THE BEST DAMN THAT COULD BE GIVEN AT THIS PARTICULAR MOMENT

Your swagger
I’d say something nice
about it
but I’d be lying

frankly I don’t think
you pull it off
very well
not everyone can

some people
are unaware of such
the ones who
find themselves

hysterical

COMPETITION WITH YOUR OWN SPLIT LIP AMOUNTS TO NOTHING

I want to dig your swagger
much more than I actually do
but the plain fact is
you just haven't got it

The blazer, the cheap shoes
THE SHOES FER CHRISSAKES
for the shoes alone
you should be shot

Sell off the corporate jet
complain how you hate losing
you will turn things around
through sheer force of ill

Passing through like driftwood
only less knotty
washed ashore and dried out
like a ruined promise

What's worse
the ruin
or the promise?

UNFORGETTABLEVILLE

I could've just
pulled something
if I was the kind of person
who pulled things

Every fifteen minutes or so
I get the urge
to call my old phone numbers
and ask for me

In the vague hope that
one of these
mes' lives
has really worked out

Fabulous wealth
a complete lack of worry
the respect of my (his) peers
and a nice complexion

I call the numbers
in sequence from the first
I can remember
to the most recent

Obviously I would feel
most relieved if
the earliest iterations
worked out the best

That would mean
they have enjoyed
happiness the longest
and isn't that the point?

But I've been
trying to give
that up for
a long time now

Shiftlessness
lack of conscience
deformed morality
uncivil behavior

Inappropriate appetites

The world hardly
prepares one for anything
wholesome and throws shit
in our faces

With two hands
to make sure we get it
which we do even when
we think we don't

Said the mute
to the deaf man:
I'm blind
not smell-dead

I AM HERE

I've given up on the white beaches
and blue waters of the Mediterranean

I'm resigned to never seeing Amsterdam's
red light district again

I will never travel by train through Canada
to the place they once called Fitzhugh

Denmark, Norway, even Berlin are all
completely out of reach by now

When I point to a map with my finger
I see a skeletal digit's shadow fall

When I turn a globe I feel my open eyes
with each and every spin

When I think about a passport
I see blank yellowed pages of life erased

I am here
and here I shall remain

SHORT TRIP HOME

Through the gates
past the iron lion
up the slight grade
feeling the gravel
crunch beneath you
the yearly sojourn
every early July
because tradition calls

the sun unforgiving
the welcome less so
time has healed much
be grateful for that
and so many other
things you've forgotten

SONG OF HATE

I cannot bear to reread
the instructions
and find out
what I've done wrong

It seemed fairly simple
I looked at them
with great care
or so I thought

Now I question everything
my baseline standard
and why not
nothing ever changes

FULL MOON, EMPTY HEART

There was no sunshine
no breeze
only the suggestion
of bells sounding
from far off

When dusk hit
the shadows made
circus freaks
of us all
taller wider ruined

A full moon risen
lights my way
the giant lantern
seeking truth
mocking my heart

CHECKLIST: HOW WE FALL OUT OF LOVE

1. Quickly
2. Surprisingly
3. Sadly
4. With regret
5. With relief
6. At a moment's notice
7. On airplanes
8. In other countries
9. With haste
10. With waste
11. With no net
12. With bitterness
13. With anger
14. Stupidly
15. Soberly
16. In a fugue state
17. Forever
18. For never
19. For God's sake
20. Because this shit has got to stop
21. With surety