Grey matter
a scumbag memoir 
recycles 
to pervert pleasure 

Lean over and whisper 
red ruffian 
a forked tongue licks 
	the hippocampus
singes the synapse 

it all comes 
crashing through the ceiling 
the reframe is broken
at the corners 
and its contents seep out 

Th war is in the finding
of quiet 
the silent tumble 

Nothing turns coal into a cotton ball
like societal pressure 

the primal urge to beat and batter
our brothers
turns softer, more formal
as pages rip off the wall calendar 

we’re all renaissance men now

all this frustration vented out into 
an uncaring space 
through leather and padding
coddling and clean teeth 

Slake the blood lust and turn 
		        to a neighbor 
shake their hand
and smile
while they batter your brains

The crow’s 
	a death knell 
shedding feathers in a hurricane 
simple minded focus 
	feel nothing 

an awakening,
enslaved by a lust for gore 
eyes glazed red 
head raised 
	cock of the walk 

Survival of the fittest 
until the fittest isn’t profitable 

Peck
	  Peck
Peck 
Stone dead lump 
   with applause

The 9 am sits 
picking at his shoelace aglet
fraying it obsolete
mirroring his nails 

I drift to the future

Ten o’clock is in 
a classic case of
floccinaucinihilipilification 
up the dosage and on his way

Noon is a lying bitch
one foot in the mourning
        the other at the bar 
hard to help 
while she tergiversates
with every answer

Note to self:
Hide the corymb 
The hypochondriac at two
has trypophobia this week 

The couple at five... 
if she cachinnates at him 
          again
after he opens himself up
I might lose my shit 
          I wish I could recommend divorce 

Ah, he’s finally done 
          with his droning
until next month

1.	Dew Drop Honey

(Find it in the September issue of the Indie Lit Journal)

2.	Hail

Sink
beneath the surface
it’s silent 

Swim
breach and breathe

Relaxed, a vacuum
of sea, of space
channeling 
atomic ancestors 
call and collapse

Pelted from above 
by an unforgiving sky 

3.	In the Gaps

Traverse the pitch
black
dark
of a lonely house 

There’s a whole life 
inside a cave-in
spelunkers all 
in those moments 
of death’s dress rehearsal 

talk to the night
embrace it  
tell it to wrap 
and keep safe
‘til morning 

but the sun just won’t rise 

4.	Pi 

Pirates pilloried
on a pike

stow away curiosity,
take heed 

Sentinels circle 
triumphant in the trap
bring banners
and burial shrouds

signal pyres 
mimic a lighthouse
ships drawn like flies
to peril 
in perceived safety

Cannibals love to eat well 

5.	Box
 
Eye open

a triumvirate 
of perception
floods serotonin

find the gaps
in the skull
where grey matter
won’t go

gravity forces downward
upward forces spirit 

fingers grip
tendrils ensnare 
senses
stacking them
like firewood 
to burn the edges

eye closed

6.	Melonhead

Gobsmacked
smashed on the 
pavement 

a family 
of ripe cantaloupes 
rot in the sun
sweet juices 
run

gore 
look straight ahead
keep feet 
firmly planted
to the floor 

a view from
a rolled down
window

encephalitic curse 

7.	Polyphemus 

Intraocular kaleidoscope 
sound manifesting
across a dead nerve

See the sonic play
as ephemeral lights
on display

An easy trick
of the senses
Abracadabra 
the magic of 
chemistry

The monster find is way
easily
in the dark
soft men are
tactile reminders
of the blind man’s bluff 

8.	Salience

Inside the house
moldable clay 
pictures sit,
gather dust
decay 

a wrecking ball comes
blows them away 

wade 
through the furniture
arms out
feeling for relevance

dusk light
illuminates a frame
through a crack 
in the curtain

unseen	
in the corner
in the chair 

9.	Stethoscope 

Metal
cold on first touch
wants to absorb
heat
but here it won’t 
find much 

Hear 
a faint, rhythmic
pump

The pixels on the screen read
tiny peaks and valleys 
registers them as life 

Gathered round 
a horseshoe of bent necks
and folded hands

They trip on wires 
in silence 
as the line flattens 
to a segment 

10.	Eidetic 

Stretch out
the negative
safelight glow 
a deep red hue

all of these are 
all of you

snapshots of 
every moment 

developer, agitate
stop bath
fixer 
a solitary chemist at work 

reaching in the drawer 
hoping 
the blurry ones
aren’t there anymore 

11.	Mandolin

One
	Lazy
	        Slip

Clean shock
nerves on delay
an instinct to shake
forgetting 
the spray

Potatoes and gore
flung 
to the ceiling

an observer views
and faints
absorbs the feeling

One
	 Finger
		Tip

In pops
	(the small, ovular
         white one)
the Vesuvian borborygmus 
temporarily quiesces 

a fugacious undertaking
	(tolerances numb
	 with each undertaking)
a mumpsimus with a chemical
dependency
bordering on neurotic 

straighten the tie
	(tighten the 
	noose)
a vilipend in the mind
constantly left behind

stepping into newness
	(the oh, so
	terrifying uncertainty)
like a Lilliputian 
amongst the Brobdingnagians

