After bathing in heavy cream,
I turn down the covers
of my Procrustean bed,
“itching” (as the song goes)
“like a man on a fuzzy tree”
who’s “gonna need an ocean
of calamine lotion.” Today,
an environmental justice blog
posted, “you won’t get a clean reading
from a tree...
The last time
I enter this room,
pushing past the
clothing and the
furniture into the
landscape of this room, where there is a bed,
where there is a rug, a wall, a window, two doors,
a floor, and a telephone,
the last time I enter this...
something is changing here,
so slight it can hardly be
noticed.
yet it has been. a feeling,
came with the light rain.
the quietness.
all things are changing.
Mobile photography, New York, Fall 2022.
No yellow brick road.
It’s fire brick, used for ovens.
A walkway cul-de-sac
not a scenic drive.
Buttons of every size,
shape, color & un-Aryan creed.
Stored like ashes
in giant glass urns.
Menhirs
sunk left and right
to abhor inhumanity.
Now, a tourist attraction.
https://www.peoriariverfrontmuseum.org/exhibits-collections/peoria-holocaust-memorial
Stuff tulips in your mouth
Don't deny your heritage
Dutch girl.
If you have intelligence, sadness and an innocent face I stick to you.
What I see:
The emperor's girlfriend
chewing poppy petals.
My mom's then boyfriend told me that her death for sure had something...
Oil paint on Ampersand Gessobord panel, 3mm uncradled - 54cm x 30cm
find the chosen pathways
watch the birds and wild
flowers grow
below the scene plays out
with wildlife as punctuation
There were a thousand stars
reflected in a schist rock bowl
of rain. One of them was mercy
though you claimed you didn't
know which. You stirred them up
with a walking stick and blurred
your own face, insisting you would
recognize grace but that was...
fear
of this and that
of nothing in particular
that no one else will
understand
While asleep on my back,
fingers jitter, type a worrisome
montage of scenes, beginning
with a fall from a harp player’s sky
to an ocean of sharks,
a parachute, opening late,
and a small wooden raft
floating towards shore.
Playing cards rain on the boardwalk,
a street tough...
Spotlight effect
things i haven’t done since primary school
eaten tapioca pudding with rose hip syrup
asked a girl the color of her knickers
won a competition for who could pee highest up the wall
eaten orange plasticine
felt the sting of a cane across my...
The Book of Unknowing
1
What is this scrim between
Music and the self?
Who is incarcerated for
The crime of lucidity?
2
How does one expunge
The soul’s bile?
What is this chill – like
Floes in river-blood?
Why is it I cannot
Sing like the finches of dawn?
3
Why does...
They will come
if you conjure them into existence,
if you sneer at them and tell them, directly,
how stupid they are, if you insult them they will not
just leave it at that.
So be careful and pick your spots.
They will come at...
It takes a lifetime
to press.
And there's no atonement
but for the very rebellion of being
in the flesh, I've seen birds
hang so heavy.
You were here,
it happened.
Your curtain still ripples
in the midday light.
this silence is better
soft sounds of the keyboard
the gale winds and rain stop
subtle whispering of the ceiling fan
birds gone to roost
and no trucks on the street
the fifer piping long around the main street and also the kathunk of a truck crossing the coleman, today is the reckoning of sadness, our voices talk over the violence, this syllable and that phoneme, we are all masters...
I didn’t replace you, girl.
I did clean the blood your body left
after the cancer came on, a slow crawl.
Then quick. Like you were bit
by an invisible monster.
It may never leave my memory
like you, my first baby. Most unruly.
I didn’t know what...
dinner boys are unnecessary
to window a past of shed snakeskins
hushed of meat
everyone leaves on last-laugh ships
tricky grandfathers too
when the wilderness returns
& the time of education is over
I'll be cut down, an old diseased tree, hazard to traffic,
the stump left...
“The only difference between a flower and a weed is judgement.” Wayne Dyer
I have put pen to much that I ought not have
written, including, perhaps, these very words.
I have mistaken Ragweed for Goldenrod,
alleyways for gardens, watched them torn out,
make...
is your head clear today, loose limbs, while
mild air floats above.
will you go the other way, as you did
yesterday?
One. The burden to carry
other, to make it all right.
I take my prejudice hard
rather have it punched
down the drain, things and events
cream and licorice, feel
this cheek
collapse.
Give me a fist and I'll eat it
everybody starts
with hurting their mother.
the black rose of poverty smells
like the money you wanna ask your parents for
old leftover refrigerated pizza
the leather of a wallet there's no point in carrying
gasoline you don't have to get to a doctor
you can't afford
and a big "why"
turning...
