Old Ways

A day of pouring gasolineover cardboard just to shovelall the ash pays incopper coated directdeposits afterward.The paint on the stop signsplintered from the dustnow just a hexagonpeople spray overwith their minds.I have seen wherethe city endsinto a vortexof dead endhighway exits outto sex shops and old mineswhere bats all drinkthe blood of runaways,too bored to […]

Sorceress

Her tree bark colored hairbounced while she walked downthe stone stairs, and leaned againsta streetlight while she waitedfor her ride to pull right up to her. The car rolled in straight fromthe 1960s although I did not knowthe name and the door openedby itself as if by magic. She climbed inside and it carried heraway […]

Dogtrack

A dirt patch overgrownsurrounded by dark buildingsmarked with graffitiand rusted bleachersfilled by memoriesof money madeand burned.The screens still mountednow just foggy graylike water mixed with dustand all the broken glasslike diamondslong forgotten there.Paintings of wolvesstain molding bathroomwalls while sinks leakover marble floorsand deepen the abyssbeyond beginning.There are no distant howlsat rising moonsor river crossing trainsduring […]

Youth

Everything tastes like black licorice.The window sticks.The cold metal of my watchadjusts to warmthby just this contactwith my arm.The symmetryof clock tower and hospitaldisorients me looking downafter the elevator opensto another windownot just stuck but sealed shutfor our safety.In the waiting roomthe carpet pattern swirlswith violet and redwhile a woman taps a cigaretteinto a soda […]

The Golem

The cut looks like a comet’s tail,and stalks there on my forearmall dried out now after cleaning itand waiting.A robin with one eyescarfs red berries downfrom the tree outside the windowjust above our kitchen sink. I remember my old friend,when we were kids,stacking broken bricksinto the rough shapeof a human and calling it a golem.Even […]

Music Box

He takes her out to the fire.It crackles likea skeleton falling apart,and all the musichypnotizes othersinto frantic swayingbordering on dancebut not quite getting there. They claim their plastic cupsof beer and stolen chairsand watch a fight break outover something just as stupid.Her forehead is the colorof a clementine fromthe orange burst of heatthere in the […]

For A While Now

Pills spill into the bloodand take effectso slowly you forgetabout them.The metal clip on the ropefor the flagpole collidesrepeatedly into the metallike a church bellwhere you wouldn’twant to hear one.Radio voices mutilatethe silence with their falsehoods,and the droning loudcommercials in between them.They distract each otherfrom all of it with their bodiesarching blue sparksin between them,and […]