Saturday, April 12, 2014

THE OLDER ONES

Our own brains are canned in bone
We rarely think of this when left alone

With three times as many appendages 
as an octopus. Memories dim as dreams 
take over the mind. From what depths 
we dared our hold on history

We crossed the gap arriving 

and gasping for air from the shore
At the cellular level aware of our 
capacity to adapt. There is no justification 
for polluting an entire planet. The reason 
for this is because neither does justice exist
Only a sort of static balance 
amid the roiling turmoil 

An  entire world exists outside our thought
We have words that represent the aspects 

of that world. Mountain, stone, water, sinew 
feather, lightning, thunder, dark
Keep these words true to your heart 

and align yourself with earth
Disregard abstractions such as good

evil, truth, justice, etc

They work to cloud the mind and further 

obfuscate our lives. Lives we are dreaming 
up on the spot so get with it and wake up
The ancient lords who swam up from 

the greatest depths. We are surrounded 
by them today just take a look around
Kings of our dominion are wearing 

our own clothes dressed to kill 

Groomed with immaculate grace pupils 

full blown in our face. Everything Is Under 
Control someone possessed of sardonic wit 
once wrote. Except for the grip we may have 
on our own lives we suppose
One thing matters in the dark 

protected by calcified helmets
Extruded upright by gravity 

and guided by the wind

MAP OF LIGHT

Cosmic micro- 
wave back ground 
 appears as ancient 
light imprinted 
on the sky from 

When the universe 
was about three
hundred and  seventy
thousand years old

Today 
faint traces 
of  ancient light 
yet linger upon our 
eyes and remarkably 
it appears not evenly 
spread out across 
our  universe 

Extremely small 
fluctuations 
in this shroud 
of light which 
make it appear 
to be clotted 
are in fact   
seeds from 
which grew 
the galaxies 
we see about 
our self today

The universe 

began in a hot
dense state which
exploded outward 
at a rate exceeding 
the speed of light  

Then it began 
to cool even
as it continued
to expand and 

Now here 
we are
to day

LAZARUS TAXA

for Lucius Shepard


It doesn't matter how much attention one pays if grim extinction comes for them 

And we all got here for free--without paying attention 
I suggest we all enjoy the ride while it's still happening 
In fact, the skins shed from extinction have

been torn off our own back like a fuse
trailing behind us--a comet's tail
if you will--and even if you won't
agree or clearly see what I do see
a glacier evaporates slow
as it forms and you know
when they're finally gone
nobody shall
compare one
to the buried
analogy
of these
burning
humans
from
here
on
up
.

MARCH TWENTIETH


It's the first day of spring
and death is in the air

The box car is full
and slowly departs

Crammed with weary
old friends taking their
motivations with them

Into strange darkness
streaming down river

The moon's sole
reflection white

Upon the surface
wave letting apart

Into well synchronized
angel moth wings

In motion appearing
just to say goodbye

NIGHTBAILER

for Bill Knott 

Our lives' strange trajectories 
have been laid bare here 
while I stare in shock 
at the lines dancing 
drowned in artificial
light, why it was only
8 days ago that I stood
in Mountain View Park
(a quite un-euphemistic 
way of rubbing our nose
in it, don't you think?)
and witnessed for myself
for the very first time
an entire flock of colored
balloons scrawled upon
with various Sharpee markers
messages like "On the wings
of angels, SYOTOS, I love
you Doug" while Neil Diamond's
"Coming To America" played
and we all stared up at the
flock of helium balloons
as they became smaller 
and smaller until they
precisely resembled a
swarm of human sperm
flung Egg-Sunward
I even took the opportunity
to casually mention the beauty
of this sight to the Mormon Bishop
standing beside me, "He's off
to a new life, just like your speech,"
I said while his back stiffened
I've been biting my nails all day
before I learned online 
on facebook that you 
had at long last gone
to sleep with your hands
crossed on your chest
looking as though you
are flying into yourself.

