Deer Memorial

Two doe in the forest

(down the road)

[out] by the the graveyard
of trees. I watched them

from the Wheel Horse
as the light from the canopy

danced like napalm
on their faces.

I fired-up the tractor.

The deer, (hooves locked)

into the flora-funk, stood
with 4 curious orbs for eyes.

(The faces of the fallen
are hovering in the valley

like cotton wood).

My First Meal

Coming out the hospital,

Out the casket!

One Eye-Ballin'

a crap load of arthropods!

Eggs coming out my

neat glacial epi-structure

frozen susurrations from the caterpillar nest

Coming out the octopus

flora of the tesla-alloy wilderness.

Uno ojo y eat buggy

buggy!

Caterpillars

Pillars of
caterpillars
pillars of
caterpillars
pillars of
caterpillars

Kristen

Alone,
in her room

I bet she
cries often.

Something
in the softness

of those eyes,
the lips that form

a smile more
like a frown--

cheek bones
like mountains

waiting for the flood.

Turtles

It's the soft
shell turtles

that give me the most
trouble.

When I walk
along the banks

of the St. Joe,
they get cryptic.

I just want to capture them
at 1/800th of a second.

Not even with the quickness
of my paint brush

can I translate them
to a raw piece of cedar.

My strokes are long
and muddy like the river.

I can only imagine—

the turtles beneath the surface.

It Could Have Been a Photo

A plump robin
landed on the fence

in my backyard.

It slowly turned
its beak up in the air--

why is the sky blue?

Unsettled

In my life stood—

a Doe,

a Mountain,

and a Horse setting

with the Sun.

I could not have the Doe,
for the Doe belonged to

the King.

The Horse, a brilliant white
steed, provided a chivalric ending,

a war torn trail in a crimson embrace.

I chose the life of Robinson Crusoe
coming down the Mountain

rather goat-like and alone.

Just this massive rock and

                    I,

            the son that never sets.

You!

Or the Coming of Legs

The Lookers believed

that Legs would,

at the Third Entrance,

remove the outer-shell

from the Nons.

They would no longer be

protected from the Spores.

Their sinews, like claws,

would meld into the protein-rich

surface of the planet,

stretching in all directions,

becoming stratified levels 

of The Darkness.

Small Town

Did she walk to the graveyard
alone, looking for me?

Into the dark alley behind
the abandoned basketball courts

of the school?

When I discovered the graveyard,
the earth was torn open by backhoes

the coffins laid out like an exotic
shipment from another planet.

You can watch them yank the bodies
out of the ground from the ice cream shop

next door. The cold iron tongues
have come for the relocation,

like the whip cream sliding down
the side of your Sunday.

They found her arm an hour later
and are just hoping to find the rest of the body.

"At least we know she wasn't hung too bad,"
said a voice from behind an ice cream cone.

The Body

*
The fragile bones

of the owl
were smashed

on the surface
of the lake.

It's eye-balls
were sucked out

in the stratosphere.

You fear the fear of falling,
the feeling of drowning.

*
Now close your mouth
and imagine your whole aura

ripped out--

the body of God!

Sun

This owl's
spirituality is

the wall.

Which Craft Hit Water?

If it wasn't
for the stupid
spam filter

I would have
known about
the underwater

UFO sightings.

Paper

I went through the files
of the last few years searching

for pieces of my life

that I was afraid would escape
if I didn't trap them in a shoebox

and slide them under my bed.

Sometimes, when I begin to fall asleep
I become something like a shrunken head

beneath the leaves of antiquity.

I am frightened by the vacant look
on my face, my hair like that of a corpse,

and stumble over the alter of my nightstand,

making an exit out the window.
I hear the rumbling of a distant thunderstorm

I hope I left my body facing north.

Fishin'

Fishing for carp
could land you

in a bit of cold water.

It happened to my nephew.
He giggled for a fraction

of a second when the first one
pulled him under

and joined us in a chorus of screams
when he returned to the surface.