Compression

Lava flows

in spine.

Pain strikes

in undertow.

SPOOKY THINGS

In the spiraling clouds. 

In the stalactite humming. 

The witch doctor 

frog man lingers

in the willows. 

A delta-glyphic 

half moon shines, 

crystalline, 

through granite. 

The big cats are non-alien 

in darkful fog 

and wash over outcrops. 

A cold branch 

drops into colder water. 

The big cats 

drop quiet like deadfall 

and the beetles turn 

the mountain grey.

*Or this version of the first stanza that plays on The Neverending Story and Stranger Things title:

In the spiraling-nothing.

in the upside-down. 

the witch doctor

dogman lingers 

in the willows. 

Holes

 If you are a good 

boy, then

you will get what you want.

*

I want pizza, please?

And can Jacob spend

the night?

and we can drink

Fago and play Nintendo?

*

Jacob's mom

drops him off

and we play 

Double Dragon II

until our eyes bleed.

*

The mornings 

are spent toppling

over dirt mounds

and falling into

the freshly dug

basements of suburbia.

     This is a trap!

Heat or Eat?

I don't want to end up, like, 

skeletal.

I don't want to end up, like,

arthritic

in the cold

           white morning.

Support Update

I have perpetual 

data storage issues.

Not the kind

you would

gaslight

someone over.

It’s more like

I need back up.

Janitor Talk

The rat is pregnant.

The rat had an abortion.

The rats are not pregnant,

they are both female.

Charcoal and Sniffles are expecting.

There's a bun in the oven,

a calf in cow,

a half-calf with root beer

and cinnamon.

Cinnamon is the name

of the first born baby rat.   

Cinnamon is midnight black.

Root Beer was born in stillness

on the classroom sky

When the halls glow red. 

you can hear her,

after hours,

pegging at the beams.

Cat Flies

The cat flies again

The cat flies again

The cat flies cluster

and meow.

Public Afternoon

We passed by a frighten

cat and then we had a child.

At two years old

I painted myself silver.

Silver gives me less 

anxiety than gold.

Gold is a realist's

painting of astral projection.

It doesn't really happen that way.