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My mind can and will implode But not before my eyes burst Internal pressure, veins stifling Breath and grinding teeth down Either that, or too exasperated, I’ll wave my flag of beaten relief Power down, lay horizontal fade.

I ran flat-footed Pale and proud, Ankle barely flexed or flushed with exertion.

I can’t tell you how often my afterthought is context I blurt mid-rabbit hole into pronouncement I pause straining for a rewind click Thoughts don’t come collected So I call for them, trace them And recall them, in your proximity, In my past voice, More r…

With each act of faith There’s an act of disapperance I let one group fade and try to assume my other That side of public disagreement Denial, undermining If I can blend it away If I can speak just right If I can listen I can be among you I can convince m…

My eyes are filled with a color - Something close to blue.

To stare at the ocean  In ebriation Is to know frustration  In repetition.

I’m aging into fears Doubts left unexplored.

Our days as a collection of surfaces Textures that bend with us, soothe us Couches, beaches, beds Textures that don’t relent Benches, pavement, walls.

You don’t need to climb too high To notice how small you are Eight or nine feet will do You don’t need to sink too low To notice how tall you’ve been Someone in the middle might say this Half involved in their own life Watching themselves play out brevity…

Stone sprung bone Whispers in the glass box Funny swingtime looped Happy, happy, happy time lapse Gertrude Stein with a wine box, with a wine box Gingembre breaking songs Mix, mix it and lay low

I know and I know We make a life out of our excess, We are uncontained, or can be.

Write before the editor Use what you can use Flute song, head in the clear Reacting cold, uncollected Quick spark running, fuzzy electric In your shoulder If you forgot the breaker, fuck it

I grew up without one And I grew up with all of them Is that an oxymoron?

Posture is less important than posturing (Morally and physically) Structural integrity can be feigned And should be.

Before you arrived There was greenery flanked by reddish cliffs When you arrived, a separate vision grew.

It’s almost a matter of spacing, Of setting expectations.

Lands seem to lock with language Rolling, agitated, calm, brusque Peoples with their earth I can see them Firmly grasping soil, Damp, freshly tilled Briskly walking contours by intuition.

People tell me it’s Markov’s city An ahistorical city, Everyone new lined up, Short line, long line, next.

I'm knotted inside, squeezed, Endlessly wringing out Things I try to explain (discussed) With a twisted (swollen) tongue I’m left enough space to breathe, just Enough to write Someday it’ll teach me to be pithy, slow Or indifferent For now I’m fastened in…

I have found the limits Of my body The heights it will let me climb Hand over hand Limblike ladder Disappearing in thick canopy layers When I crouch in the high branches I find my familiar edge The one I find when I sprint Fastflown blurry track When I bo…

Empty.

On a crowded train There are enough screens For me to pay attention [Three seconds at a time] To all my cares, worries and wants I am as shallow As you fear.

Drop Drop.

Known.

We were uncontained.

Cyclists surge ahead They see the break before you Doubled muni buses parting They ride the smooth lane Push for a true crescendo Many hills to come

Give the pluck a fucking rest Gimme some strum-drop-strum Beat, strum-drop-strum thump Bass and backbeat drum, stump, back weak-knee strum Croon a voice of country pluck Spread a drop of country folk, damn, wisdom Spill my city veins with clean, clean fol…

I need You To know His father dropped Dead It was the pepper.

I don’t have roots I was dug from the earth (molded from many clays) Born into lost words and Freefalling freedom I am one of those Americans bound to land And nowhere to place this conviction Schools raised me to claim My inheritance.

Count me as a perpetual drifter of Stoplights and stopsigns.

What’s left of a downpour?

They ain’t really alive… They AIN’T really alive they ain’t got no Name in no book Leave em be Don’t get killed unhappy now You know I can’t help you with that.

I overheard a rider: “We’re nightfish Fast.

Whisper while you work ♫ ♪

Why would they call it A ringing?

Fascinating to watch a small bird Fly down the slope of a meadow It pauses with wigs outstretched - middle of the air - Then retracts its feathers fast, Close to the body Picks up speed in a dive Its true weight revealed In gravity’s jolt Before it stretc…

How to come face to face With a capitalist itch How to lend your hands (sacrificial) Digging wealth, Hand it in heaps To your smiling, jack-faced lords (Yes they’ll be men) (Yes they’ll be clean as sheets) So that they (They, too, are stunned) May do As T…

Buy me smoked, wrung out On the line Tobacco was made in the dry sun, an accident I am cooked the same Basted and blistered In moonless heat I am roughly sane A spoke to B and B to me We wrote it down We crossed it out items A tried some music.

Slow-volt spine, Meters measured in metrics: Sandgrains dislodged Vagabonds discouraged Money turned monied To the sweet glass ground I’ll laugh when you fail to see your reflection I’ll fail to find your truth.

Keep calm and carry The narrative The aphorism fetches farther Than night shades preach I see when your mirage throttles the lectern Communes with orthodontists (Bless and pray the sacred science never ceases) Tannists, other-ists (seen you) Falls to fail…

“That’s a good question…” What did you feel compelled to answer?

Slow-volt spine, sinews taut Wrapping cords and packed Writhing in the marrow Free my snakebit muscles Venom-struck and tightbound Let me slither free

romance is lost without absence a sheltered pair lounges in the car listens to fifties crooners sing the heavens as heavy blue tails slather tri-color soap from sunroof to wheel rims they smile to know no wandering eyes can pierce this foamy shell they lie

I change the way: to build, to break To mold a cold culture into one Brimming with cause Shifting, adapt what you’ve learned Create a compassionate economics Invest in minds, livelihoods There is a common cause, heartfelt And universal, to set loose, set…

It sounded like the pressure popped Clocked your inner ears In a wind you’d find On the hanging side of a ferry Body tilted, clutching the rails Bones paralytic.

I know I’ve caught a rare remark When she giggles, little bit of gums showing- Eyes squinting soft, Or when she stares, Relentless Heart blazed in disbelief I seek these moments With an equal but opposite passion I flurry, word wise and wonderful I parry,…

I move the slow-volt spine, Snake its rattled bones With gentle whiplash.

— Nothing persuades   More than presence — Nothing breaks a premise   More than promise — Definitions are only as exact as your   Computer fails to understand — History + proper suggestion set a   Table in the middle of your room — There are notes in this…

When this hotel Is your home, This sidewalk Is your porch.

Part isthmus, part wellspring I cannot stress To stress for you Enough How the world shakes When we move How it finds itself anew Looks bewildered at its open palms Shocked by what they wrought Stunned by what they can now wreak.