Lead

The gunfighters raised their own pantheon
Of martyrs and saints up to the heavens,
It was the grave alone that could place them
Firmly beyond the reach of challengers
And all their blood-thirsty aspirations.
Their tortured headstones riddled with vein
Pot-marks of bitter grapes from later comers.
Living practitioners were but touchstones,
Their cold professional blood a prized ink
For others to scribe their [...]

Over and Over–Over Again

I destroy you over and over,
Unmake you with every thread I tug;
I see you unravel before me.
Should I fear your dismantlement?
Or shrug, as I do, indifferently;
Unconcerned as a mayfly with time.
I create you again and again,
Re-thread you like an eager needle
That knows no industry but mending.
                      * * *

A Walk Through The Catacombs With My Love

Ghastly, horrid, in tattered shrouds;
Their features ravaged by decay.
Though their faces haunt you at night,
They are only the dead, my love.
Lifeless they lay, fettered to doom.
Unable to taste of our world.
Though their eyes seem ever to stair,
They are only the dead, my love.
Wretched husks, devoid of all sense,
They taunt us with our mortal fear.
Though they [...]

Equations

A life’s work rendered in coarse white chalk;
A monumental undertaking
Of intricate construction, wrought on
A wide plane of slate hung from a wall.
Endless labyrinths navigated–
Thought surging through the darkened future
For the surface and promised daylight.
The numbers boggle me, leave me dry;
My math-happy friend swims their ocean
                           * * *

The Night Has Come Down

The night has come down, come down with a thud,
And the street erupts like an aftershock.
The noise, the neon, the clamoring mob
Are flying, flaming debris in my mind.
The taxi drivers rage at each other,
Pedestrians try to dodge their machines.
Bottles are breaking, transformed into knives,
Wildly brandished but tasting no blood;
Girlfriends calming the would-be combatants
For after all, [...]

Infurnace

One morning, with nothing better to do,
I dropped-by Dante’s apartment in hell.
As we made our way down the avenue
Said he: “Since you’re here, have the tour as well.”
I asked of him: “How’d you land this gig?”
As along the banks of the Styx we trod.
“How’d you end-up in the fiery brig?”
Said he: “There’s no harsher critic [...]

Tijuana Monday

Slowly, I realize my eyes are open;
Apparently, I’m awake and alive.
I’m sore and mangled, wretched and tangled,
I hope I never know what that smell is.
The memories hide behind columns of
Smoke which rise from a bomb-cratered weekend.
I’m left with flashes of nightmarish fun
I’d like to think I’m not capable of.
I need to find the guys and [...]

Knights of the Savage Tongue

Their tongue’s the sharp blade seeking the softness
Between song and speech’s narrow rib gap:
A wispy spring rain and its cool finesse,
The raging storm’s merciless thunder clap.
Their industry flows from the Saxon axe,
Its birthright of dexterous strength and skill.
Through the tumultuous beauty it hacks
And steadily rolls like the watermill.
Their goals they’ll as likely cut as caress,
Their [...]

Worm Sonnette

Above all men does lord the stately worm,
No king or pharaoh or paddishaw holds
A fiefdom as vast as the worm enfolds,
Nor commands his vassals so long a term.
He feasts of his subject’s meat and marrow,
Eating far too well to have cares of gold;
His wealth, the fruit of the earthy barrow.
 
                                * * *

Ode to an All-Night Diner

A point in transit, a lifetime apart,
Forever lost in the smokestack jungle.
No hero, just a walk-on neurotic,
No lover, just a passing addiction.
No reasons, answers, or explanations;
Just a turtle on his back by the sea.
Where can you go to find someone to love
Who won’t try to cut your throat in the night?
Where can you go once [...]