Silly Me

I'm trying to clean up my act.

What's happening is, pieces

of my act are falling off

faster than I can clean them.

Not good because I have

nothing to replace them.

Not bad because I didn't

need them anyway...

I'm taking on the aspect

of a plucked chicken

that's about to smile.

It would be embarrassing...

...if I knew shame.

Four Cigarettes

What if this is all the time I have?

I still have some money in the bank...

I'm not going to be able to spend it all.

Green's a heavy coat on the land...

air thick with water vapor, landscape

beautiful as a sleeping baby.

Those that came before me, those

that come after...I hope we all danced

as much as possible.

My daughter's ok, I got rid of most of

my stuff over the years. Things didn't

work out the way I wanted...they never do.

I'm ready for the blindfold now.

For Kobin Chino Roshi

I never told you 

you are a beautiful man.

You sat next to me on

the dock, outside the kitchen.

You asked: "Can I buy a cigarette?"

"No, but you can have one." I replied.

You sat with me for a moment...

then you got up and left.

You were a beautiful man.

Nothing

This is just a blip on the screen....

an erasable memory

an insatiable memory

an inescapable memory

an irreversible memory

...a mistake that never happened.

This is just a moment in time quickly forgotten.

Sunset take a picture before it's gone.

Play the music backward to get a picture.

I'm not creative..............".just"   happens.

Read it while you can.

Hot Flash

Go on that train...

to the end...to the change....

Flavors that foreshadow the future in the air,

and sounds and smells that remind you of the past,

as if you were still there....

The ripe.....everything....

how you plucked them...

the sounds they made as you ate them,

the fresh peach scents you drowned in

as your flesh caught fire like

electric Tessla skin...

....the rubbery space, 

slippery viscera heated to light speed...

The steed runs solid through the veins,

straight to the heart, 

discovered when no one is looking.

Open All Night

We never close….
But sometimes we have
a hard time opening.

Night day
Day night
Hours are flexible.

The music we play
Is only intended
To irritate the customers.

Linoleum floors
Waitresses on skates….
This is a nation!

Real malteds
And a twist contest….

My grandfather cut
Jackie Coogan’s hair.
Shook hands with
Teddy Rosevelt.

Sitting at the counter
At Walgreen’s with
My mother…sipping
A Green River.

The brakes on her Rambler
Went out and we crashed
Into the back of a car….
Big surprise….the doors
Were always falling off.

It goes on like this
…forever….
more coffee?

Funny...

My ex girlfriend has a new boy friend.
Like me, his name is John, and, like me,
He’s a Buddhist from Colorado.
I got traded in for a new model.
But, at least, she’s Brand* loyal.

*see Doonesbury, Jan. 18th

No Second Thoughts

…through the birth canal…
…as the plane is going down…
…as the rollercoaster starts over the top…
…after: “Aim!”…..
…as you watch the dog running towards you…
…while the ball is in the air….
…looking at a painting by Dali…
…when you first touch her arm…
…when you saw the new bicycle….
…when your dad fell down laughing…
…when I touched my mom’s dead face…
…every time I fell out of a tree….

…on a lake north of Ely, Minnesota…
the sun was going down in the west,
full moon coming up in the east,
in the middle of a lake, no wind,
no sound, (in the 70’s) reading
The Tibetian Book of the Dead…

…throwing rocks into the coming
rain and wind, both naked,
singing and dancing and shouting,
a big hot fire…

…waking up laughing, at the same time,
in the middle of the night, on an island,
under some pine trees,
in the middle of a lake.