Once in a while
on a weeknight
I’d scrape up a few bucks
to get a couple beers
at the corner bar.
I’d never talk to anyone,
just sit and drink,
sometimes playing the jukebox
with any leftover change.
Before I went out,
I’d clean up a bit,
layering a...
Moon, I've lost my shadow.
Three friends are here, ready to drink
and dance, as Zhongba temple bells toll.
My pilgrimage took me past a village
whose only crop is thistles; at the waterfall,
imperial cannon burst around me.
In the morning, monkeys howled,
Autumn River...
Days before the flames, I flailed and freaked
in your arms at the front door
of our friends’ home.
I was one, my sister, seven.
No one knew I was having a premonition.
You didn’t make me go inside,
you almost dropped me,
something about fire....
https://youtu.be/HyZIvnkkaxc?feature=share
doesn’t matter
darks
whites
or colors
the lint screen
is always gray
You, at home where sea and sand negotiate,
where troposphere and tower fit like puzzle pieces;
I, a rougher sketch of you, a stranger in the promised land,
still watching blacktop animated by an endless rain.
a dear friend
recently died
unexpectedly
voluntarily
taking with him
some of our pain
and most of
the answers
leaving us with
all the grief
Midwife to spirits, you call for water,
circle the chairs, position the planchette,
your fingers soft on old mahogany.
The grace of touch - oh, how we dead mourn that!
Even the nurse’s press on a cooling wrist,
the last gauging of a disappearance.
For all our...
but don’t tell me I must leave,
I must let go. You frighten me,
the one I treasure, the one
who holds my hand.
Why are you so anxious
to empty out this bed?
Let me tread water in your tears
reflecting light in the diner
where...
there have been a couple
of incidents but now she
is in disguise
with different
hair
Abstract | 16 x 12 Cm | On Paper | 2022
as she got old
everything
turned into
something
to fuss about
upset till the end
died
trying to decide
coffin or cremation
my brain matter is worth 7 bucks
read me on kindle and I’m worth even less
my frustration is fourteen cents prolly
my longing is a bright new shiny penny
the love in the book is free
buy me cheap
I’m a cheap bastard
I’ll take...
There was a fork in the road, and I chose properly. The path ahead was beautiful, full of love, but the love was elusive.
Blablabla I cut through the brush rejoining the others.
There are mornings when
"Good Morning America"
wakes me up
and I don't need to
open my eyes
to know you're still
not home
*
There are mornings when
we stand in the shower
together, for hours
and lick each other's
wounds
*
There are mornings when
the phone rings
only once
there are mornings when
I...
Bone yellow light
from a forty watt bulb
warms stale air
and clings to the skin
of my funeral coat.
My starched cotton shirts
carry dust on their shoulders.
Hung on wire hangers they are
stiff highway markers
measuring miles,
from the time
I got married,
became an accountant
with a green...
Digital Art
Across from the fried-egg
fug and clatter of the café
a woman stands ironing
in the big bay window
of a first floor flat.
It's a wet November day
and the low light and drizzle
darken her room so that
she must come to the glass
overlooking the...
why do you come to me in this satanic moonlight?
you who were the red balloons of summer.
you who were every love song I sang for decades.
I'm sitting on the damp sidewalk
when I should be inside taking my medication.
But you...
The neighborhood will be an old body
whose cells have turned over.
Long dormant ghosts will animate
like leaves beneath a passing car.
No one will collect fiberglass marbles
or copper foil along the railroad tracks.
There may be a leaflet or love letter
pinned against...
A homeless man begs.
His cardboard sign,
written in crimson—
the world’s out of balance,
Armageddon is nigh.
Without being seen
huge mountains of ice
roll in the ocean
and then disappear.
An old woman waits
in the rain for a bus,
uses her umbrella
to poke at a man
who blows...
Abstract | 16 x 12 Cm | On Paper | 2022
she was drawn again yesterday with her sibling
though it did not look quite right so
shall i tear the sister off?
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
rolled by a beetle over your sky,
everyday.
Cover your eyes in kohl
against this young gods glare.
Inhale cinnamon oil smoothed
into warm skin. He tells you
there is more than one god.
Beware the crocodile god's
twist and turn as you fish
for a supper in...
Hey,
Because I dropped my phone in the water and learned that sleeping masks are not tripods, I'm writing this in my notebook, sitting at the beach.
I got a lot of help and now my phone is in a bowl...
Never mind "unnatural"!
Natural is sold at supermarkets
wrapped in non-recyclable plastic.
Wrapping. Don’t get me started.
My rooster can stand on one leg
or spondaic goosestep to a drum.
