The gardener’s yard Overgrown and weedy In a plumber’s home The faucets are leaky The sheriff’s kid Dealing drugs after school The crossing guard Is a jaywalking fool The doctor who smokes And drinks like a fish The lamp-bound genie Can’t grant himself a wish The master jewel thief Has never been engaged The Fox … Read moreI Can’t Help Myself
Goats cling And clatter Across the face of a dam 15 stories high for a lick of salt. I muster my strength To sit up And saunter To the kitchen For another doughnut. Over time all Apex predators Eventually Lose their grip.
Pumping legs Faster faster faster Muscles burning Near collapse Then glide Lean out over handlebars Flying Then slower And slower Willing the bike to coast until The lip of the hill And somehow It works again. Low flying Slow flying Under the radar Then as now Such fun.
It couldn’t be easier Just act natural Be yourself Still It’s hard Not to feel This is a trick.
Fugitives Pause To salute their struggle From tyranny From barking dogs From broccoli.
Every glass refilled Before you come up for air The promise of Drunk Divers. Florida America’s unnatural tail Breeding would-be Franchise owners Each dreaming of being the next Big Boy. A dozen DUIs Cost him his boating license So Carl turned his drinking problem Into a drinking solution Drunk Divers.
Dad played at being sad Complaining he’d lost his cornbread. Sis looked at Brother To see if he knew where the cornbread went. Brother smiled, having seen Dad’s performance before Hiding the cornbread under his hat. Mom eventually learned to love this joke Giggling children made it funny Even to baby.
A DuMont Teleset Replacing their Threadbare radio Feels like The future has arrived. The empty box A spaceship A submarine A portal to another world Waiting for the trash man. Get more out of life With television By DuMont. But one day When the tubes and wires fail It’s just another box Destined for the … Read moreThe Proclivity of Things
Cypress pines White sand beaches Home Even after Pop Died in the war. Cook on a fuel ship A favorite target Of German submarines The all-black crew Loved Pop’s gumbo. A crazy white man Pumped all the water Out of the swamp Put up high rises Mom got a job there Fried shrimp and grits … Read moreNever Glades
The gold fillings From pirate teeth Ground to dust Hid just below the surface Look for the glint As the waves return. Five years older Big brother knows The glint is from Gold nuggets Pirates sewed into their clothes. Gold dust too fine to retrieve? Sounds like fool’s gold to me Dad said. We looked … Read moreYeah But Who Cares