31 october

waiting for the moment to own it to step up there's a cup and it's full time to overflow it the glow trips full over backward and the herd cattle calls on up collect to text mexico and the snow falls on cedars and other classic tales that never fail to get written like smitten school girls have perfect curls and coffee cups have handles too scandalous for statuses the cactuses that caught you had to sit through those occasions with straight-faced frustrations and avoid all hesitations without uniting nations and keeping calm while hatians and other earth people steeplechased the eraserheads out of movies that nobody understands -- i sat through that one and wondered why, even as those pay-by-weight ties were floating through the times when we used to sit through football matches and batten down the black-jacket hatches (we must be the foreigners) (please to note the chocolate kvass -- lost to all eternity when i couldn't learn the name fast enough, stubborn with my letters and lazy with my tongue, something with an m and a buzz but halftime full up so back in the stands, landing out of order, distorted among the sunflower seeds -- nobody needs to have all the answers, nobody needs to know all the facts) distracted again by whipped cream certainty on the cashier's speed and the need to park underground when the lot could have been across town too... these are the truths we can do without when the doubts should slip away, the trays could be served to someone else and i could turn away -- no, that list's not for me but i could/ no/ i could not know -- and i would turn instead to november and i would stalk into the stacks with the coffee and leave no tracks -- just the steam and the thought of my back left behind in someone's eye and no one would mind and neither would i

30 october

but if the words sounded wrong the stronger to see you with the wider to grin that chin off of any other face my eyes squint smiling and my nose wrinkles too but there's nothing much to be done about it the hum about it's nearly through -- knot one, pearl two -- ruby ships and diamond shoes, sail off to sleep in a wooden zoo where the chords unstrung means everyone is true -- laughing with the answers (number one and number two) we are all the saviors of our own regeneration -- we are all the laughter we can see with fascination -- let us bow our heads and tie up casual conversation with the goal of easy access to upcoming coordination : the step into the wind and the singing scene ahead, the whistle for a dog that comes from nowhere, we can't care enough for these moments, these donuts, these golden teas and trees of suggestion branching toward thanks -- share alike the mess that's left and try our best to grow

29 october

apologies that freeze the tongue come unstrung ere long and the song you thought you were singing's bringing no chorus in sight -- just a verse's worse the richer and the picture's yours to disprove (it's an easy groove to slip into -- an idiot watch and its ticked-off tock) while the bow breaks off at the middle in object subject over the moon servitude -- not to be rude again, to scan the meter and delete the feet that carry crass cash to pay a fickle piper -- even as the standing's up, the jig is in and i'm stepping out into doubt and other exit lanes -- the traffic too graphic for comparison (though harrison too's got a video that you've got to see to deceive if george's to be believed -- just duck the cover and know your place: this is not a chase scene and the means do not end here-- turn page, go home, away

28 october

read while the fire goes out i'm doubting you can hear me but the tires spin around and the planes above the ground rattle scandals as the towns turn tail and run -- the sun calling dark secrets out and the moon shouting for attention in starry-eyed dementia (who you are and why you're there are two more questions than i've got answers for, to tell the truth-- never to lie, if a pie's to be made and the cradle's to rock-- the flappers will talk and the walls will have ears they cannot hide// from the out, i see inside with the pig-tailed bounty hunters and the sideways glance romancers// we are all the cattle callers, we are all the answer-givers// let me tell the stories when the once-upon-a-times out and the buzzard lands at half-time in a full-court press to ask what's next (i have no answers): the dancers all have moves and the music takes its toll// the bell rings out for someone and the island's not for thee -- no man, no man, no man : we are the destroyers of the void, the authors of allusion and the truths that set us freezing, the gasps that leave us heaving, heavy with hope and promises (i want all of this and more) (please to leave open the refridgerator door): i forgot to make my picks again, i left off all those tricks again and these are the things i can do with out (i'm talking to you) (come on) as november comes to season the novel ideas i'm fearless without reason and i'm senseless without time// i'm waving to the smile carved caramel my way today curled in a curve to go a flavor to savor to carry for later whenever such fever won't break

27 october

as well we know the telephone speaks its mind at clearly defined intervals and the integral points of response are the haunts in the pauses the causes -- as we see -- are varied, the days that run -- we see -- are harried, and all the hendersons will dance and sing -- let me fill my pockets wild, china weak and jacks are mild -- hurricanes for breakfast now, with alabaster record doubts! we are the ones we can't do without! i have no desk and i have no shoes -- i see only light and i hear only truth -- the answers in the curtain and the meal's its own dessert (i will hurt with wonder as i wait, the ache an angle tried and long --) sing the cattle sunset song: turn the hands, the clock's all wrong -- i'm the one i meant to mention, i'm the one i thought you knew -- sweet jane and all the cabin crew will be coming by soon to assist you as the sky tuns soft to velvet and we all fade underground

26 october

and starting with a conjunction leaves the functional analysis off the chart: i am already messing up and the cup runs over with disaster faster than sense can pay out, the dollar bills flying away and the change making itself out to be something that it's not -- the tater to the tots and all the little potato wedges hedging their bets and their ten cents yet to be dimed out of their pockets locked with all those hot to trot lunch minutes the skinny slices of calendar stolen from designed bubblegrams scandalized technology the ways and means the committees scream at the language used to prove we know what we're talking about though the doubts are high and as we try to prove we're the experts the text spurts and the tweets go out to shout: they know not who they blame! and this round's more of the same-- too many users or too much politics? much too thick or pick up sticks? here we go round the merry go whyyy -- and reasonable ones and zeros decry their knowledge of more than what goes behind and before as all the puppeteers point jeers-- these are not the thoughts i have-- these are reams of paper ripped from headlines defined by other fingers and tongues and what's strung up on my wall are pictures unframed and futures unnamed -- the dashes that flash by with apple pie virtue and too many questions, they lessen the worry and hurry the coffee toward cream-colored pleasure, the steam without measure and hesitation in next round progression: yes, i would recommend and yes i'd extend and if the question was i'd answer but if the quiet's deep i'd turn away the way the mean the average stay and november's coming anyway