It can flap wings or stretch them
in the noble pose of Turd Reich eagle.
My hale...
my hands
through your
red hair
give me
3rd degree burns
I have an empty pocket
...
because my dog is odd.
At first, I thought
he was probably autistic
or maybe broken by abuse
from a previous owner
& then I read
that his breed is “aloof,”
a diagnosis
that better suits him
if indeed a dog
can be cool & distant
by birth.
Oh, he’s
not standoffish
with...
was a
ruined white flower.
she
had to
be 80 or more,
but
she stood there,
in the back of the room,
while i
read my poems
to a couple of dozen students
who only
looked tired and bored.
i wasn’t into it
and neither were they,
and all i could see was this...
Each day I grow colder.
The sun calls my name
but I have no will to answer.
The people on my street
crane their necks
and point upward.
Diabetes has caused
my feet to feel numb.
I curse at the mirror.
My fingers are nothing
but bones, my forearms
are...
I’d rather be a large cat—
leopard or jaguar.
No arguments with a spouse.
Marriage isn’t a thing.
Kill when pissed-off.
Eat the offender.
Lick myself handsome,
before the prowl.
Squat, claim territory
wherever I stand.
Procreation without parenting.
That’s the life for me.
I wear my mother’s pendant some days
Not my style, really, gemstones bunched into a bouquet
dainty
I prefer
heavy
or nothing at all
I feel silly, wary
femininity does not sit well
I feel like I am in drag
Which isn’t what I was going to say...
The hammock is hung
between aspen and oak
which means one day logic
will flutter its pretty fingers
and fall on its head. Our rescue
dog sleeps nose to tail, but only
on the maple side. She's dreamed
in butterfly yellow all her life
and knows the...
man is a quick machine
a dangerous machine
a tricky-powerful
slick machine
but not always,”
said the lion
between
bites.
January 1, 2022: fly like a buffly,
sting like a bee!
December 31: dropped on the bed
like a wacked fly,
stung by reality
of the wind blows
that yell, Get up
and come get some more!
for this world.
I say, “I’m not,
but I try to be.”
I sat in our small kitchen, one warm summer morning
waiting for the call
the rest of the family went out of town for a couple days
and decided it would be best
if I stayed behind…
to wait for the call
at 15, I...
I have nothing
to complain about
but I still do.
I’m working on
getting better
about that
but it ain’t easy
when raised
living is grumbling
about how life
is always out
to getcha
Go back to that place
where just below the view
of Holmes Bay, with its seal's back
island, its lobster pots and birds,
there is a windowsill
with aquamarine bubble glass
and loons. You can look outside
yourself and try to pin this vista
to the day...
I
am
the one
who has been
abandoned by God
in this bedroom, the window shut.
adds an extra jumper,
adds early to bed,
early to rise so no light lost.
Candlemaker winter
small heat on raw palms.
Careful flame does not wander
burn this shelter against icy
gust. Winter eats cold morsels
from gloved hands hunkered
beside affordable warmth.
Ogling
at an image
of a
four foot wide
‘All natural’
megabum
while queuing
in the supermarket
sensational real life
can only be
featured on
the front page
of a magazine
where an
83-year-old woman
can have
incredible sex
with a 37-year-old man
no big arses here
or lusty dames
I’ll just
pay my money
and eat my
chicken, bacon
lettuce sandwich
and the...
“Excuse me,” he said,
interrupting his guest
to reach into the sky
and tap, gently, twice.
“That star has been
bothering me all night.
Now, you were saying?”
Dear Dan,
I miss you. I see you puffing so much at cigarettes you could push a sailboat with your breath. You'll die of cancer probably. You're torturing yourself. You just talked to Max. It was a good chat and...
currently I am unavailable
to press through the current events
of the day
the wife of Britain’s ex-prime minister
was caught in a dress someone claimed
unbecoming of funeral attire
I don’t care
our very own president
was seated in the back row
of same said funeral—
like a...
the neighbor
next door
is crying
wailing really
I can’t do anything about it
but say it’s ok
even though she can’t hear me
and it’s not
everything — even love —
seems to have an edge
to which all
gravitate
till it's reached — only to curve
below, under — to wither
never quite alive — & — never quite dead
some pains of the heart
never dissipate
but rather sow themselves
within the landscape of the mind
as perennials
of regret and remorse
There are things
that exist between places
but never in places.
Where you start
and where you arrive
will contain none of these.
