets
filled with maps
wooden floor
blackened floor
dusty light
storefront windows
cello maps
dead hands speaking
from fallen stones
this world
a note in a bottle
for cello
for viola
or oboe
other sections
other worlds
maps stuffed into drawers
hard to climb but
intoxicating views
a whole afternoon
finding footholds
touching tender stems
so far from rain & stone
to river
the measures
hammered
chiseled
hand to surface
small turns
smooth glass
twisted reach
ascension — then river
a scattering of ashes
dissolution
one thousand stars

^

between 2 deserts
berryman's dream
water steel sun

^

silence
not
silence
ghosts breathe
blankness
snow
an emptiness or forest
trace of birds
or cloud
or wind
silence
graphite line
drawn on
blank paper
frayed lines
shadow & light
graffiti tunnel
graffiti angel
night angel

^

search for iron
broken compass
or hole in the sky
sky tunnel
cyclone sky
or sand or wolves or nest
warped compass
bent sound
bending trees or waves
slate blue cloud & sea
a wanderer
a stone
a cloth
the forge the fire
the blacksmith
welding elements
fusing metals
now a pond
silent &
pensive
still water or
glass
not iron
brown jade
the color of sand
a simple sack of feathers
a frayed sack of feathers
threads woven into branches
& flight
wax wings
pale stone
or cloud

^

there was a door or heart
a cloud or white cloth
& wind
past mountains
an ancient glacier
stripped of ice
barren rock
worn smooth & pale
ghost stone
ghost cloth
ice dreams
infused with light
once soaked in cloud
now sand or
balding sun
cool moon
a nest of dreams
lost language
brief vision
lonely hands
a memory
extinction
ancient seagull's landing
ancient ship
thread & ink
the window the dream
the cloud
flood of cloud
waning light
pale stone pale cloth
far away
there was a glacier
now stone
there was a cloud
now frayed

^

pond water & pale translucent stone
burlap woven & frayed
thread unfurled & drifting
hands
shadows
dimly lit & winter night
luminous morning
pale ice & summer green
cave cloth
not snow but rough grass
or glacial ice
not blue but smooth pale surface
opaque & bending
surface slowly turning
textured — rough & smooth
infinite lily pads
lily pads spilling across canvas
infinite pond
& sky
water / pigment
elemental forms
water stone fabric
not lake but color
not iron but bone
stone like bone
ancient human
cloth or hair
or glacier

^

blue green marble
small planet

^

abstraction / between
queer
cello blue boat
boundless sea
an intimate biography
the infinite between
the uncountably infinite
degenerate night crow
wandering
angels
the score
a circle of fire
cello
glass bowl
coffeepot
rusted door
tuning fork
light color
line photos
echo filters
contrast echo mask
holy flight
holy dreaming
holy threads
holy rising
holy communion
holy echo
primal intertwine
awkward reaching
wings or streets
bridge or cloud
ascension sea or sky
night crow on
percussion
setting something
into vibration
by rubbing
scraping
striking
shaking
sticks & membrane
wood & metal
colliding bodies
the acoustic
significance of material
cave tapping
cave drawing
resonance
painting
2 birds
last bird
& sea
far away remembered sea
vast & forever sea
scratching crow
story tapper
narrator crow
sea conjurer
magician
broken pump
pitch fraying / staining
pitch dissolving
wild bird ancient bird
transfigured night
city bent on redemption
queer
glory
broken hYmn falling sky
cathedral
warehouse
this room
this communion this fusion
hands & breath holy soul
holy planet holy now
note frayed tonal sky sound cathedral
the past stains this place
wolf notes awkward sky
city lights
crow blue sea or stairs
cloud cathedral or this room
only this gravity
only this orbit
land resists
reed crow
this place a cloud
wax wings — suspended
bow or bone
feathers
beak or wood
missed connections
frayed
failing
missed migration lost orbit
friction
angel
physics & pitch
night crow / courier / typographer
black ink
storyteller / magician / conjurer
witness
degenerate time
fragmented landscape
a tapping a scraping
beer caps & prism eyes

^

you meant to
narrate or compose
or conduct this piece but
once again
the bright shiny object
the rock almost seemed
like language
you became a broken well
if you
tapped or rubbed
or scraped this place
this ocean could
draw water
you were going to play
the xylophone (pretty bones)
instead
industry! & glass bowl
singing
sparse too preoccupied
to vibrate
near-sighted crow
black wings black dots
black ink & lines
black scrawl
you were supposed to be the sea
black feathers askew
you were supposed to have
an orchestra
the loom the frame
a concerto
the risks!
bow friction release
claw scraped wood & wire
harmonic ghosts
the infinite between
no boat
forces pull & resist
friction or flight
falling
ghost bird shadow bird
you were supposed to have an orchestra
you were going to
play the marimba
be the sea
blue black sea

^

2 monologues
twisted & frayed
rising vortex
communion of souls
concerto for stringed instrument
& bones
an alchemy of sea & flickering light
the color of honey
ancient papers
burlap threads
a sack
a floating crate
harmony
a collision
an elemental fusion
rhythm / a tapping / scratching
melody / a frayed call or hOwl
alchemical blurring
staining each other
sound & crow
moments & pitch clouds
flickering / fading
close / disoriented
vibrant / wild
repeated arc
dense thicket
off -center
skewed
close
flight / redemption
transcendence
wanderer hOwl
luminous darkness
an impulse to flight
human resilience
the boat the journey
sound fragments
like dreams
staring into each other
continuous pool
an edge an intensity
abstract / gender / queer
lens / frame
skewed images
repeated
a boat
in the middle
of the sea
horizon rocking
skewed
frameless world
a falling
or ascension
the ladder then