COLD FRONT

Apart from cracks on the Formica 
counter top around the bending 
curve of my eye I can not discern 
anything through my shot glass
  
The rumblings of a city in dusk 
seep through the slurry of hushed 
undertones merging stainless steel 
clinks from glasses slowly stirred 

In this labyrinth collecting mirrors 
no one bothers looking at each other 
directly for the point of that was lost 
long ago with the reflected hosts 

I sink into the magnified pores 
of her face held balanced on a stack 
of merging surface edits like a drawn  
bath displaced by a weary body 

It's been many revolutions since 
I can remember spring time   
and for that I should ordinarily feel 
sadder than the beer ads on the wall

Cheerfully I determine that mixing 
drinks with indentured silver ware 
may distract the focus from a certain
familiar melody floating by 

Its coruscating pattern of decaying 
notes drifts along into the distance 
like so many flakes of ash rendered 
gray as the moon in winter

The cracked fields of this lit valley  
fade before the inland sea evaporates 
into silence here on a world whose 
name evokes nothing but dirt

I'd rather not think about it since
my drink became too evenly mixed 
for me to want another sip from 
the cold inversion boiling outside 

MONGRELS

Demons possess mankind 
yet do not exist autonomously
Only by taking possession of an individual 
may a demon come into existence

This old secret has been lost 

on a population whose imaginations 
always seem to get the best of them
but what can you do.  While everyone 
is caught up in the fading phantoms 
of their conversation, angels
walk among us 

Their reality determined once 

again in the full blown possession 
of men.  Each extend their arms 
through the race of human kind
engaging in their dance after wings 
have spread and talons blackened 
the bedsheets in shades 
of the darkest wine

Yes, angels and demons are real 

my friend, intertwined in genetic 
suspension they spell m - o - n - g - r - e - l
as close to a definition of modern man 
as one could understand

We project these innate qualities 

of ours to protect us from who we are
To distract us enough that we just might 
think devils like these could be real
bring us to our knees, and plead 
for the angels to save us
when all along the only ones 
who could do that are ourselves

Oh, yes, those mythic beings are real

alright:  they'd watch over us at night 
if they hadn't fallen asleep themselves
during the day they're usually spotted 
in hallways, bathrooms, and cars
Anyplace there are mirrors  
for one to look into.  Like you

Both demons and angels 

are each distinguished 
by purity. Therefore 
true possession 
amounts to the total 
absolvement of impurities

The prison of flesh where all angels 

and demons are banished
has been known throughout history 
by one word, humanity

REMONIC DEFLECTORS


An argument takes one 
a single person
Make no mistake about it
it takes two to agree
To communicate is to swim

Beware of the domino 
effect when water
mills return solutions 
just as clear and yet
More bitter than before 

It means someone is about 
to be born via post patho 
logical caesarian and just 
the air between us can be 
damaged forever so take care

Wear your Remonic Deflectors 
when stepping inside 
someone's parlor for tea
Remember how at first 
you already agree

ADAMITE

The purpose
of numbers

is to divide
the whole

There is only
one number

Our Solar System (In Partial Focus)

for May Swenson

*Sedna
 
*Eris
*Makemake
*Haumea

*Pluto 
(5 moons: Charon, Nix, Hydra, P4, and P5)

***ubewanos***
**twotinos**
*plutinos*
+neptune trojans+


Neptune
(13 moons: Triton, Nereid, Larissa, Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea, Proteus, Halimede, Sao, Psamathe, Laomedeia, Neso)

**centaurs**


Uranus

(27 moons: Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Cupid, Belinda, Perdita, Puck, Mab, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, Francisco, Caliban, Stephano, Trinculo, Sycorax, Margaret, Prospero, Setebos, Ferdinand) 


**centaurs** 


Saturn

(62 moons at least, 53 are named; with 24 prominent ones: Pan, Daphnis, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, Aegaeon, Mimas, Methone, Anthe, Pallene, Enceladus, Tethys, Telesto, Calypso, Dione, Helene, Polydeuces, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, Iapetus, Phoebe)


Jupiter
(67 confirmed moons; with 13 prominent ones: Metis, Adrastea, Amalthea, Thebe, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Themisto, Leda, Himalia, Lysithea, Elara)

 *Ceres
**asteroids**

Mars
(Phobos, Deimos)

Earth 
(Luna)  


Venus 

 
Mercury*

 
(+THE SUN-)