25 october

cool night parking lot crisp like sub lettuce slices of cheese waiting for tomato and ready for oil and vinegar stepping across darkness later than evening should be long past real dinner sleepwishing dreams of the sandwich embrace whitebread rollup these are the perfect images palumbo subs mechanicsburg pennsylvania imagine and remember the tender balance let me ask another question the lesson here to learn is to earn that time and keep it in a locked pocket to have and to hold to say yes but also know that no is a word - absurd but those days place trays full of orders in short form - the norms and their ideals squealing off the exit ramps into tramped-down piles the to-do lists to-done unstrung and while the subject is collecting itself i'd toast the health of any reader - the cooler side of the pillow, the fever that fades when the sun comes up

24 october

pile up doubt and the trout rain bows and the range rovers over and under in the cannon ball swimming pool - we rule this school and what the trial of the cent pre-bent and overturned I've earned those apples into oranges again in the wrongtime forges - why and how of course too clear - do you suffer from this or that - and the doctor thinks i'm taking too long by giving real answers - -  the chances again of trends resent - i've lent my expertise to friends in need but does the mustard seed alarm clock toll as well for me?

23 october

thought i was asleep but the creeping-up crept until the onscreen dream faded and the belated overcame, the lame leapt up and the cup overflowed-- whoa!/ explode/ and SCENE! mean it if you have to and i laugh through toward the ending, bending over to pick up the line, to twist all the twine til my phone says it's time for another appointment another disjointment of a schedule with meddled hours cowering from freedom (believe'em if you will, the spillover alarm clocks, the pillow jocks and their bragging rights, staying up nights and keeping all days undercover - the lovers of the curtains with certain dreams behind fringed eyeshades, fading in lemonade dream scenes, teeming with beauty and also with caramel corn caravans of scandalous laungauge banging about: where are all the doubts i had when those scads of to-do items marched on by? who threw out the candy and who caught it? was it free? then why i bought it in the first place the worst way to pay out to save doubt from a wrecking ball i'm too tall for a tree and nobody asked me if i wanted to be a snake to take the cake from the pan, to copy from the scan and rap it all off stage - to earn the living wage and war it all to pieces : what you think of these diseases, what you see when you gather up the pieces and how those animals crinkle up their creases winking up to tease us as we laugh the lots away (it's the end of another day and the start of another way) (a sigh - i throw my keys in the air and the monkeys take their turn, earning frequent flyer miles as the window starts to fade)

22 october

I'll be the secretary if you walk the dog but the catalog has too few parts to play - too few ways to mean hello when all I'd rather know is when and if the knife fits, where it sits for lunch, where the punch bowls and the rattle rolls (there are those who'd rather shake - just a commonplace mistake if you're one who tells the truth, and that's as useful as a toothful grin in a sandstorm fire when the words conspire, I call for the script and I call for my line, and I call for the fiddlers three) and the nursery rhyme (so ill-defined) falls rapidly away and I'm standing awkward as a two-dollar offer on a twenty dollar check and that's a mess of words to try for and I've got none left with to buy for

21 october

To be honest, I might build a house of bricks before French toast sticks, but there are plenny of words far more absurd that crowd to mind in the roughly defined eveningnight under bright lights of leftover dinner thoughts and the glimmer of laugh is a cool carafe of carryhome thanks to replenish the tank and it goes down smooth and easy – a greasy slide that sounds much cooler as a chute or a ladder, like a classy Meta Hatter jumping with hilarity – wears on me not invisibly, an easy tell if you’re looking, and the books – I’d say – are cooking (an orange stabbed through the heart and boxed numbers off the charts) – while there’s lots of parking darkening, a forward bounce is hearkening and fall’s a mess of leaving with a full sky up above

20 october

wake up and shake up the takedown alligator – all stepladder and no waiting (as if all the teeth could talk with rock and roll side dishes—got the drifters? the coasters? the macramé toasters with apple butter marmalade and cinnamon croissants—all those haunts and unclosed parentheses – those friends we see from time to time yet easily rhyme in jangled climbs up coinciding mountains – the fountains of verbiage spouting without hurting anyone’s sensibility – as pretty as it needs to be and after this the page ain’t free

19 october

given the opportunity, I would —

                 

                PAUSE

                WONDER: WHO GIVES

                                HOW LONG FROM NOW

                                                (IF EVER)

                QUESTION: WAIT?

                                —take

                                (this is the only now)

18 october

given the chance

I spotlight the big picture: out

—let’s not look at me—

unsure what to say

in the dental chair

my mouth wide with cavities

wondering if my teeth will shatter

tender in the too-bright light

crumbling in uncertainty

[kind words, some points, but also, else:

what would make you happy and what would make it better?

(answers not apparent)]

17 october

checking off

like boxes

not ticking off

like significant others

who aren’t

any longer

not picking apart

not tickling fancy

right in the pants

these are the whistle-blowers

we are the parachutes

wild as we wail

whistle as we rhyme

let us sing our manor songs

let the truth unwind

tigers all for tea