^

the data structure of dreams
episodic
glimpse
snapshot
& flow
a film
index of images
index of sound
index of dreams
graffiti / angel
scattered light & shadow
a blankness or silence
an emptiness
visual incident
the voyage out
revery
dream
a fever
waking
focal point / depth of field
stillness / runes
screens like quartets
or playing cards
shadow factory
light harp
bounds
twisting / reaching
rubbing / bending
a palette
a kite
silent manifesto
elemental forms
the boat the wanderer the sanctuary
manifest focal point
pivot point / inflection point
photosynthesis
wheel / fire
tonal pool
immersion
st. paul
tape delay
cello
graphite line
found sound
emergent hYmns
4 part 2 or 3
dissonance friction
source
theater of eternal music
in the middle
a black music stand
lit
in darkness
shards
of broken glass
manuscript
drawing
frame to frame
found sound
collected sound
layered light
collage
sound clusters
gravity & tonal centers
kinetic forces
web or cloth
atmospheres
macro rhythms
a flow of moments
the rush of life / falling
mask
transmigration of souls
a cathedral of sound & light
aurally distant
long windows or arcs
film windows
blue windows
& sound sources
dissolve
& stain each other
create friction
& luminous union / chordal light
space & time migration
wanderers
holy fools
graffiti angel / the broken hYmns
graffiti angel / cave drawings
graffiti angel / house of light
graffiti angel / night train
graffiti angel / blue window
graffiti angel / hOwl
street lamp wanderer

^

grand gestures
faltering flight
it was like this every morning
the risks the walls
& simply
jumping
into
thin air

^

ocean wind
& grief
ahab's dream
the gulf
breathe / oil
tar / feathers
black rain
asphalt tears
floating fish
bloody boats
drowned birds
wire stitches
torn cloth
tattoo needle
neon cloth
a short film
shadow film
you can construct a story
in so many ways
moving pictures
falling pictures
elegy or salvation
red lines
holy lines
broken mast
holy mast
torn sail
holy sail
foolish ahab
holy ahab
fool
holy fool

^

i was queer
trans gender bender queer
& the planet was
dying
a heartless species
humans
i grew up to the sound of body counts
grainy black & white
television
evening news
it was like this every evening
rivers on fire
prisons
protests
wars
a white woman screaming
red-faced profanities
at a black girl
boarding a bus
nightly news
villages burning
orange balls of fire
in a jungle
gun to head
shutter / bang
image image image
resistance
shutter / bang
eyes
fists
words
blood
tides
heart
of the beast
bowels
of the beast
helicopter blades
tents
liquid metal
graffiti walls
a billion for the bomb
food stamps for the baby
a prison cell for you
rivers on fire
locked factories
locked out
locked in
at gunpoint
17th hour dim light
a woman sews

^

i walked the queer streets
at night or
dawn
on my way to work
at the modern times cafe
i witnessed
i saw
i testify
i saw
& called out
helpless
at night at dawn
i walked the streets
paint for the bomb makers & porn shops
walking an invisible fluid line between
night is an angel
a neon prophet
suburban cars pausing for prostitutes
white boys
roaming in packs
searching out a stranger
alone & queer
to beat within an inch of his life
rites of manhood for the college set
neighborhood housing
projects
gaunt queer boys
coughing pretty boys
i walked the fluid line
between he & she
always queer
hey baby
i miss you

^

saxophones &
electrified
guitars
spilled from
summer open doors
flung windows
curl of smoke
rolling papers
lysergic dreams
i remember your eyes
green

^

the saxophone player
from the psych ward
stunned out of
his mind
on some
psychotropic
tranquilizer
& yet
slow sweet sound
breath & reeds
burnished metal
hands & breath
sweet poet
shuffling poet
i remember you
in morning
awkward groups
sun through
metal bars
your words
sweet
kind
deranged
bent winged angel

^

& you 4 stringed lantern
wooden heart
my bones
i remember you
in hot practice rooms
hours & hours
& then forsaken
lost & forsaken bicycle
i can't even say it
can't tell you
lonely streets
wooden boat through
skipped school
don't talk about it school
bully school
frayed pitch
rough raw broken
strange beautiful pitch
resinous pitch
horse hair wire
wood
pine blood pitch
cat gut & wire
pitch

^

you have to fail 13 times
before you see the ladder
& even then
you can't reach
the last rung

^

frayed rope
musical line split
& frayed
& filtered
through water
contrast color
filter blur echo
the canvas of
river & street

^

my hands were made of
ambiguity
geometry
a distance
a confluence
a mapless continuity
complicity & resistance
cluster of birds
pulse
a flux
atoms
carbon
dissipating
heat
or torch & ice
a glacier
drowning
in its own red sea
so difficult to utter
such grief

^

3 moons
skewed horizon
incoherence
near / far
unpinned
sound is like
a ragged line
stain of red
wash of ink
my hands were birds
no birds
my hands were rivers
no rivers
my hands were
bone & pulsing sound
a cacophony of horses
across blue sky