Pirates pilloried
on a pike

stow away curiosity,
take heed 

Sentinels circle 
triumphant in the trap
bring banners
and burial shrouds

signal pyres 
mimic a lighthouse
ships drawn like flies
to peril 
in perceived safety

Cannibals love to eat well 

Sneaky tryst
Virgo and Pisces 
concorporate	
under the
equatorial colure 
of a mid-sized sedan

Undulating myrmecoids
expanding space and time
mandibles locked
as tractor beams
vellicating, fondling, finding 
releasing,
exhaling

They drive on
like a boustrophedon
weaving over 
segmented lines
blurring solid

drunk on thrill 

Intraocular kaleidoscope 
sound manifesting
across a dead nerve

See the sonic play
as ephemeral lights
on display

An easy trick
of the senses
Abracadabra 
the magic of 
chemistry

The monster find is way
easily
in the dark
soft men are
tactile reminders
of the blind man’s bluff 

Our heads 
are arenicolous

an old apercu

hack down the boscage
into the river
clutter with foliage 
disembogue at the choke point

bile ejects
to the sea 
holes wash away 

the shore will cicatrize 
its wounds
with or without the wounder 

1.	All the Light

Out to trek the wilds
don’t forget a coat

Expect the worst
hope is for the best
there’s a caged raptor
pecking at the inside
of a barreled chest 

Time bomb of time

Prayers to a void
grant this wish:
to see dark as friend
Beauty for beauty’s sake
it won’t be there in the end 
illuminate the actions
words are fallen leaves
memories will scatter
like tears of joy
in the funeral patron
who secretly laughs
while he grieves 

2.	All the Night

It could be that it’s 
the season of unkept promises
Easy jingles that 
captivate and ensnare
when you really dig down
there’s no one there
they don’t really care

Wear out the pillows
hide in the rooms
creep in the enemy
Imagination

The curtain billows
moonlight, moonbeam
mere highlights of doom
claws out there
on the branches
of brittle willows

We’re all walking widows
we’re all walking widows
see life pass out your window
we’re just walking widows

3.	All the Sight

Tends to talk about
big themes
and lost dreams
A trendsetter?
No
Pretentious?
Sure

I’m in the canyons
like everyone else
never see over the rim
fall back with a thud
God’s japing whim
a folding fetal
median and mode
of the opening
of a petal

eyes strain in the sun
but you see
I squint and still 
can’t tell if it's me
strange fruit on the branches
of a scalded tree
strange wind a blowin’
Spin spin swing
poison pills in Winter
rotted rinds in Spring

4.	All the Healing 

It’s all mine
what you’re stealing
what you’re taking
You say fuck off
Yet I’m the one breaking

Give me a sign
Of humanity or compassion
I feel like I’m the last hope
the last bastion
the truth is you’ll never
ever stop
As long as you’re alive
You have to keep mending
if you want 
to fucking 
survive

Tell me the truth
I could beg and plead
but it’s no fucking use
it’s got shackles on me 
I absorb the abuse

5.	All the Words

It’s critical, he says
to find the exact point
in the tonal shift
of a muse
It’s here that accuracy
is at its finest
for diagnosing 
the rate of decay
in a vacuum
Easy, nonetheless
to posit
not so much to ascertain
in great quantities
Time and space
are Gemini
as are needle and eye
while victims, 
lay like dolls
on the floor,
curiosity assuaged
Look at the verses
they wrote
and wonder no more
why they opened the 
plane door
they felt they could
no longer soar

6.	All the Noise

Boys, girls
Girls, boys
to each their own
little killers and ploys
Pounce from a thicket
Tiger trounce

Militia warfare
in a turnstile
fuck, this is taking
awhile
so fucking smile
show bloodied teeth

Fresh from the fray
You’re not getting
past today
the real wound’s 
underneath

No closure in an 
open field
exposed like wheat
this year had a 
shitty yield
she’s around the corner
eyes peeled
veins congealed
Comatose in an
open field
parachute
malfunction
Open field
sniper bullet
you crumple
kneel
genuflect, keel
preach to the choir
we all expire
we are all liars
sift the chatter
the silt of us 
nothing matters

7.	All the Fish

The line
only encumbered by the wind
an ocean of ripples
radiate from the slender
solitary entry point
All the action
below the belt
the surface
sharks circling
vibrant life
being fooled
to snuff themselves out

Light a lantern
for the future dead
boys and maidens
chop off their heads
and to the pelicans 
they rain, they spread
Blossoms tainted
scraps and leftovers
for the discarded
for the weeping sons
the fuck ups
the lonely ones

8.	All the Time

Take some consideration
a mechanism of the lost
lack of confidence
in the basics

What is love but that?