She screams at me
over the telephone
telling me
I’ll be responsible
for her death
somehow it’s
become my fault
that she keeps
her crack
in a suitcase
under the stairs
he screams at me
because the doctor
tried to call him twice
and somehow it’s
become my fault
that he is 62 years old
and...
my Papap is sick
and in the hospital
he’s 95
I can call to talk to him
we’ve never known what to say to
each other
it might be time to just say
I love you
writing a
good poem
about sex
is like
cheating on
my wife
without having
an affair
autumn rain...
I try not to be afraid
of eternity
Distant boys
sing from distant hills.
Not rice but raisins are thrown
and the stones that lead
are paved with lemon.
I'm not sauer.
Daffodils are on my head
you carry bells you cry
'Ai.'
Your lovely neck
You catch my gaze and it's the same
this eye's still brown...
there’s
a pain
in my gut
just below
my chest
where
the whole
world
has blown up
I am all
that’s left
which is
only rubble
even the fridge
is struggling
pumping & gurgling
frantically
Soon I will be going to
a family reunion
without part of my family,
which makes “reunion” more like
Lewis Carroll’s unbirthday party.
A man who looks like my husband
but is nothing like him
will be spending the week
and possibly the rest of his life
in...
in your dusty
faded
photograph
you finally
look like a man
who killed himself
you have now left us
with that
you murdered yourself
and in your own way
us too
I pretend for a moment
that I understand something
anything at all
Then try to explain it to myself
following the infinite thoughts that led me
to this imagined understanding
I draw a circle of words
and try to see through their noise what they meant
but...
i dreamt people thought i was dead
and naked waitresses served them at my wake
when i woke and listened to the news
i believed them
war
famine
pestilence
the fourth rider paused returning from my dream
you are still alive my son he said
go find those waitresses
well penned words
on a page
not unlike
well trained actors
on a stage
one day this poem
woke up homeless
it moved its shadow across the street
but nothing else changed
birds flew overhead
traffic moved along
the past on its way
to the present
the cop middle of the intersection
pointing with hand & arm
first one way then another
to all...
I wish
I could write
happy things,
stuff about
daisies,
moonlight,
a first kiss,
or a mid-life lover,
the greeting card stanzas
that warm us
like a puppy
or a big furry cat
laying in our lap.
I want to
shout that
Emerson thing,
sound that
Thoreau vibe,
proclaim a little
Whitman,
and allude to
that Ginsberg guy,
by envisioning
a transcendental...
according to webMD
for three weeks every month women prefer men
with feminine features as they are more likely to be committed and nurturing
for one week every month
they prefer men with strong jaws and cheekbones
and a sense of humour signifying good...
He needed nothing for Christmas
but fishing was in his blood
Just to feel the sea breeze
the smell of the water
the pull on the line
The last time he was able to fish
he caught nothing
except the memory of a sad stray cat
that...
condemned to die
but in the meantime
we can watch free movies
looking
at the mountain
with its
stationary stare
and seemingly
vacant thought
it is
tempting
to assume
absolute ignorance
a mere
feature
within a mute
landscape
but this
could be wisdom
at its purest
this lack
of a need
to
express
what is
There is a shark in the bath water, a frightening
fin making late night calls titled, “Bye-Bye America.”
We listen, but the dialogue is scripted in heavy
red murmurs, the spin of a rotary dial,
Russian roulette with a rhythm like
BOOM, BOOM… BOOM,...
One day when I was fourteen
watching TV in our basement alone
my father
who could do everything it seemed
design buildings
rebuild car engines
make his own bow arrowheads for hunting deer
and who would die eight years later at the age of fifty
came down...
Dean wrote
his heart out
often out
of his mind
hitchhiking
the back roads
riding along
with any muse
who stopped
to pick him up
safety
be damned
he was
not afraid
to bail on
an indulgent
poem
careening
across the page
or to stick out
his bruised
& bloody
thumb again
simply put
& he’d agree
Dean fucked
every muse
he met
his poems
are all bastards
mounds of paper, pens
that never run out of ink
to write, write
watch squirrels bend
low branches, bend
not break, my back bends
over the desk
kink in my shoulder
the words keep
pouring out, water runs
over paper, tears
falling, ink blobs
words unreadable
I need all this
time to let...
Dear Jame,
you're right in the other room but in this sickness you are very far. the angels are tickling me. i have the Phillies on the radio. the white noise of the ballpark and the relaxed voice of the...
all I can do
is go outside
with a cigarette
when my wife
is on the phone
talking about hurricanes
and how much
we’re in debt
I sit there nervously
puffing away
I keep my butts
in a big flowerpot
looking at it I see
my worry has bloomed
day of small things,
slowly steadily worked
as we rest the dust motes,
shine as gold.
