He Detects His Own Bad Hand

this hero of my christmas story
of inalienable belief in safety
with special powers due civilians
prisonless in black, a new Johnny Cash
sings breathless surrounded stones
his sidekick sits on his alias
continues as if his life is waiting
to be asked his name
this is not a function of games
an incorporation to demand cost benefits
this live action we risk in alleys
but surprised by how close to home
he learns to track paths we diverge
if not by chance, then what?

Stage Blood

Jesus is my emergency contact
- B.F

& this little piggy’s gone to market
a call for where the country air
beats waiting tables
i could be a rural brewer
it’s our four year theme
that science of stones and roots
gets us ready for the tour
we thought would end in continents
always, always with the ghosts
that live on city jobless corners
this is a new grotto mosaic
even graffiti needs words
with urges to change my regime
but never speak of baseball or politics

Bone Swinging Monkeys

the air isn’t the same
safe as home with road rage
when circulation drops in arms
uncle falls from lit marquee
that some old naomi grasps
bossy on the way down
comments like movie news reels
like loss love, life & limb
this is the new republic
on each village blood exacts
pulp like fossil fuels staple bound
to dead-eye each noir thriller
in cuneiform of defensive wounds
can’t wait for the new canon

9 mm

every city needs its masked man
arms covered in ointment
to consider the el train
cramped by days impoverished
to come to this vacation
no hymns or dedications
or answers but gunpoint decisions
clarifies empty of chambers
someone else’s voice starts
like any family warning
it’s a joke over the hill
commutes by old adrenaline
victimless you cross home
because you decide to

Overdue

He’s a nice guy; he just has a lot of video rentals to return.
-Liz Garrott

now everyone will think
sea warnings as big as fag hags
with broken francophones
now this is not unforgiving
the english of their god
but human accident
range of continental climates
in after fed torpor
when forbearances expire
bore down in mouse nests
comfortable of your people
a plan of slow poison
that authorizes lip readings
a few passages are yours