The subtle cost
of hesitation
as for clock strikes
we all think we’re happy
we’re fat
Delusion on credit
kick the can down the road
and savor the pie
have it a la mode
more and more numb
to exquisite taste
sawdust and bland
nothing done fully
yet all in haste
moments and decades
are terrible things
to waste

9.	All the Embers

It’s on the smoldering pyre
that we realize 
the cost of this
ugly business
gaze deep at the coals
the blackened bodies
oh, the wayward
blistered souls
realization is always 
a match strike late
such is our lot
such is our fate
This, Darwinism
this, catechism
we align to what’s 
convenient
All just chasing oxygen
to keep the flame lit
one more day
to keep the past
firmly at bay

10.	All the Choice

Into the depths we go
playback hyperbole
on slow mo
Magnify the fuck ups
grab some popcorn
watch the show
nightly double feature
where the past is 
a lagoon creature
swamped in mistakes
slinking out of the 
wine dark lake
breaching easily
the castle, the moat
each time it manages
to cut the throat
gore the eyes
can we survive
and always be
the ones we despise?

Stow away the clubs
we are disenthralled
fire and stone
are passive observers

but harsh masters
with long memories

we came out of the ooze
clung to the littoral sands
of a primal sea 
guttural grunts
polished, creolized
abjuring our muddy crawl
for comfort

it’s in there,
that place
we use an exonym
for somewhere
we’ve long forgotten

The Bell rung, 
I sadly answered

             hexed by a 
             late night craving

or was it the fact
you didn’t discalceate
at the neighbor’s house
and brought on that
bad juju

or was it the gouda
a tyrotoxism swimming 
around in there
waiting to strike

or was it the tv
those men
and their scaturience 
brown nosing their way
to tangerine oblivion 

or was it a simple
neglecting 
of a good old-fashioned 
hand scrubbing 

either way
in strong need 
of an apotropaic balm
to exosculate my
innards
to homeostasis 

Those bomb bursts
a bravura
to convoke 
a patriot’s tear drags

detonation as sky’s 
noctiluca 

an aleatory prospect
will they fizzle, fade
or detonate? 

a two headed coin 
flips 
against the backdrop
each face 
foolishly believes
in its autarky 

It’s critical, he says
to find the exact point
in the tonal shift
of a muse

It’s here that accuracy
is at its finest
for diagnosing 
the rate of decay
in a vacuum

Easy, nonetheless
to posit
not so much to ascertain
in great quantities

Time and space
are Gemini
as are needle and eye
while victims, 
lay like dolls
on the floor,
curiosity assuaged

Look at the verses
they wrote
and wonder no more
why they opened the 
plane door
they felt they could
no longer soar

With each step
I pererrate dunes;
A doomwalk

All my old tactics
succumb to desuetude 

I’ll deliquesce, 
soles excarnate
gumming ground 
in trudging futility
Hope shimmers 
on the horizon

but the oasis
is a trap

For here’s 
the quicksand
Head remains
acaulescent
viewing an 
unfathomable 
firmament
devoid of stars

Vultures circle 
invisible
	and waiting
against the dark 

Stoic
in dust storms

turmoil is overhead
but heat bakes the dead

the creek 
will decurtate
a runlet

wander, 
aimless tittup
each bite of bread
a scantling
of what’s necessary

no matter,
all end
within
the swirling devil 

Out to trek the wilds,
don’t forget a coat
Expect the worst
hope is for the best
there’s a caged raptor
pecking at the inside
of the armored chest 

Time bomb of time
prayers to a void
grant one wish:
to see dark as friend

Beauty for beauty’s sake
it won’t be there in the end 

Illuminate action

Words are falling leaves
memories will scatter
like tears of joy
in the funeral patron
who laughs
while he grieves 

1.	Mercy 

See her standing on graves
unmarked and unremarkable
subterranean afterthoughts

Her lollipop in hand 
a stroll with her father
boots kick up dust

She stares into the sun
fingers act like blinds
filtering the distant flashes

“You see honey,
the sun will rise twice in the west,
or three times or four 
as many as it takes
ants will pick bare the rubble 
they’ll dance and contort
and fall to the floor
It’s a kindness you realize
they deserve to be clean”