I look at my watch,
its round deadpan face.
The second hand
helps move the first.
Without it
it’s harder
to tell time
is passing.
fallen leaves cover the ground
bird on a branch looking everywhere
two birds on the beach searching the sands
for something to eat
a woman comes to the temple
sees all the prayers for sale
touches one
touches two
The last breath
are words that share
a heavy weight
with those few words
that are impossible to comprehend
meaning both everything and nothing
a finality beyond final
It seems there should be other words
that follow to justify them
or to honor them
but there is no honor...
I think
I’m going
to want
to kill myself
so I can
call
the suicide hotline
and
have
someone
to talk to
The heart has a stone—
the weight of its master tied to it
going down to the sea depth.
We are given a double dare—
a dagger, daring us to take another step.
Sometimes we listen, but sometimes
we seem to have lost our minds.
America’s fucked
I want to go to America
I can’t get to America
If I get to America they won’t let me back
I can’t stay here
I’m fucked
At least Trump showed the world just how fucked America is
American people are nice
What the fuck...
ascend
the mountain
gathering
descend
the mountain
scattering
I had to light
a second cigarette
I was too anxious
science says
smoking makes you
more anxious
screw science
I know what
calms me down
I pictured our
rickety old waitress
coming out
saying you know your wife
is waiting for you in there!
my anxiety and guilt were scolding me
it pissed...
Words circle an elusive center of meaning
as wolves searching for warmth stalk fires
on the coldest night of the year
and aurora borealis
dances in awe of the futility of words and wolves
while the stars go on ignoring their own.
mycribso
closetoyo
urcoffinIb
arelyhadro
omtobreathe
post-menopausal
my feet get cold
really, very cold
so i bought a pair
of fleece woven
house boots
soft rubber memory soles
made in Iceland
my hair doesn't get
greasy anymore
my skin is dry
my mouth is dry
i feel chalk white
against a clay wall
under a Mesolithic
Spanish sun
dry
i was oily
on...
There must be some mistake
I can’t be that old
Check the ledger again
The ledger is correct, sir
It is never wrong
And while you’re here
Here is your hourglass
Remember it is just an estimate
Based on our actuarial tables
But don’t worry
Your life is insured...
light came, we saw the green ness of it all. we live in the country.
I asked Dad
what he’d been doing lately.
He said he’d been having
nice phone conversations.
I asked who he’d been talking to.
He said Jason.
“Who’s Jason?” I said.
Dad’s eyes brightened.
He released one hand
from the pocket
of his corduroy pants,
his crooked fingers shaking
as he talked.
“Jason....
I may have been a child once
I cannot recall young legs,
bright cheeks, smooth skin -
mirror reflects truth, aged
tired eyes, silver strands
of hair no longer dark brown
always string-straight, never
held a curl after sleeping in
pink sponge rollers that hurt.
Bounding upstairs laughing
back...
Do you remember when we planted the garden
I tilled the soil and you followed behind
carefully making lines for rows
then lovingly placing each seed
about a half-inch deep
and covering it with your delicate fingers
arugula, kale, bok choy, and tatsoi
In late November...
the river flows and flows
the castle walls have been breached
a dinner table heaves
on the ramparts of our friendships
crows, bearing news
Luck is that way
rain falls over picnic
dropped vase, water
dribbles ankles, floor
slippery, rivulets
run driveway cracks,
car has a new dent
flaked with red paint
crimson tears on gray
I said the wrong thing
humor not taken such,
even though laughter
covers my ache at times
tears mingle with...
Someday someone I love
will find everything I have left
hidden in boxes
filed in cabinets
hung on walls
or even buried in rubble.
It may simply be thrown away
and forgotten
as the living must do
with the clutter of death.
Unless I leave
anger,
a bad memory,
harsh words,
the smile...
There was a bus driver who had driven
the very same route for fourteen years
and never been able to get through
the last five lights on the green
until one night he finally
glided, dived,
swam though those last five
like there was nothing to...
I found a room
through the classifieds,
down the street
in a clapboard house
not far from my job.
I met Dale the landlord
on my lunch hour.
He led me up a wind
of three flights of stairs.
“It’s partially furnished,” he said
“Take a look.”
Dale caught his...
I wonder
what the opposite & equal reaction was
to my loving you
I know
it doesn’t mean that you loved me
as much in return
the heavenly motion
of our two bodies proves there are no laws
of physics for love
if there were
the gravity between us...
He wasn’t a poet who woke early
and wrote of distant trains drumming
under a late blooming moon.
He was much fresher than that.
But reading his new poem sure enough
there was the moon banging away
like a breakfast chef in a dining carriage,
and...
