Unbridled

night’s marbled hand

dropped a needle

from an old-growth pine

the constellations have hit it

rich, they have cast their ballots:

the purled wild rock lizard and high-volt dove

a bugling elk grieves his wild anthem, 
fading; one more blistering figment,

suitcase in its hand, a new

mud and fur satellite is lifted

taken to the stars, another light

velvet angel, transformed,

our ears bend skyward

Cain the Redeemer

Swaddled in golden down, the heroes

repose; the feathers of the caressed 
swan fill their shirts. A crippled beast 

cowers in the forest, wearing his eye 
like a purple moon—fluttering.

A carnivorous sedge carves the tongues 
of lovers. Stars erode the talk of ages

and hurled rock;

The birth of light disappears 
into a darkened city.

Spent breasts maintain a ceiling

of unsustainable evil—generations ill-prepared

to outfit the winged grandchild: the upturned crown, 
Gotham’s moon slipped in smoke.

Citizens, toss back the criminal’s goblet, 
embrace your demon emerging from the lake.

Blues God

What awesome battles they are

Growing in my eyes

The humans blowing forth

Like the sixth beast on jazz river

In these last days, the sheep-goats

Seek out the Babylon night

The winds of resurrected armies

Lift the teeth and desperate hosannas

Accident people in time signature

Moving to a tribulation rendezvous

Behold, my Gospel in war days

Guyasuta in snakeskin boots

Let there be dog bite, hands for losing,

Liquor goddammed, I say, third degree

Billy club on jaw, riotously

No real law, jack-boot seat

Mezz in the crosshairs, police only

Sparking in cataract symphony

Here traffic jam, bad rap birth pangs

Here antichrist catalog, bum deal heart disease

Here sirens, screams, cat-in-tree

Here, the blues and all brutality

"I guess the moral of the story is that if you want to
entertain an American audience good, just beat their
brains out and they'll always come back for more."
       Mezz Mezzrow, Really the Blues

posted to Poets United Poetry Pantry #184

Universe at Pause

I woke up

in a book of darkness

spent a day in the parlor

eating money, thinking

about painting honey

in the parlor eating money

gave me translucence

a light bulb

twisted in the socket

and gave me translucence when

down came a blackbird

and snapped

the light bulb denied

the socket when the pie was opened

I began to sing

when down came a blackbird

and snapped off her nose at the end  

that's what you have

in a universe at pause

when the pie was opened I began

to sing, I slept counting,

that's what you have

in a universe at pause

before thinking

how to color the honey

to eat the money

to count sleep, before

waking in a ledger of darkness

when down came a blackbird singing

in the dead of night to a universe

at pause, only waiting

for this moment to arise

linked to Poetry Pantry 178