Strong Arms Strong

He felt safe beneath them

the strong arms of the strong man

a father better than the lovers

and lovelier than him

who died as he had lived

febrile and dirt dumb

a whisp into the grave

saved from trying

he drank the sweat

as it dripped down the cave

there would be a hunt that night

blood would clean the street

and again they’d embrace

*

he’s a great man

a good man

he’d never put his hand in your

pocket – unless you mean pussy

he’s had troubles, I mean trials

but that’s the system we’re in

the civil code – it’s Rothschild

and the Corsican all over

again

but it’ll be over

soon. You’ll see.

Or maybe you won’t.

*

trading default options

for life compulsory & voluntary

simple as scum holding up

the day’s barricades

there, like laughing gas

troops spewed imperatives

loving you in their style

hands shaking inside gloves

virgin priests swallowing

the body, which is the

pageant of the apocalypse

is the seeking & bestowing of designation

even angels, envious in their orders

fill the bus with capacity

discharging when the horses charge

we could run away

fumes from suffering

thinking hard about it

*

I rarely barely ramble any longer

through ice and rain. sand and stone.

until, remiss entangled

and atoning a loss of bone mass

three toes is satisfactory and the

fingers not quite none

someone notices and runs

but sanctuary’s also gone

hold close the bones

the fractures are your faults

remitting for once, the edifice

established, tabled, poured

in respect of wages

hazards faced, features faulted

werewolves married, eels swallowed

alligators abused

and the opening through the jaws

of lightnesses-blinding the darkness visible

while noosing around a tooth

embedded to the ankle. mutuality

is sore, love strokes stubble

& cracks jaw, philistines

drop & scatter. what flows out

the pith appertaineth

the spirit dwelleth between the commas

*

Individuals in demand

tread terribly the broadloom

the clause guarantees

apostasy is fate

mind weaving the body

to other bodies

stronger than silk, by weight

and severed, the system

strangles beneath

the function of the example

*

T in combo, styrene tray

they called it resignation

or for a second an opinion

a first among philosophers

with meaty substantial hands

he tousled my tassels

somewhere ago by the sea

debated landscape ethics earnestly

having no idea, ague, or argument

fine periods, abstraction & paint

in seven layers of impermeability

mudded the mark

yet it was food &

diagnosed good

*

by a skinny majority, dipping into grey

with horrible entitlement

he can’t sleep unless I hold his hand

revolution of stay means fortune vacation

I’d prefer not too, but is two too many?

paring them away, down, & then

an arid carelessness infuses the zone

& the pearly crown decays

(smiling) on cloudless & splendid days

*

ethnicity changed after

arriving in the host

time-use diaries indicate

using natives as gold

ethnosizer stirred

a long mélange

fringed with meaty asides

& striding ever toward a schemata

that shuttered out complaints

in the air

where a sense of belonging drifted

as if you could catch it

on a wet evening huddled

under branches as the patrols pass

*

It’s a good day

in every way

The electricity is whining

three sharks swim up through the sky

& the patriot sun is shining

hard assets do appreciate

the care you lavish on them

beyond the earth, and sun

someone may one day

nod upon them

alas, assets, assess, appraise

our days our

plans, our ploys, destroy

our toys, divorce our joys

from entertainment. The

time is minimal. The prince

has to climb. Up he’ll stir

up he’ll call – down he’ll

turn, fallacy, we enumerate

thy pleasures with each thump

of the thumb, each suck

of the straw. Mistake our measurements

with each puff & flex. crystalize

the carrot. That’s what they taught

me in my MBA. Could we

incubate – together?

Yet somewhere is a chickadee

all twittering inside me

& the big-eyed worm it tackles

& the storm that sweeps aside everything

*

we got along – eventually

it was a good day

after both becoming

what we already were, definitively

dead and godlike, in the end

taking it, literally

beyond the circulating self

or three things compared to

three others

without reducing to numbers

the harmonic decomposition

of a sign, trailing edge

of a low-frequency nazi

simply the large-scale

statistical analysis of gene expression

will sharpen the edges

and broaden the umbrella

& the desert will feast on

our just desserts

*

compression of a cell

sundry details of directions given

the author of a massacre

in rebel territory

school rules

hiding while you look away

the author of a miracle

blinkering belonging

where would they go but here

compassion of the cell

turning switches

mudded in cement

to leverage – bright beams

of impunity at 1.5 million a

drop

*

group rights in the night

on the percentages. a four way banana

split, & the difference is you lose

inclusive, yet the loop of uxory

springing up new pyramids

after suds in the tub

eddy blast, moistened & dried

the whisker-like roots, protuberant

tubers, banned in this jurisdiction

for psycho-combustive proclivities

the aberrations in the glass

made everything unicorns & rainbows

colliding as eyebeams

or a wicker weave

the percentages move everything

as tracers find equilibrium

only to blow it up

my childhood’s bombs – let’s

not go there

let’s

stay down

or run

*

the top of abashed manliness

realizing the intention all along

conscience has left us unbuttoned

lines bashed in, the casualness

of the rich – that’s something to believe in

his stress stretching out in the sand

shaped the problem definition

safely athwart the moat

it’s our lived experience

the intricacies of the interface

never in a million, but maybe

twice in a billion – it’s always

simpler and entirely different than

a hexagonal raster would

force you to imply – caught by

the gills, lineage fails –

autumn & pensioned before

ever discovering a moral voice

*

I read the report with trepidation

but it’s that awful institute

everything decreed just so from central processing

as if translucent

the fetus kicking at the walls

undying orchids screaming pleasantries

& peace officers on parade

pretending nothing’s lethal

unforgettable, the experience

of thinking through the drain

desiring to accrue earned absences

only to return

to service – as the only meaningful salary

the Head knows about the important kind of Capitalization

the Head has the manner of a Car Salesman

I expect Electrodes and Pliers at our face-to-face

but they do say thank you – & that’s Leadership

*

got a

rambo combo down in Oklahoma

got a Jesus identity

government ideology

will you aim to please

when we aim at you

it’s the humanity of my one

and only

why I live here

so wash your teeth & brush your face

it’s never too late to perform “nice”

