Eye of the storm

Ten minutes to heaven

Abstract love and heady wine

Writers of poetry never

Sleep on airplanes

And winners of fortune never

Bet on a Wednesday

My mother was a tiger

And my father made of sand

We were all born late in winter

Never walked upon dry land

Summer

We all melted into glass

Fused together

Like a burnt and wary accident

On a Tuesday when

No one showed up for work

I was all smiles on Monday

When my father drove me home

By the weekend I was parentless

Naked and alone

I worked through all my problems

I dismissed them one by one

Finally

I was allowed to have some fun

I walked the streets at night

Ran naked in the sun

Empty

Thoughtless

An enemy of the state

A child on the run

Clues

A dozen or so fallen by the wayside

You, for one

A basilisk, a shadow

A nymph or satyr, demon not

Chosen

Truth and fiction

Beauty beyond reason

In bed I lie

In the morning I steal

For you I felt nothing

As for me, nothing was real

9/10/2013

I made a wish to you

Three times a week

I never told you how I

Lost the baby or

Never made the bed or

Made your brother so angry that

He doesn't come over anymore

My pasts were lies and I had no future

Exiled in a land where only

Women and dogs live

No children born for the past 200 years

I leapt off my balcony

Onto a parapet

Paid the boy a nickel and told him

Not to return

Sold all my possessions

Bought everything brand new

Died the next day

Came back as a cypress tree

On a Wednesday morning when

The new earth had just begun

9/12/2013

American triplets in 2013

Pizza delivery, the boy said

How much do I owe you?

Nothing, pizza’s free here

Happy anniversary!

Here’s a dozen roses

I’ll be in town next week

Vodka or gin?

Both, please

Make it a double

Wayfayers’ syndrome

It’s when you go on vacation

And never come home

Head injury

Please remove and

Return to owner

This is our

Top-of-the-line appliance

But it won’t make love to you

So it’s in the discount section

Buoyant until deflated

Pops when seal is open

When in doubt, use a knife

Marry me, he said

How much will it cost?

Actually, nevermind,

let’s just go to Disneyland

08/09/2013

Around the cape then back again

Chained to a

Styrofoam wall

It pads the fall but

Is made of poison

Run, rabbits, run

A day in the sun

Just hoping and waiting for the bomb to drop

It’s such fun

Sing me a song

Write me a poem

Kiss me goodnight and pray

That I don’t dream

Love me a letter

Die me a hero

Tomorrow is Monday and

By then I’ll be clean

Give me some time

The time of day if you will

Fuckers don’t know about

Common courtesy

Left me a genesis

Lost me a life

Away on a sailboat

Never set to sea 

07/27/2013

Sitting by the lake

They say the best things
Money can't buy 'em
What currency do you take then?
Love's labors all in vain
and self-sacrifice through gritted teeth
I chased you around the world
Found myself back in a dime store
I was on sale for 5
Water cost 50 times as much
1 free smile lasts me for 15 minutes
Then I wait
and wait
and wait
I see you in the window through amber glass
Blurry like the lucid lie I know you to be
Blind and deaf I want you
Don't see or hear me
Just amuse me
Like people in the TV screen
Thorn in my side
This notion that an empty bed is a bad thing
Each new experience makes the next one
A little bit duller

a fairy tale

I buried him at the base of a mountain. A private waterfall, red-breasted birds, and 10,000 trees standing in a semi-circle—a modest reception. I'd been unable to speak his language and so, in frustration, I fed him tranquilizers and whiskey, coaxed him into bed with my one good eye, suffocated his flawless face under a silk pillow—heaving, tears, gasping and flailing—and then set fire to the mattress.

It was the prettiest fireworks display I'd ever seen.

cherry vanilla

Cheated death on top of an ice cream sundae
Cherry vanilla and extra sprinkles, I’m that kinda girl
Static from the radio was like honey
Sweet and it kept me stuck
I have killed many men
A self-hired mercenary
Working around the clock to fill some unknown quota
Misadventures took me far overseas
Then left me on the couch
Scent of inevitable decay and 5-dollar cologne
I bathed in essential oils and floated on cloud 9
To that safe, handmade abode in the 1960s
Where no one could touch me

02.27.2012

sweetheart

Lots of strangers call me sweetheart
Honey, darlin’, sugar-doll pie
Most of them are older women
None of them tuck me into bed at night

penniless

I checked my bank account one day and found that I had no money. I didn’t have a job, a girlfriend, or a left eyelid either. My cousin had just gotten engaged to a Wall Street troll, my best friend had just given birth to her eleventh baby and my sister was in Siberia. Dad was a kitchen appliance and mom was a rollercoaster. I had pets but they were all ghosts. I was beautiful but oddly proportioned. My grandmother said I had a good heart, but I knew I was really terribly selfish. My ambitions were ordinary, my thoughts decrepit and I couldn’t give a damn. I was happy because I knew that one day someone would bake me a sugar cake, and I would have to gall to eat every last crumb before the poison killed me. I wouldn’t share one bite.

I couldn’t marry
The town forbid it
They put me in a little room in the corner
And kept me counting from noon to midnight
I made enough to buy gumdrops and licorice
I had been married once, in the 40s
but killed my husband with a wine bottle after a week
Bastard couldn’t kiss worth a damn anyway
Was some sort of terrible cross between Marlene Dietrich and Rock Hudson
talk about an identity crisis
It didn’t matter anyway
All the money I had earned over the last 140 years
burned in the great fire
along with the Bible, folk music, and all warm-blooded animals

08.17.2011