Raising More Questions

What was obvious

now needs to be clarified:

"I'm my baby's dad."

The Longest Ruler in the World

Scientists say Mount

Everest is twenty-nine

thousand feet and change.

Denny

Red Rock, Nevada:

Frontman Denny kneels,
the funnel rises,
and RockStar bongs twelve ounces of Everclear
through a beer bong.

Derek,
the checker who allowed us to buy the liquid,
smiles. "Five minutes"

Evan disagrees. "Ten",
and a Casio timer gets to twelve before Denny
goes off to kneel again.

He holds it until sixteen,
groans,
then projectiles pure proof
until sunup.

We bring him warm compresses,
stay with him - even wipe his drool -
while, in the front room,
music blares and money changes hands.

Round the Fire Late

Hoot, whoosh - car passes.

Fire beckons new forms of warmth:

both silence and song

Untreated

Fortified water

makes my skin itch, my face dry

up like old sandpaper.

The Blamed, Lucky

They came as doves slept in darkness,
when pigment precluded peace
and they numbered one-fifty,
a swarm,
a salvo,
a sweep,
where a bride did weep
and children cried into
the point of a barrel.

The night-market man
fingered the inseam of his vest,
belt-high.
"Are you Christian?"
he asked, and I said, "I believe"
in front of a stall selling
leather and winking knives.
He eyed my daughter,
eating ice cream,
eight ethnicities coalesceing into milky skin
and set his feet wider. "I am Muslim."

Now I laughed out loud,
because this is how I deal with
other people's shit,
and extended my hand.
"Hello brother," I smiled, and . . .
slowly . . .
his hand met mine,
despite skins
and the brown fear in my pants.

"Pop" said the little one, later,
"he was nice but
something smelled like poo-poo."

A goddess can not kiss everyone,
and the one-fifty
went looking for brown
as owls slept
found it
found him in bed
asleep (a student)
awoke him (the student)
arraigned him (the student)
arose her (his wife)
afear'd (his children)
at four a.m. -
the time when the guilty disappear.

What Happens When I Watch a Box

The man on TV

said, "For health, drink pee" moved me;

yet, I still flush. Twice.

Lonelyville

A few well-timed hugs
would have short-circuited
this asshole,
the one who swats at tree squirrels,
believes pavement was a gift for them,
rages at the unaware.

The sky oppresses:
every change could be a threat!

Late at night
the mirror speaks:
"your world is undoubtedly small,
undoubtedly you."

Pining

Each branch and bump, notch and needle
outlines against the palest of skies,
reaching up to
- warmth
- all they need.
Contrast this with the urbanity of
"I will not vacuum."
Put the two - picture and word
on sandwich boards,
pay someone with chaotic knots for hair
a ten-spot to tout the two as a contest:
life versus fear.
Which coffee can would gain more green?
Would the sign be seen at all,
shoved aside because of a glitch
that leaves no notice of
fractal beauty,
a pine tree splashed with sun?

Karma

After practice, ball players moan
like the orgasmic superheroes they aspire to be.

For the ones without their cream dream,
a compromise: a four-year shelf life
featuring low-speed car crashes
between armored sub-compacts
on two legs.

The rest? Lucrative careers in law enforcement,
or perhaps bouncing the new breed of ball players
as they ogle the titty dancers.

The eyes that learn

An hour of your life

watching cafe strangers proves

we are all lonely.

A Haiku of Warning

Coffee, large, four bucks.

Five bucks gets you good smokes, so

still wish pot was legal?!?