Last October

red rain through red leaves
glimpse of ivory
strain to sleep
the flood comes down

plane to be riveted
still your desire to flee
short buzzer circuit drowned clumsily
wind rose against windows

open or green
affirm nod to curry
pressed unless friends convict
whirlwinds wire the roof

to the oceans electron sink
lightning down the hole
sewn up money mainly
i guess it’s a good thing

since gilded with positive craw
have no commercial valence
carmelized weather if
the best dentist cannot extract

the eye ripped in half
salted roofgap summer dropped 100 ft
struck speechless by the smoked fish
inked footfalls waiver peanut shells

lockjawed letter the gallery floor
it’s just a man’s life up on 10
chawin’ the institute’s apples
then belted in the stairwells

puff copper some stick out a pipe
some mutter slyly some shout
graded the roomfull while swallowing
tacit notary retell the first story

*

His face a weathered ceiling-crack of fuzz
His God forgives him what he does
excretions ineffibly whitewashed office
squealing and the round abysmal bottom
where voices of mayflys gather in October
the relentless nails still hold the frame together
signalling questions on waves erratic
scaling the chasm on telephone wire
to a certain appointment he meant to keep
with himself alone beneath the table.
Chiasma of the cranium’s buzzings like
stampedes of leaves and pizzicato tusslings
rebound off laminate, yet still the ears
audit no report. To fall and yet admit
no falling - or rise as steam from the frothing
a gilded phantom venting through the eyes
to see over the stove the cracked wreath of plaster.

*
everstop
scaffold
stovepipe
never
up and dignified
silence
they did it in silence

*

some night to brag about the affair
so the stars keep their distance
though I hum some punk-ass zydeco
and become a radio
mentally imitate a useless instrument
and have studied in your streets
and academies the shredding of a tear
into a well-wrought reason. The environment
permeates us this lactating season
It is birth - excrescence of circles
round the other clown - Hell in Ohio
pauses for a refill - my gun rages
to tell you its name - hymn it immortal
until shut - three right angles don’t make
spangles - soul nostalgia - concord of the rump remains
up late talking remnants & strategy

*

river of duck feathers
brought on the boat
bo diddley’s tambourine
shiver me warm all winter

the soul in the echo-chamber
lifted by ten cranes
plywood clouds rise
gory reflections in wine

dinners after thought
of seeing you in the elevator
my mother always asks you
the weather and time

now midnight’s middle nothings
squeezed between slumber and tongue
after evenings eyelashings
pressed, you light up like a button.