you have a mind

your mileage may vary

on this floating grain of sand

he prayed over and over

be far away be far far away

at least he was smart enough to know

what an idiot at prayer he was

not exactly a random sampling

but life is a subjective-objective combo dish

try not to make your singular and perpetual

problems into my singular etc.

since I am a frail hemopheliac

pursued by jackals and hyenas

tracking blood up the stairway

for not acting in a timely manner

but the fact is that the late blossoms

are deeper hued longer and wider

and that's not a purposeful misnomer

may God part my ass to his ways

if I am shown to be in error

but times change and the irrelevant

eventually sinks noiselessly

into the sea but not just any sea

the exceedingly stormy Sea of Similar

yes some things are similar to others

and that's the mother of all cans of worms

it's a matter of screen resolution

which some may find nauseating

the engineers of Armageddon for example

as the weight of their wagers

crushes your spine and unleashes madmen

whose timely and public pillorying

would greatly benefit a humanity

screaming power to the feeble

hoping that the Universe is a great orgasm

I used to be a moving target

but now I'm a sitting duck

well not sitting per se

more a catatonic shuffle

that served to confound and confabulate

by who or for what purpose

remains to be investigated

by who or for what purpose

lies beyond my rank and armor

well not sitting per se

more a streak on the horizon

because we need to know the future

because the earthly love rocket

will get us there eventually

now there's a universal

even among the aimless

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It never melted for starters

