Momma's Wish

Momma said,
"get on the train and never look back,
leave your daddy and I at the edge of the tracks,
urinate in potted plants and collect your little turds in a sack,
never give out opinions - only solid facts,
rack the pool balls in the pool halls fast and for cash,
laugh when everyone else is sad,
trash the fuck out of the back of every taxi cab,
don't let your balls get grabbed,
cut the throat of every would-be mugger before you get stabbed,
dance on the grave of anyone who has ever made a mistake - good or bad,
drink milk far past the date the experts say it should last,
hand job everyone and then dash,
smoke fags with sass,
drink wine from a goblet and beer from a wine glass,
wake up every day at full mast,
fuck until you are gassed."

Momma looked upon my tender head and was just a little sad,
"we hate to see you go, son," she said,
"but the truth is your father and I are gonna have a blast not having
to worry about your tiny ass."

The conductor called for the passengers.
The engineer blew the whistle.
I searched for the nearest potted plant.

2015

ta

Bad News (or) Blood Heavy

Look,
I never said this is the way things should be,
But here we are,
And this is the way things turned out,
Lil' Snitch is carrying deodorant flasks from O'Charlie's Cat House
to O'Hallahan's Fancy Candy Bistro,
Gene Snatch is found in the den in the dead of night,
That wedding you reminded me to tell you about is coming up soon,
The pellet gun was snatched by Frankie "Fetal Eater" Fertelli late last night in the rain,
Girl Jews drop by,
Fill the empty pencil post on Doonesbury's desk while he's out moving his bowels elsewhere,
We're tripping balls in capital arrangements laughing at the janitor's hard work,
Filling in behind the rest, Miguel Anastrazio fingers his pocket pussy and licks his lips,
The judge beckons,
His loose golden crown breaks free and falls blood heavy to the tile,

Who deserves to don the black robe now, Old Man?

My friend Walter Marion married a Jewish princess from the East New Jersey foothills
     where the air is as burdened as the overpopulated tenement houses,
Pollution, they say, was Adam's downfall,
Snatching the Red Delicious from the low hanging boughs of the Tree of Life was her's,

According to the guys at Carville's Buicks on Hwy 98, my lime-green pinto-striped four-speed
exhaust-built Fire Starter has rust at the very center of her heart...

She's dying, you unbelievable asshole,
You absolutely filthy mother fucker,
She's dying, and you're laughing like a rock-salt third-world monkey over there,
She's dying,
She's dying,

And if she dies
Everything inside of me will die too.

04.2013

ta

Moonglow

That harvest moon calls me out
like the howl of the grey wolf long lonely and loud
prowling about in leather drunk on the weather
moccasins tethered in buffalo skin
elf knuckle knife on my belt
calf pelt over my rear end
moonglow shadows fade out
fade in
within the black forest I am made into the shape
of a wraith
skirting the low growth as silent as a snake
full weight of that orbital cheesecake rests easily on the strong shoulders
of my soul wide awake
I am naked splayed for a sleeping city afraid to dance where
devils mate
let them skate along the edges of the gate
I make my way within where sin begins to blur into a less recognizable
face
erased are curses and blessings alike
it's only right
that what's left is the moon
her glow
the night
and I.

2015

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Lola

Lola's gone missing in the mist again,
a London-like fog sifting in through the garden's walls making
us question if anything really exists at all,
kissed with wet lips adrift in the cold dark grey,
Lola in her panties has wandered away,
the brightly lit lamps are only a former shade of warmer fuzzier days,
now orbs of dull moonlight betrayed by curling
fingers in shadows and shades,
Lola in her naiveté wandering around a cobblestone maze with
peeling skin papier-mâché,
stray cats croon lamentations under the blanket of
so much midnight haze,
stray dogs hug their buried bones to
keep them safe,
Lola in thin lace and bare feet a ghostly apparition of grace,
there's no need to alarm the state,
in this gloom she is left to fate,
all we can do is stay indoors,
pray,
and wait.

2015

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The Ghost Land

Main Street once passed beneath this place,
but now there's only salt water for days,
an avenue for cars is now one for hurricanes,

They talk of land like some women do a dying child,
each year the marsh vanishes by the mile,
the waves lap ever closer but we are as ever in denial,

What our great-grandfathers saw we can never see,
what's currently happening is hard to believe,
but the proof is the salt and the skeleton trees,

Walk with me, my dear, along the vanishing coast,
take plenty of pictures and plenty of notes,
for what you see now will one day by a ghost.

2015

ta