Solstice

At the solstice
Bikinis in Brazil
Snow Shovels in Wales
Foggy rain in Seattle
There's no center of the universe
We are all scattered together

Told Her A Thing Or Two

Well wasn't he born
out of wedlock?

Out of, in of, what does it matter?
He was born
Hallelujah
and he don't regret it.
Why should you?

Well, I'm just saying...

Well don't be just saying.
God said go forth and multiply
and didn't specify
     exactly how
in the beginning
and even allowed Lot's daughters
to do it with their daddy
     in a cave
so's they could go forth and multiply
and then there's whole pages of begats
from those two girls
and God said nary a work about that
so why should you.

Reading Murakami's "After Dark" while under the influence of morphine

waitng   waiting
for the morphine to override
      pain
in my penis, my bladder
piss dripping down the catheter tube

Murakami's sleeping Eri
wandering sister Mari
TV sets blurring the story
my eyes slip downwards
      close and enter TV
snap awake searching the page
      for lost words
           lost sisters
book slipping away
my dope enduced fantasy
blending with Eri Mari
Murakami's words fuzzing
      into my dream
book slipping to the floor
head jerking awake
eyes closing into dream
      bye bye Eri
      bye bye pain

red suede boots

in red suede boots
she strides laughing
tosses her hair
music in her ears
talking with her thumbs
but does not see
     the trees around her
     the leaves beneath
     the long-haired youth
         eyeing her from across the street

Alzheimer Fantasy

When my memory fails
I will be like Richard
who reads and reads
but doesn't remember what he reads
      but keeps reading
and we will meet in another dimension
and not remember each other
      but carry books
and we will read to each other.

"What are you reading," he will ask.
"I don't know. What are you reading?"
"What you are reading."
"So it's the same?"
"I don't know.  What is it?"

So we will go on
happily not knowing
what the other doesn't know.

Just before day breaks
when it's still dark
finally you melt into
     a warm sleep

toilet flushes
rain on the roof
someone saying
better wake him up
it's almost time to go.

What About Afterlife?

Surprise me.
It'll be easy.
I'm not expecting anything.

Wow!  I never expected this!
I'm speechless.
About time, you say?
Oh, I get it.
That's the surprise. 
I don't get to say anything
          forever.
Yeh, that'd be hell for a poet.