She hears but doesn’t understand
just smiles, looks up
and squeezes daddy’s hand

2.	Merci

She should be grateful to be bored
for it means she won the war

ALL CAPS SCREAMING 
on a keyboard
about injustices ignored 
one more point
for her side
is scored 

She’s got guilt in her DNA
and it makes it feel so, so good
to relax, to play
to make the other side 
of the screen
her prey

3.	Lions

“I’m sorry honey,
you’ve become a blurred image.”
She clearly sees the dying man
long past forgiveness
but grace is softened
by Death’s specter
though she will not cry
A sense of pity is natural
for memory is nostalgic 

“We are the wellspring of 
Civilization. We are the hammer
of war and the feathers of peace.
We are now and forever.”
She always loved the force 
with which he spoke
His words carried weight 
an atmosphere of tension
broken by a roar of confidence
Conviction

He was not the earthquake
rather, the Richter scale
Now reduced to 
a diminishing rate 
of peaks, plateaus, valleys
pixels on a screen 
She just can’t bring herself 
to offer a final squeeze 
of the hand

4.	Lambs

She was the reason
the blindfold of “justice”
obscured her eyes 
He was oh so good at 
being a shield 
but such protections 
are made to yield

The weather promised sun
but came as rain from a gun
She heard the pops as fireworks
children having fun
She wasn’t the only one

A single image kept 
photographs of remembrance
She forgot to see
a child of an inevitability 
Cluster of red balloons 
umbrella of futility
A solitary rose in the snow
she heard the pops as fireworks
Children having fun
the weather promised sun

5.	Rams

Danger comes from certainty
purity 
She knows the moral
the savage beauty
Parable of thorns 
after all
mess with the bull 
get the horns

From the worst lessons
something can be gleaned 
even the obscene 
She’s on a path now 
to wash it clean 

From picket fences 
to picket lines 
Those aggrieved
pay the fines
Unwind the day with foreign wines
where Bacchus and Mars
dare to dine 
“That fight is yours, not mine”

6.	Locusts

and she listened intently
as his glories recanted
from the deepest recesses

“Swarm on ‘em boys,
fix the bayonets and sting.”

War used to be personal
a more intimate being
See the whites of their eyes 
the guns would be aligned
Point aim shoot 
Now we press a button
Momma kid papa
They’re just a thing
KABOOM
Long live the King

“Feast on ‘em boys
Take the spoils and sing.” 

and she stared wide eyed
for he drew his last breath
as a penitent confesses

7.	Elegance 

Beauty of the bomb 
She’s drifting direct 
Pseudo-sexual 
a means to an end 

She learned from the best 
how to coax an enemy 
into being a friend 

If only she could 
get in close 

Twists her hair 
hot wires 
hardly revolutionary 
No need to reinvent the wheel 
it’s all part of the deal 
When the blast goes off 
she lets loose a squeal 

In the ground 
for a few hours 
what better way 
To honor a father 
then by undoing 
his legacy 
Vaporize his flowers

8.	Gauche 

The stillness 
it was the contrast of the wind 
Dead stones 
horror in daylight 

Her hands shook 
as they pulled body 
after body 
from the rubble 
Rag dolls now bereft 
of their former convictions 
Fascists deprived 
of their addictions 

“Change is ugly my dear, 
but nothing has ever evolved 
without primal fear” 

When the script is flipped 
she still heard his words 
in her ear 
She’s part of a 
new machine 
counterclockwise gear

9.	Interrogation

Sinking into silence
down into the trench

There was a lot of jostling
and thumping of car doors
Probably for the best 
she didn’t see 
“I know them,
but they don’t know me”

She got used 
an appendage 
Amputated
to save the body

She got used
to the taste of blood
That metallic spice
pain numbs pain

When the mouth’s wounded
the mouth stays shut 
She’d immunized herself
from every cut

The mind tends to blank
but not forever 
“She will break
Just which cord 
Do we sever?”

The voice was hers
but not her own
fragments of memory
shards of bone 

10.	Poppies

She is the headstone
A martyr for some
vision of truth
a symbol of hate
for the “other” youth 

After time’s kiss 
epitaphs lose their edge
New recitations
same pledge 

They can’t quite taste it
when we pour one out
for those who died 
Just wasting liquor 
and breath 
Death is empty 
War is death 

She can say in the end
her eyes were still wide
when we’re buried
We’re all on the same side

Find her
a celestial
moonless
eleutheromania 
seek the desert

grinded
against stone
a farinaceous powder
dight and 
inhale Gaia

huddled, puddled
heat rises
in the bivouac
a cave for seeing

estivate,
marinate,
resurrect,
detonate