Poems and Apocrypha

The haunted hotel

the first room they gave me I didn't like at all

there was a little girl weeping in the wall

the second room was nicely appointed

but there was a herd of antelope 

sleeping in the crawlspace above

as soon as I would start to fall asleep

something would startle them again

finally I settled in to a tiny chamber

that had been used for a maid's quarters  

she had been driven crazy with a hatchet

although nearly decapitated

she managed to bleed-out over a bidet

well aware that whatever happens to spill

someone always has to put the room in order

trees howled and the wind scratched away the windows

I awoke a one point inside a hollow tree

there was still obsidian darkness 

by dawn I was back in bed

covered in leaves

sonar from a mysterious kitchen

the existential aroma of coffee 

***

After a very long stay

the floating effigy drifted away

experimental flight risk

gliding on my non-existent disk

where the isle of the sea

meets the isle of the sky

waves and clouds 

together fly

***

over the radio into wires in my ears

samuel barber's adagio for strings

my friend who died this year

is in the sunlight

is in the water

He tried so hard

not to have God

God is all that is left

when one has gone to rest

it's all in your head

until you are dead

for Don Joyce

***

dulcet moon of May

wearing three scattered planets

seagulls fly at night

***

Broody

crow and seagull

black and white

outside my window

they fight and fight

Pleasure and happiness

may be achieved,

Pain and sorrow

are given

writing is the taxidermy of thought

Life is as close to hell as we can be

until we get there 

Death Valley

Devil's Hole
Furnace Creek
Badwater Basin
Fall Canyon
Stovepipe Wells

The Racetrack

The Devil's Cornfield
Hoodoos

Zabriskie Point

Homemade guantanamo

fun's over darling
misfortune cookies

Your class status threatened

you shun me,

That's alright

I shun myself

***

Sunlight down seventh

outlines gulls highlights the trees

moving in the breeze

***

suspended in mid-heliotrope

machines leaking piano coins

fingerless ouds

run up the water spout

when galaxies collide

heavy print job

undertone drone runs out to sea

train sinking in the distant bay

cavalcades of sport cars 

crunch their numbers

gully-washers flood

the fracked-out cavities

hollow inside

hollow inside

we didn't believe we were

hollow inside

hollow inside

****

trains at the foot of my bed

mean business,

but a steam train leaves

  the head of the bed

climbing toward

the back country

November 2015-June 2016