Thursday, February 25, 2016


your face your face
your amazing grace
under fire
to the barricades
leaving accolades
in a pile of requited desire
your face your face
between ire
and sweet candidates
for songs and knowing
how awful we allow this
world to be
your face your face
on those dawn morning raids
when you give me the time
when you give me the space
to fan unseen fire
simmer catastrophe
make a song
cool the lava
rake an angry tongue
with saliva undone
you guess where I’m going
nearly always wrong
you pack my bag
like I had a star ship
you are the captain
of my murderous lisp
chin out
fuck the pundits
those gnarly keepers of
what they think they knew
I am yours you are mine
your face your face
is my dangerous mine
here’s the gold
in my hand
here’s the diamond still banned
no children were harmed in
our rainbow romance
no animals slaughtered
to get at the answer
you live like the gentle answer you are
I give the confusion
a name to the star
your face your face
your amazing grace
make it last
make it real
with rainbow potential
I love you
and then some
diabolic eventual
I love you
I love you
make some sense
of this won’t you?

Saturday, February 20, 2016


IN BETWEEN
in between the in and the out
in between the stop and the go
the whisper the shout
a shoulder-forced entry
while eyeing the exit
reason seek solace
the migrant regrets it
in between the in and the out
I’m dancing like somebody’s
drunken reminder
my past or their future
such flypaper traps
keeps me hovered above
I don’t know what matters
I do know what loves
in perfect blood-splattered
space and time and anger and mold
rats and betrayal and centerfolds
those who beg mercy
those who are old
are the same are the game
of the lessons foretold
we don’t ever learn
it’s a useless road
we don’t beg mercy we don’t share the load
rats and betrayal and centerfolds
sniff the lost, look for the found
beyond the cheese smile and the
deathly confound
when we know that the worst
is within our grasp
then we know that deliverance
is a panic a curse
in between can be planning
a way out of the cask
red wine should flow freely
like blood from a gasp
I will never beg mercy
I will always ask
how to find the in-between
that safe place before
it all goes mean
shoulders are rolled
head thrown back
finding my way out of yearning
finding my to the ask

Friday, February 12, 2016


For Swannie

staring at a blank page
wearing that blue rage
for the occasion
what’s to be done with the detritus
how do we sort through
what unites us
and what tears us apart
and after the party
laundry hangs stiff and frozen
the winter of our vast unspokens
jails us in the now and then
wait until the summer softens
tap the keys
take the pen
make amends for all of these
brutal runs in  bloodless endurance
gotta write true or not at all
gotta rip through rage and disease
the title’s a start on a messy dance floor
gotta get up and finally ask for more