the underbelly

there is always something
cataclysmic around the corner
always petri dishes filled with fog
we do not divine these days, but
we feel it, like fragmented prose
spidering up our legs
taking root in our tibias and talons
don't think for a moment we don't all have talons.

there is something, unknowable
waiting for us to tear each other to shreds
i know, i've seen it in my present
don't tell me you're a preacher because
i only want a break.

beauty

all of the roses in my room are dry.
why is that?

all of these petals falling harshly
like autumn too soon
my room will fill with the
amorous dropping of dried-up beautiful things
and i will gasp, unready, waiting to
see what it smells like when i finally go under

give me your leaden shoes
i will fill them with soil and grow
peonies, mountain laurels and roots

i will not try to grow roses. they
never seem to listen.

the ergathon

as a boy, i would draw oars
on paperboard cut-outs of kings and queens
deep, swinging oars made from oak
and ash
and dogwood
they are folded over, now
crushed into shards of paper
cutting memories into my ribs
steering my heart, heaving me
towards a final
realization
i am not like you
i am small
i am frail
but i am new
i am an unborn thing.

head in the clouds

they tell me i've got places to go.
i listen to acoustic covers of
over-sexualized eighties gods and
wondering if beethoven ever wanted lyrics
for his lyricism
there are rocks in my shoes
and pits in my chest. i have been eaten away.
i would like to recycle, to save the earth
but it's hard to have more than
one dream. there are electric trains
round-trip flights, automobiles
but they are all wrong.
why do they tell me i've got places to go?
all i have are places to be.

we interrupt the daily broadcast...

...To direct you towards places where you can buy my short story, "Number Theory", which has recently been published in eBook form by Untreed Reads:

The best place to buy from (i.e. the place that gives me the most money):
Straight from the publisher!

These places are cool, too:
Smashwords
1romanceEbooks. Yeah. (please appreciate that it's listed under "ManLove")
AllRomanceEbooks
OmniLit!
Scribd

If you insist on buying from the Apple iBookstore or the Amazon eBookstore (or some other esoteric webstore), you can wait a bit.

and now back to other, cooler stuff.

miles from nowhere

my feet were broken, hot
two lights, your eyes, spun in
place and returned my gaze
your dare was more than literary
my solar plexus more than empty
you ask, "why are you so destroyed?"
but only hurricanes destroy. water erodes.

the slight push against the door
sent me someplace erotic as you
unburdened me, pulled out my vitals and
said, "here, this is what you're looking for."
and you wouldn't have been wrong
but i get the feeling
you weren't exactly right.

your shoulders will peel next week
like scabs on fifth-graders' knees

oh, dana

sitting on a window-ledge
a shadow told me of my past
and i, i listened rapt with wonder
as shadow dear my life uncovered
"who are you to kill your foes?"
"who are you to think you know?"
the shadow stared and left me blind
i took his light, he took my eyes

why do we hide on windowsills?
the shadow laughed and held my neck
his voice was coarse, i held my breath
"i have no answers, little friend
your eyes are yours, your eyes are new.
why would i, a shadow old, corrupt a thing so bold and true?"
i had no answer, i was dumb
i sat and wondered, sipped some rum.