the way you move your body

is like taking dictation

the problem of the day is slurred

when seen in racial profile

baptism confers

elocution upon the electrifying

deplored

departed

and repatriated

*

At the border, demanded salt

things they couldn’t get

supplied by pilgrims

sifting through the ashes

home as a thin subplot

a pathway to becoming

the technician you always wanted

in theory, using your senses

is a great idea – or at

least a decent movie

leisure time power sports

it’s every man’s inherited right

to go roaring through the primeval

shirtless on the rusty bike

to walmart at the edge of summer

who doesn’t shop there?

it’s pleasant enough, for peasantry

the machines we could never design

despite the finest of woodworking

now seeking expertise

before I take my ease

on the rump of the world

*

going beyond

being spherical

nailclip tick tock

into the night, and then

no approximation and whatever

you know is not thinking

just two steps behind

the plan lessening as toe

& tail  twine – chiefly

it’s a feather for the capital

hungered down in dollish grime

then nutrition science and

high intensity cuddles –

committed to unicorn crime

and sparkles glaze the eyes

off off off

*

they’re resourceful, given a choice

adequate information, a 6-inch

spade, eye protection, lead

lined everything, and

an unlimited supply of bottled air

dreamers, uptake!

crash the pine-tipped ramparts of our

frozen lake

rain arrhythmias upon us as

employment stutters

stake down our vacant bedrooms

with youthful vigour

emancipate us from this

starved feeling

dread brings to the border daily

*

more generally, or marginally

its origin in a wonderful team-building

prostitution exercise

spewed like a geyser on a Saturnine moon

but without the spackle of melancholy

still remained

some hovering sense of obligation

to grasp the iridescent pigeon & wring

till monkey noise under

layers of rubber and fat

cheaping out on caffeine

strung out on nothing at all

beyond the asteroid lashes

lithe acrobats spin as spokes

all & our exec DNA

will accelerate to escape

pantaloons or diminishments

past & future equally specular

at the farthest reaches

of human resources – thumbsucking

becomes fashionable – nobody wants

to be taken apart, flensed

as the eye, most literally

*

verifying that the knee is gone

before dispensing

there are no conditions under which

I’d share the new brain, to shelter

in the rain

luxury niche facials by

the garbage-bag full

it’s that diamond baked in

to the bread so your insides

glitter

despite

getting old & becoming the fool you

were always pretending to be

it’s an updated system, becoming

round the mountain, with the bullshit

avalanche, when the slope

exceeds naive adherence

then

& rainbows with all the reassurance

of the smile of an abuser

fear early warning, and kindnesses

from strangers

with a boyish grin and animal yelp he

let fly the lasso

*

creating the measure – it

was as big as an elephant’s –

something is sauntering

down toward you

because I query later, I kill hot dice

vape in the desk drawer

life of a specimen, not the pinprick

hostage to the year

blips smoosh into the soup

as the concierge conceals a pistol

beneath fresh  towels

all bluffs spill

and spatter – no joy, for the

son seeking containers

for feelings called friends

without a project

to relate through – we can’t

be the ordinary human, or

not two in one cubicle, anyway

*

developing monopoly

views dietetic

population drifts

radon pile

corrode quantify

elide fixate

and other cases

of force mineur

gathering moisture

while u wait

*

old man hands on thigh

crime scene cleaner

or fish floss

get rid of the calvin

but what binds the ocean

& withholds the sky?

gotta getup & get gone

before it all vaporizes

steam & a smudge &

a smear – nobody’s here

*

and later that day on planet

Venus

if the variables don’t correlate

it’ll be rain, why, almost certainly

forever

she’s curious, I’m spurious

& you, my dog, are ferocious

& we’re lining up for ramen

spun from unicorn undercoats

& porcupine tallow

& clouds begin to come, first one

then two

and a metallic pigeon acts the umbrella

why was the motherboard electroplated

to serve electro dinner

home can be anywhere

this just shows, to go

*

into the senator

we pretty much know

where loyalty goes

finishing up

with unspoken haste

frequently talking about

weekends obviously

such supreme vacancies

the kind of people

who believe in beliefs

have a long future

buttered beans on a string

a great deal to do

before we get there

*

to systematically fool

and accurately lever

depression into the model

as a kindlier possibility

than annihilation

poké by kiloton

and biomass extraction

it’s all waste until I pack

my own lunch

in a kerchief of one’s

own weaving

he teetered on the edge of traffic

& the brink of employability

& ran home to vape for lunch

muscular, & wanting more like

everyone two bucks an hour

is a nice lunch, on government

dimes. may we all receive

such pieties and designations

*

if you’re not careful, they’ll make you permanent

it’s no good – I’m maxed out

tending to the cargo-cult

or it’s down the laneway

to bulldozer dreams – where

the sun is a black dot & a billion

office workers bear their

brandings behind the retinas &

the insects have vanished from the windscreens

that time on campus when everyone

looked up, to watch a hawk finish

its pigeon dinner

then repaired to the cafeteria

omens on massacre street

& the kids still wrestle like puppies

like it doesn’t matter