the Magic Icicle could talk

it had humors jealousies aversions

deep rending tides of love

and week long fits of giggling

It had been crafted by Father Frost

The Emperor of the North

his breath could wreck a train

and send a picnic scattering

Billy never met the Frost King

who he heard was a ballroom dancer

fast on his feet tipita tapita

the dance finals were approaching

it was Billy's job to suss the opposition

his reports gave the Emperor

a step up on the competition

which was stiff as beaten egg whites

there were the castrati pair

Harley and Davidson

who were fast and supple

and could ignite a rattling fart

10 feet from the judges' candle

and rocket blurringly past them

like the jaguar under a jungle moon

there was Nip and Tuck

Edwardians from the pages of Lord Knackwit

they could anticipate every dip and swirl

and often stood quite still

then there were the Rubber Twins

Bobby Rubber and Loquatia Rubber

gliding ever gliding and then rebounding

in a ricochet ballet of Newtonian elasticity

with a certainty that will pirouette right over

your thin skinned inadequacies

undying in their devotion

to big tits and ropes and pulleys

and an elephant in a china shop agenda

while crickets rubbed their lanterns bright

and the night grew big as the Frog of Creation

hopping and hipping you along

on the dance floor of partial eternity

so loosen up and listen up

it's just that we really must

compare categories more often

actually hold them side by side

hold them up to death the little icon

in the corner of my screen

no way I'm going to click on it

it's going to have to click on me

and here we are at another frozen end

please accept your melting icicle statue

the Emperor's Sno Cone of Attention Award

From "Pageant of Naked Mischief" available on Amazon

classified personal ad

parasite seeks host

now that we're friends can I talk dirty

last night I fucked your wife

this looks like a nice place to stop

the problem with learning truth

is that you must conclude

how could I have been so stupid

words exist somewhere before spoken

excuse me accuse me words

my tracheotomy should be here by now

like the tribe with ears for lips

fortunately my molecules are all

somewhat trained to obey my wishes

the advantages of a rubber face

is that it holds more soup

all the dinner plates had tooth marks

eating the sunrise for breakfast

watching the aurora on TV

why not hold a festival at this very moment

while laying about on cushions

naturally I refused to take orders

and ducked into the post office

to search the posters for a kindly face

and weave my hair into a bird nest

at dawn the ambulance pulled up

and emptied the refrigerator

took the furniture and light bulbs

under a black and silver mountain of cloud

stretching from horizon to horizon

the wind was so fierce

flower blossoms became deadly missiles

the sand storm broke all my bones

they set wrong and the doctor said

we'll have to break them all again

one by one with a hammer and chisel

now that's a real armpit full of bacteria

I'll have to sit still and pose for the sculptor

with the radio turned up really loud

causes and their waiting effects

strangled and dangled at the city gate

yesterday's front page stuck to my shoe

the past is the space around things

memory is right here not distant

and poetry is not written to relieve tension

a man who reads clouds told me

look children he can rhyme

we have so many things to do

the world is such a mess

the sun goes down

the moon comes up

I really must undress

From "Pageant of Naked Mischief" available on Amazon

my assassin hisses from behind his curtain

there's nobody here

with a stand up comic's grin

so he turned to practical jokes

got the gods tumbling spire over minaret

suffering a vigorously impious scorn

the pit bull lobby eventually had him banned

for making life into a pastoral meadow

but reposeful bliss eluded him

instead an agitated bliss on all his channels

being it was a game of hobbled feet

marrying truth to insanity

and created a race of juggling pundits

ringing like temple gongs

inherently bourgeois anarchist epicureans

wanting what is best is not always pretty

but nothing padded his gaze

observe the scale and the detail

the ruling class toiling all night

gave us minds and wills and forgetfulness

arise from the dead said the angel Mr. Blinky

kiss my sassafras ass said Billy Nitro

Scamper his Mongolian chihuahua

barking and snapping in emphasis

the times of laughter are over

he decanted in all silliness

so fuck it laugh anyway

this is a limited time offer

you've read this you can't unread it

but what choice did I have

chronically coming up empty handed

flapping in the wind and no condom

vast and complex was Blinky's hypothermia

from deep within the Putumayo

a million chimeras cried for blood

the lava flowed round Pele's feet

upscale and chic descended to shopping cart

as the armless Venus glided towards him

fresh from a dump in a highway pay toilet

all love and germs in a clueless crescendo

freed him from omen slavery

Pol Potted the world of its many assholes

Venus pulled him close

her hot breath made his hairs dance

she exhaled softly

you don't have to scream

to keep yourself awake

she could read a phoneme

like the moon in the river

as they pronounced us man and woman

their chief hipster said crazy man crazy

you are a freak like us

act accordingly

From "Pageant of Naked Mischief" available on Amazon

my meme replacement therapy

is going quite well Dr. Nil just told me

because I can't handle everything thrown at me

everything is a lot and GIGO to boot

the fibrous growth in my ear

said that the future signals us in some way

maybe coded glances wink wink

but we're not sure of the spelling

a real spectacle of setbacks

a bleeding archaeological phantom

engineered to manipulate

moving my pen in gleeful jerks

with a genteel appetite for mayhem

which is why I am now sharing

the secret of life with you

ready

mind is derivative

well that's it

looks like I've blown my cover

if this sounds like propaganda then it is

now to get on to the meatier part

first a matter of indexing

last a matter of indexing

buzzards circle my guardian bottle of muscatel

and a couple of robins too

a tempestuous tune in a teapot

from follow the bouncing ball

to Rocky Horror Show

occult syntax as a 2nd language

and that was the last surface

his wiggly digits ever palpated

because the sages lie through their teeth

but have good circulation and a ruddy face

with long lists of abjurations as usual

one of them spoke just now

sending me in to negotiate

because I have a snake pit for a soul

on further reflection it turns out

I have many souls

most of them severe critics

several are wind up toys

academic or practical you decide

existence is both diagrammatic

and ready to throw a punch

in an ancient tangle of inconsequentials

well perplexity is the root of all humor

how is it that some ideas

are interpreted by other ideas for example

but whatever you end up doing

we know too much

to be stupid any longer

From "Pageant of Naked Mischief" available on Amazon

if your humor fails you kill yourself

because they will tell you why you failed

in far too great crippling detail

enemies of play

goose stepping to a zany polka

entire regiments ready to die

for the Nut in the Nuthouse

in a deep cover psyops mole operation

fucked with my head like candy from a baby

weather permitting we'll visit the ruins

ancestral whorehouses and wretched genes

but they chose him and the billiard balls flew

he was known as the glider pilot artist

painted a series of blue canvasses

with a single line down the center

because the mystery is an airy one

held together by a paper clip chain

though we were unjustifiably scared

out of our muttering wits to look

oh dear I believe I've lost

my transparent all-seeing membrane

it was the limpid dawn of another millennium

and its less than daring innovations

by the Mercantilist Association of Research

did its work upon the landscape

and the picture was anti-rosy

for Seduction Delightenment and Elongation