Doctor told me today
that I am cancer free.
Then Albert Pujols hit
home runs 699 & 700
in my honor. My very
special, good news day!
didn’t
see poetry
as anything special.
it was
just a part of him.
a
part of
what he did...
every day.
he’d get up in the morning,
have his coffee...
walk out
with the dog
and
write a poem.
he
never went back
to correct or change a line.
they
just were
what they were.
he
said he
learned it
from the dog,
who...
I wandered around
after Tim shot himself
in the basement,
the place where
we made out and
watched monster movies
after high school dances.
“I like you,” he had said.
“But I never really love
much of anybody.”
I thought that would change
when we graduated,
him pumping gas,
me clerking at...
f I could only fly
he sings,
serving up his marrow
like the hors d'oeuvres no one takes,
graciously enough
to ache in front of strangers,
to miss somebody openly
while guests just pivot and revolve
and sentence pretty verses to the ether,
oblivious to certain death.
You know,
sometimes...
you are taking
everything from me
overcoming me
with you
I’m like stars
running out of light
succumbing
to the sunrise
I’m on the street
shielding my eyes from you
till there’s nothing left of me
but your blaring
Lean out of this convention
of age with your coffee, your
blue humor and your explanation.
I might even back up and laugh.
I got here, too, you know, scouring
each Kodak black and white
for a date and a reason in logical
monochrome.
I'm fine, if...
now we are just passengers
at best something, a shadow, comes within grasp
the music continues to play
on the rails the wagon proceeds
meditation had been such a true lesson
healing
the keys of the thumb piano
ring
a dance of light weights
iron fluttering about ankleted
there...
flyaway umbrella
upside down
fills
with rainwater
frogs
move in
mosquitos
for dinner
tadpoles ensue
hop away
pool dries up
umbrella skeleton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUN-pcmhd8w
I can't call you Paul. I'm on my sickbed. and when I'm not there I get up and wander the night with my phone and cigarettes in hand wishing they would help. I'm way too sick Paul. pray for...
thankyou and say it is only temporary
balanced or tied with string
though overnight decided to use the glue gun
I listen for context,
willing myself to make out
the space between
that one phrase I caught
and the air
trapped behind it.
I know the words
are all there as is
the telepathic nod
to a joke made
a second late.
The trouble is I can't
hear well and you
talk...
Daniel J. Flore III
marked himself safe
from himself
was it during an evening walk
in contemplation of the sinking sun
that its illusion whispered sex burn destroy
or during all of winter and spring
did you brace against the prospect of summer
the toy that arrived annually broken in its box
perhaps you...
On the day
my father
was buried
it didn’t rain
and
a friend
of my brother’s
used up
all the tears
I couldn’t shed
so I became
an umbrella
for the
downpour
flowing
down his
chubby face
I noticed
how crooked
his teeth
had become
there was
very little
to be said
or to be done
it was all
so very amusing
the mouth
of my father's...
I have a hunch
about this course of angsty little scenarios
some over which I have no control
but could better handle tra-la
Others I relinquished
to my idiot version of self
My id
the fucker
so now I have a lunch on the 4th, a looming...
I
was
sensitive
but
they
pulled
the
petals
off
one
at
a
time
now
I
am
a
naked
madman
just
standing
there
whether we write a poem
or pull a trigger
we all go on daily
flushing our piss into the earth
like to be quiet, speaking
only
when you asked the question.
not sure why i came.
i think you invited me?
My neighbor Bill wanted me to meet some of his friends.
I was a little apprehensive because I thought they might
be part of a religious group and I had no interest
in growing closer to God.
Bill said he wanted me to...
recycled on a garage floor,
the six months before you almost
had a handle on.
It’s not telling anyone.
Rewashing everything
on the bottom layer
when twice a year without warning
the washer leaks and floods
everything that made sense.
It’s the cockroach
that everyone calls a water bug
but...
how many
times must
the seasons
change before
they get it right?
life in suburbia,
where the dogs sniff the grass
and sniff again
and the men of the households on their riding mowers
shave perfectly straight lines
in the perfectly square yards
and there is no fenced line to know
where one yard begins and another ends
someone...
there is a dusty old box
in the back of my mind crumpled and damaged
from all the things piled on top of it
sitting alone in the back of the closet
and each time I moved it moved with me
to the back...
Stop the push.
Go and look.
Outside
flapper girls flaunt their street gold.
They know nothing of decay
of hanging on, see J. this tree
it's a jazz festival.
And once I do I can't
unsee spaces
as pauses for yellow
for the budgies that still sing.
