Dents We Call Life

The petals of sitting

Alone on a ledge of a

Wall. The city here is

Industrial, abandoned.

I like the wild flowers

And the shrubs. I like

The graffiti. When the

Sun sets on the abandoned automobile

Mouths, on the rail road

Ties. I think of a daring childhood.

Blood brothers with surrealism.

Or the raw patterns of

Broken panes.

The stars and planets sitting on time

Making dents in space.

How armies of sky

Take one leaf at a time

And rattle them green bones,

Shattering the air

Of its clear perpendiculars.

Just Any Poem

To perturb the air
The moon
In gallant horseplay
Seems to be as still as a chimney.
Though it has no use for ladders.

The kites on Mars
Are as blue as the sea.

But don’t let depression garble you yet.
There is the melancholy of the heart
To broach this night of shoulders
And elbows.

The poem can be

Black as a match head.
Vigilante as applesauce.

A wink in the thunder.
A thud on the daisies.

An illumination
Flipped
On its side
Kicking at balloons.

Wish me luck.

The Worn Soles of the Moon

The worn sole of the moon.
The haggle of the afternoon leftovers in
The ears.
A slapstick of terror = graffiti umbrellas.
A giggle of blood reaches out for the
Morning,
Unbuttons its curfew elevators.

Between nonsense and fury,
Joy draws straws.

Daises ring ring ring the
Stretching bells of our assumptions,
Like death and the color of sails.

A Washtub of Ghosts

I asked the
Bouncing ball
What time
The light bulbs
Go out?

A washtub of ghosts, said the ball

It’s just
A squeeze of light, the darling blink of darkness,
Came the second reply

The sleeping cat is a fat chance

The dollar amount is traffic

The atoms are a taste test

Genes are the mocking call

In cursive, beware

Red Lips

Baffled like the parchment sun

And if hell is a hula-hoop

This evening has the hips for you

It’s better this way

A heart of almost

Keeps one steady

Crumpled up like a basement door

The seasons are the friction of motion

And if I had to guess

Life is red lips

The nomination of significance