their devil women had an undulating beauty

and boy they could really dance

having 3 legs and the gaze of the converted

she snipped his cigar and they got smoochy

it was a Robusto and presently the lights came on

in the passive calm of logic he screamed

with the strength of the oft bamboozled

not so passive then

her tongue curled round the back of his teeth

artillery pounded the trenches all night long

she had always been too much for any man

her star sign was Capricornucopia

one of several million methods

for eating the hearts of strangers

Nature having its benefits and liabilities

as welcome as a volcano as usual

we play lotto on her occasional flowerings

flail at doom and leave spoor

and try to make tension beautiful

what other species is there

that apparently actually wants to die

life has a lot of puzzles

on your way to

the bonfire

in the sky

From "Pageant of Naked Mischief" available on Amazon

Tex Lester and his sidekick Lumpy Bascom

wiggled down the arroyo on their bellies

to better observe a latifundista trouble spot

too hot to touch so they tap danced instead

Lumpy grabbed the walkie talkie and said

hey my turn to change the channels

Tex said OK Lumpy said here goes

your eyelids are turning transparent

every lock has a key but some are kinda rusty

it was an irreducible problem

on a sliding scale as usual

nothing so precious as a mind

overcoming its own psychosis

nothing so dangerous so revealing

what makes potential seem immediate

who can have infinite protection

working yourself to exhaustion can help

if you are an original sin Catholic

it has been 7 seconds since my last confession

contusions from the infant cradle

held to the sky in blessing

but the fields always droop and wither

and we always have the rest of our lives

the latifundista was under attack

by an army of particulars

bringing the guilty to the book

if they go apoplectic it usually means

there's a turd in the butter dish

at this point grab life by the ass

a balm for the paranoid shakes

or life's analog of the Virgin Mary

offering her writhing body to lepers

entering heaven in her bent Bentley

while the rebels arouse themselves

as her personal representative

no keener mortal praise exists

except by her blind biographers

and their company of war chariots

our task is to mend civilization

without getting our balls shot off

but at my age it's an empty threat

funny you don't see many

geriatric suicide bombers

a relic from grandma's day

where tradition was not the joke

it certainly is today unless it is a

tradition of mockery

From "Pageant of Naked Mischief" available on Amazon

the circumstance of his birth

had somehow become joined

to the circumstance of his life

raised on cowboys and Indians

when no bigger than a twig

alone on a little mattress

talking to limp cloth animals

explains much of this

chromosome damage no doubt

a chugging tractor discs the soil

a mile away growing unheard

as sleep opens its music box lid

my rapid pulse is transformed

and becomes visible as black spots

which begin to grow together

eyes begin to move independently

floating face up I think they are open

wishing they were lanterns instead of

window panes unable to blink back the view

held open by the weight of two images

the great mound of bones and teeth

scene of rituals unspeakable

sordid affairs and so ordinary

if they tell you there's no describing it

they'd better have a blank expression

victims of gravity searching for a place

where the double war between

the odds and evens has not yet reached

wondering who invented tables and chairs

calendar on the wall brittle and torn

by a window climbing sun

pages flutter like moth wings

whispering parts of speech syllables

a screen door bangs dogs bark

crossing the linoleum a trail of ants

water drips in the sink

a moon rises over mobile homes

drawn in a circle against the dark

red flares line the highway at night

vagrancies outstrip the vacancies

with charlatans on every street corner

in a fervent denial of perception

before the rubble of the holy ziggurat

burnt offerings burnt heretic

having learned how to learn

he began to teach how to teach

on the plan-it planet

finding fresh chewing gum

stuck under the diner counter

when is an idea dead and useless

you'll need to be able to spell dog and cat

From "Pageant of Naked Mischief" available on Amazon

their councils priced themselves

straight out of the mystery market

augmentation via will power gone idiotic

still overrated by all the cackling heads

of all the Spring Break universities

deluded that they count for something

the professors rushed out into the night

tearing at their eyes what did they see

another circus chainsaw lobotomy

common as dirt in the modern era

so I pulled the stake from my heart

going for broke why not the game is rigged

waste no time on the miraculous

heaven is probably just an office job

no f-words but maybe x-rays

I guess you gotta be your own angel

guide yourself it's that simple

and have the dignity of a learner

lemme know how that works out

radar bastards not there when you look

bought me a week in a Gitmo cage

they slap your wrists and take your legs

with their grandiose fanaticism

wanted my Swiss bank account number

the hole in his head said hello

don't make me shout

over the din of your inner Wurlitzer

running like rats on a carousel

thanks to the beautific potential of things

somewhere out there is another Einstein

on I-5 near the cattle pens

we all want the authentic

but where does the aversion come from

if education is the wealth of a people

trying to end the reign of hairsplitting

and escape the labyrinths of doctrine

you'll be weeping for the human race too

with a tentative grasp of self

high as a kite but driving a straight line

through the headlights of truckers

more than one kind of perfect obviously

if we never slept it would be different

floating above the flames of memory

yes sometimes the call of the wild

is marginally somewhat overwhelming

to the higher cognitive deltas

made me wonder about the sheaves of wheat

that I kept in my Conn Bluenote

right now is freedom right now

and now we come to a standstill

From "Pageant of Naked Mischief" available on Amazon

his heraldic crest

a donger and yarbles rampant

upon a field of green clover

it was a stone slab of course

donated by a few eggheads in exile

his best friends were his orgasms

shall we redefine the human condition

my guru continued via implication

you are tied to your weenie

with many rivers to cross it's all a river

float like a butterfly sting like etc.

his heels had wings goat wings

danced merry on their way to work

there's an idea lurking in here somewhere

from the lurking transcendental government

standing guard between the seen and the unseen

try not to bleed so much kids digitize instead

this is a novelty sing along tune

hooted by two adolescent chimps

nearly inaudible due to the sound of

heavy earth moving machinery

the crowd groaned to get the signal

booed him uncompromisingly off stage

he ran into the gloom of fog and introspection

calling taxi taxi taxi in the rain

played all the frequencies at once

could have led to open rebellion

but instead was hailed a master of definitions

please make of it what you wish

since there is nothing left to do

but go bowling on rockabilly night

while madmen comics kept us ROTFLMAO

with astounding feather and glue tricks

so that his work in the aviary could have

a reaching interplanetary dimension

utterly without consequence whatsoever

the whore press wouldn't touch it

and retired from the drapery business

it's up to us to steer this sucker

down the Grapevine and find parking

where our epic turns right on Main St.

BBQ skewers swished in the starlight

yes he was a romantic and a romanticist

Pushing the Topic up Through the Earth

was the finally finished pamphlet's title

where this goes on the graph

is anyone's guess

take it line by line

of course it was more fun

not being a running target

I am but an orphan foundling sir

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