Canned peach will...
yet when
she said my friend looked pretty
&
that I smelled nice
I sagged a little.
later that day
i found a message
request
from a soldier in the usa
holding a puppy & a rose
calling me a beauty
There is no proof that William Carlos Williams time traveled
back to 399 BC to ease Socrates’ painful death from hemlock
but when amateur archaeologists found a poem in an urn in
1996 under the Old Lyceum in Athens it was signed...
Her 1st thought on arrival was she wouldn’t be staying.
Now on the 4th day of her 3rd month she is comfortable
putting her tongue on the window and licking it clean.
On warm afternoons her attendant rolls her steel chair into
the...
while out on a longer walk,
met him and he explained to me,
about walking there and back again
I removed my towel
and wiped away the fog
to check the progress of lines
on my newly shaven face,
but things turned metaphysical
and I asked why I should care
that the left side has dropped
more than the right.
This body is not me, after...
She is thick-bodied and heavy-boned
a fleshy peach-of-a-gal
whose tugboat frame nudges
and pushes until things move
in a positive direction.
So no big surprise she is tied
to a ponderous barge of a man
who spends his nights drifting
from sand bar to sand bar
until he...
Halloween was a non-event
maybe it was because I closed the blinds
and turned off the porch light
I didn’t have any candy
being afraid of the demon breath
coming from kids
I have avoided that for three years now
no reason to take that chance
their...
duck egg blue
the ironmongers in town
at three seventy-nine
we can walk there and back or there
and bus back you see
Sometimes the cat
is just an avocado branch
scratching against the side wall
in an early evening breeze.
we camped out in a friend’s backyard
surrounded by nothing but cornfields
and neighboring yards that stretched for miles
a bonfire lit the pitch-black sky the night before
it was a late August morning
just before school was back in full swing
my clothes were...
Escaping their dictionary prison
the words fall
scattered on the floor
Finding old friends
in the lines of a poem
their new prism
They are cats lying in the sun
Waiting for critics
to come chase them away
You're the poison
I'd rather not
Seek an antidote for
Every pill
That kills the cells
In my veins pains
But I'd rather risk myself
And have you
Than be sick and not have
Any of your kick
They said pick a struggle to go through
And I know
I'd be...
small village, mayhap a hamlet, named,
one forgets the rules with all that has happened.
nice to be out, to see the neighbors’ houses,
to see what has changed while i have been working
The hammock is hung
between aspen and oak
which means one day logic
will flutter its pretty fingers
and fall on its head. Our rescue
dog sleeps nose to tail, but only
on the maple side. She's dreamed
in butterfly yellow all her life
and knows the...
I’m floating on an inner tube
in the middle of Lake Erie
miles away from the shore
where no man should be floating on an inner tube
but it is calm enough
and blue enough
comfortable enough
the sun is…
well, you know how when you walk...
Ancient Rome became like that alligator
with its mouth open wide, swinging
east and west at a pack of lions
surrounding it near waters.
How long can you stay out
near the shore
and defend yourself
against hungry enemies?
It's you or them,
and somebody has to eat.
If...
deciding to get started
I left the destination
arriving
when it all looked familiar
but, this time, recognizing
everything I missed
a dear friend
recently died
unexpectedly
voluntarily
taking with him
some of our pain
and most of
the answers
leaving us with
all the grief
the
night
is
wide
open
legs
a
woman
on
the
bed
with
tarantula
calves
a
wine
bottle
on
the
dresser
with
your
conscience
Oh, the silliness continues, the messages keep coming, and the receiver keeps reading them, and reading stories written long ago
A shop in a neighborhood, boys that are now girls, chats and giggles the open door welcoming
I wrote and wrote prolifically —
But what’s a girl to do
While sitting in her room all day
When visitors are few.
Because I felt compelled to write
But not compelled to share —
I thought they’d take me literally —
So no one was...
my mom looks at me
like "what do I do?'
I am only 11 years old
my mom-
fun as a bag of Doritos
I give her advice
it exhausts me
we are both depleted
after the divorce
but give more than we have
to each other
-it's the only...
"Today 1% of the world is a barely livable hot zone.
By 2070 that portion could go up to 19%.
Billions of people call these lands home. Where will they go?”
-NY Times article on climate change and migration
Southern winds bring...
Old tree is barking at the moon
Squirrel is telling a tail of balance
Fence is fighting off the neighbors
Streetlights are glowering at the dark
Fire is thinking of an old flame
Autumn is falling over itself to get here
Sea breeze is blowing...
I loved you, you know.
