shorties

how could it be so beautiful
and so horrid all at once
she wondered
from the comfort
of mercedes' A/C


the juice is organic
and rancid
tastes sweet like
melted batteries

year old beemer
broke down at costco
parking lot trunk full
of 64 pack hot dogs

poetry

sunday

his breath smells like incense
like herbs burned at church
his eyes look like hot coals
with rubies they burst
she brings him the paper
he looks at the pictures
the quiet of morning
slaps plaster on fractures
a wink and a laugh
and a prayer for the fixtures
keep breathing away
and the past slips to future

hungover

fill with swill
piss dark brown
spirits up
burning down
leaves a gash
a fuzzy head
wants to stuff
with cheesy bread

focus

it's easy to be overwhelmed
by the hundreds of things you could do
just pick one and work til you're done
and then go for number two

insomnia, an anti-nursery rhyme

up from the day before
the sun rose & birds sang
like you'd been sleeping
but the bed is still made
the garbage men came
the neighbors went to work
through the darkest stretch
scavenged
for spurts of adrenaline
while everything slept
was racing
disrupted cycle
bitten fingers
bloody whites
stumbling down mounting to-do lists
on a too fast hamster wheel
the surface and the source
giving each other
synchronized
indian sunburn

nursery rhymes

cotton candy thunderbolt
hasn't cried in a hundred days
at the end of his rope's a sailboat
ready to float him away

mopsy topper rufflekins
always plays but never wins
at the end of her rope's a speedboat
ready to zip her away

fittest

only the strong survive
and some of the strong
get cut down in their prime
and all of the strong
get weak
and die
so teach all you can
while you're able
and learn it all over again

old lady

she thinks i'm a
bad influence
is jealous of time spent
but i win her over in person
like it's a mission

not longing haiku 77-83

sell it to people
who don't know the meaning of
words you are saying

make them buy two in
case this breaks an extra can't
hurt to have these days

keep them in fear and
you keep the high hand and you
rule all this damned land

doesn't matter your
name you're the one i will blame
when anything breaks

try as you might to
keep it alright the screws will
fall down to the floor

how do you lose a
bunch of trivial pursuit
cards? i don't get it

fat rubbery it
all bounces off but the ones
that cut deep stayed deep

kittens & bears

i went down to the garage yesterday and there was a cat in there! it ran inside the basement when i opened the garage door & i didn't have time to find it or deal with it right then so i left the garage door open hoping it would find its way out while i was gone.

somebody's been dancing on my windshield

i'd heard noises down there the night before but just kind of ignored them thinking it was people banging around in the garbage cans out front because it was garbage night.

when i got back i heard it meowing from somewhere in the tower of cardboard boxes i have in the basement so i got a broom & got holden & nacho to go down with me to try to sniff the bugger out. they were pretty useless until they heard it meowing & then they went nuts barking and jumping towards it so i had to send them upstairs. it had a collar on saying its name was JIMICA but the phone number listed was out of service.

i called my landlady/neighbor to see if she knew anybody who had a gray & brown kitten with white feet but she didn't. she told me that she just got a call from another neighbor that a BEAR was seen walking down my street the night before. there's a lot of development going on in the area and you're not allowed to shoot bears in the city of asheville so i guess it's kind of a problem with bears coming into neighborhoods and eating dogs that bark and run up to them. so i need to find a way to make holden & nacho afraid of bears.

anyway i took the kitten jimica squirming in my hands door to door through my neighborhood & found his home across the street. the guy who lives there said he'd been missing for a couple days.

greetings from animal planet.

wet on arrival

JFK new york sat on the runway
2 hours waiting to take off
arrive in Cincinnati 30 minutes after
my flight the last flight
to asheville left. got hotel
voucher took Marriott shuttle
with 10 other people Delta screwed
one girl about 25 years old
trying to get to Memphis for a funeral
mother and daughter to Louisville
calling for substitute teacher for tomorrow
everybody trying to get home
check into hotel elevator to second floor
turn left to room card out ready to swipe
turn corner & there's the girl going to funeral
outside her room next to mine
with her rolling suitcase next to her
pants around her ankles
squatting in front of her door
peeing
i said 'oh!'
she said 'sorry' & scooted back closer to her door
i said 'that's okay'
she kept peeing
i swiped my door key card
& went in my room

golf bags on the side of the road

subarus

asheville, north carolina =

more subaru wagons per capita than anywhere on the planet

flip

to do a flip you have to
trust yourself that you'll
see the horizon again
on the other side
the flip side
because
you can't do a flip
staring at the horizon

tapes haiku & two more for four twenty

red scotch masking duct
mix packing electrical
measuring cassette

disease forces heroism from
those around it
brings out the best
takes the best

how long
will a sore throat
nag before it
screams & hits
or shuts the hell up

peace haiku 37-43

get to get green with
deepest inhale let it out
push reset button

fog puddles cloud road
wipers distract more than clear
proceed via gut

bold enough to ask
play cute pry my deepest cut
you'll get my gross truth

don't cheat on someone
you care about when it's so
easy to break up

problem method do
adapt repeat ritual
solvent solution

my religion is
realism try to see
things as they are now

transcend every
minute perspective & be
all the connections

easter

in the easter egg hunt
of life some of the
chocolate eggs are
bunny turds

hippity hoppity

ray of apollo sunshine

i saw the band apollo sunshine open for toots & the maytals last night and i was completely blown away. they were excellent. they do what they want. they put out enormous energy. i would highly recommend listening to their music & going out to hear them play anytime you have a chance.

myspace/apollosunshine

"phyliss"

"today is your day"

licensed to drive

i went to the dmv bright & early this morning to get a NC drivers license, all prepared to take the 25 question written test but they still had me on file from 4 years ago so all i had to do was read the top line on the vision chart & identify 8 road signs by their color and shape & take a new photo and 20 minutes later i left with my new license. sometimes things just work out.
and i am all the wiser for knowing things like
"Secondary roads" are roads where... hills are more likley to be more steep and curves are likely to be more sharp than on primary roads.

Unless otherwise posted, the speed limit in cities and towns is... 35 miles per hour.

If a vehicle sways freely, leans heavily to one side during a turn or seems to bounce continuously, there may be a problem with the... suspension system.