Never mind that I was nine
years old and couldn't get
on by myself. Never mind
the velvet hat that flew
off, the long fidgety trail
of riders, the bus horn
and the bolt. I love you
even now. I mean that.
If...
At the funeral I do not want to be the one in the coffin.
I will surround myself with flowers,
go to a meadow
& lie down on my back.
The wind will flutter my soul like a flag.
I am already at half...
if you take the 101 west,
out past canoga park
round the bend
past the sign
Pepperdine
you can literally smell
the $$$
the desperation
of sick people
not the people who are ill.
the sick people.
Mom asked
if I could bring her
a few things.
I said maybe.
“I just want
some Hostess fruit pies,” she said.
“Apple.
And berry.”
I heard the crackle
of her cigarette
in the receiver.
“For God’s sake.
That’s not too much to ask.”
I stopped at 7-11
and got three apple
and two...
It’s quite comforting to know that I wake up on 100% of the days that I’m alive
and odds of fighting for yet another day
are higher than burying myself
under a pile of comforters.
I brush my teeth with Colgate
as I brush...
Monochrome greens recede
like the shorter day
into a longer night
for a pageant of pigments
on a runway sashay
down a fall fashion stage.
The finale
a strip tease cabaret
dropping attire
piece by piece
with every trombone slide
of northwest wind.
unafraid to be seen
gesturing naked
on a freckled floor.
slide down rosewood
creaks behind the song
solo mandolin
the slot allows you to see the next roll for free
sometimes that next roll is a winner
but you gotta sit there like a crackhead
so you fit in
checking game after game after game
forget the slot closest to the register
the employees...
sorting over the bones
that had meaning when
flesh was on them
flesh is long gone now
meaning remains
the back road was
littered, rather blustery.
today
clouds blow in, leaves
crake and groan.
i say again, a darker hue
she is sitting 5 feet away in her wheelchair,
back to me as always
she says often,
“Oh well, it’s not like I’m going anywhere.”
she tells someone, never me
she has no quality of life
but does nothing to make any changes
I try conversation,...
rice falls
like confetti
from my fork
lands
on the table
the plate
the floor.
I wander
through rooms
going nowhere
wait for the meds
to kick in.
I’m shaking
confused
repeat the same words
as a prayer
this is not real
this
is
not
real
Praise Sammy Tepper with the fiery red hair—scapegoat for bullies who taunt and tease to hear him squeal. Praise Etsio Goloni, Gas-station Joe, for his kind and toothless grin. Praise his wife, who makes red, white, and blue 4th...
You think you are in control of your reality
But whatever you have done
Is remembered differently
By those who saw it
It’s not what you did
It’s what they think you did
You fling handfuls of words
Across space
Dry grass in the wind
Meaning something to...
Open Arts Press, LLC is pleased to announce the publication of Daniel F. Flore’s “Homeless Poems,” a self-printable trifold broadside containing a collection of new verse from Dan.
That black jacket I’m wearing in the picture is the actual jacket...
damn not again
this improved wax
from killer bees
was not supposed
to liquify as easily
but i can see now
i’d flown
closer to the sun
once again
happy-go-luckiless
my feathery fall
more dramatic
gone viral
more famous
a new idiom
in my honor
“don’t let your wax melt”
Human me-ing
lets ego drive.
Human be-ing
lets what-happens drive
with ego
in the passenger seat
gaping out the window.
What’s happening to you, my dearest? Tell me
why your streets are lately full of blood. Yesterday afternoon
rain washed it away from a sidewalk and into a sewer.
Many once alive are now corpses with eyes like dead fish.
We know that...
we did not grow up with buttercups and daisies,
delphinium cascading the landscape
of some palatial estate
we had pachysandra
and a burned out tree on the side of our house
you could not smell the ocean breeze from our seaside deck
but on a bad...
It’s not so much
that I have changed
as how much I
am rearranged.
I would not have chosen
to fall in love.
She told me her heart
was mine whether I
wanted it or not.
I couldn’t help myself.
It was then I began
to disappear & show up
in...
letters of words
expressed—
pixels of a thought's
photograph
Summer slowly succumbs
to its fate of allotted days;
its strong bond with the sun
waning ever so politely
with some days of warmth
still gifted, as though
they were the final
kisses goodbye
between parting lovers.
Our little brown dog,
in his final years,
whimpers for help
to get onto the couch.
My wife picks him up
with a mother’s compassion,
rubs his tired bones
and flea bitten ears.
And I wonder
if her hands feel a loss
as she holds him
or if time is...
This started as my college project in the late 2021. It was a difficult time for me to learn a whole new technics. This is a generative, multi-step processing art project. Sound like something relative to AI art, but...
