fragclept0_41423

 

 a w9 for

"Status Symbol 

Auto Body"

my baby's so vain 

she's almost a mirror

arrows with no target

shackles made of snow

do you want to be 

the ditch around a tower?

there are lots of

different kinds of 

"two kinds of  people 

in this world"

you can suck on the hard candy

of an "always" or a "never"

but I prefer the softness 

of a noun

I almost bought the giant silver

fork and knife at Goodwill

love's not the way 

to treat a friend

there are so many better 

things for you

than to see your feelings sold

as magic lanterns 

to somebody whose body

casts no light

dog

in a dream I 

was propagating

an iridescent purple 

plant that grew so 

quickly I looked 

away and when I 

looked back it 

had grown in 

and around the 

furniture and up 

the whole wall

to the ceiling

it started to look 

like scarred skin 

a third degree

burn bubbling 

and warped

dreams clutched

in our thighs

once it was always

now it's never

regularly at work

I open envelopes 

that smell like soapy 

perfume and are full of 

handwritten notes 

in warbling ballpoint

cursive on small 

sheets of paper from

kitchen notepads 

that have borders 

with watercolor

flowers hummingbirds

etc, to explain each 

and every enclosed 

document medical 

record receipt 

and scrap of paper

I appreciate the 

thoroughness

and imagine 

the tiled countertops

slick plastic

landline phones 

on the wall the local news

on the tv 

in the next room

I imagine all of

these decorative stationary

equipped maybe

octogenarian women

as a network

of far flung sisters 

from the old world

of longhand and 

thank you notes

you look to me like

misty roses

too soft to touch

but too lovely 

to leave alone

you look to me

like love forever

too good to last

but too lovely

not to try

pocket watch

it rained last night 

very hard and loud
and I had a cinematic dream 

in 5 very specific parts

that were labeled like an outline

    1.)

    2.)

    3.)

    4.)

    5.)

at the start of each part 

I saluted myself
for sleeping so well

and with such clarity

    1.)

        the narrative arc

        was about young woman

        who was the daughter 

        of a serial killer

        we went to boarding school

        together and shared a large bed

        with one other girl

        we were sitting at one of those

        faux wood topped school tables 

        making mosaic style collages 

        with construction paper 

        and mod podge

        I was also making

        an ellaborate sash style body chain 

        with silver ball chain beads

        and gingham bows

        for a silver pocket watch 

        that hung in the center of my chest

        the serial killer's daughter

        kept coming over and painting wet strokes

        on my construction paper page

        and snatched up my sash 

        and dipped it in a muddy puddle

        I was frustrated but

        decided the mud added     

        some desirable effect

    5.)

        in the final act

        the serial killer's daughter

        was a wild German shepherd

        running down a dusty desert road

        trying to escape her father

        she stopped in a gas station

        bathroom to clean up then ran

        behind the gas station

        into the wild expanse

        I tried to pour a blood colored

        message into her ears

        but there was a gap where they

        connected to her head

        and the message just 

        leaked out

        so I didn't know how

        to help her

        that was the only way

        I could think of to reach her

        brain, seeing as she was

        a dog now and only spoke   

        a dog's language

abuelitas

I want you to see something

the next time a man on the street

tells you you're beautiful 

say I know

and watch him try to take it back

I take my 15s now

she hears her own voice 

so loud and distorted 

in her head that she was 

reluctant to speak at all

I walk down the very center 

of the empty parking lot

and sit with my back pressed 

against the yellow fire hydrant

the shimmering fall sun dances

and one plane with its white line

is framed in the church window

between my hat and sunglasses

mpd3

pleased to report 

  that practically 

everyone 

  in this town 

smokes Camels...

I get a red 99 from a 67ish 

  man in the smokers’ corral 

at Asti,, he says I have

  cool style 

people freak out

  when I put on the

white cowboy boots

his friend said

  WE’RE TALKING

ABOUT THE

  TWILIGHT ZONE

yeah buddy

  I say back then 

find another merely

  10% smoked Merit

on the pavement

  I'll disinfect it 

in the sun I 

  reassure them

67ish was wearing 

  a polo and the crispiest

white vans with tall socks

  I have ever seen

you look like you just 

  stepped off a yacht

I tell him and

  he seems pleased

I walk slow

  along the levee

stopping to sit on

  the bumpy ground

for a bit because 

  I am still

unemployed

-Salad sounds good. Do you

  think you'll be her by 7 pm?

texts Grandma

  a frayed black tarp

billows up revealing

  a blue Harley on 

the back of a truck

-Not quite

  -Taking it real slow

-Sitting by the river 

  it's so pretty

the Merit is harsh

  and bitter

-really?

  -Yes ma'am

-You sound like a woman who

  want to escape

I send the shrug

  then peace dove 

emojis

I stop at Blinken's 

  cottage on my dad's 

property to pick some 

  tomatoes 

he says just the person 

  I wanted to see! Cos 

I found this for you--

  and hands me a newspaper

clipping of an article

  called "The Follow Up"

about job interviews

I suggest we split 

  a beer and ask for 

just a baby sized glass 

  we poke around 

the half bolted 

  raised beds as the 

sun starts to set

moocher's paradise diary, 2

  I bum a 

Camel 

  Red from 

a weathered 

  blue-eyed 

gentleman

  conversing 

with

   himself

John Wayne

    he bought 

 her a 

    martini... he 

 bought her 

    a martini 

and said 

   "how'd you 

like to be 

   queen of 

the cow

       girls?"

I say 

   I'd like that 

but he 

  wasn't actually 

   talking 

to me

 stepping 

lightly

  along the 

city hall 

  rose garden 

runway 

  I offer each 

vivacious 

    bloom 

  a drag

and think 

    of the playing

cards painting 

    the white 

flowers red 

     for the

Queen o' 

    Hearts

   the monarchs

dip around us 

   drunk 

or 

 hungover 

I stop at 

   a handful 

of shoppes

  to offer up

my time

   for money

dosing out

   some loves 

and hunnys

  from my

lipstick'd

  mouth

I keep

  a deflective

hat and

   glasses on 

to medusa 

   any men 

waiting 

   in the 

shade 

  to hurl 

unsolicited

  advice 

in my

   direction

as they are 

   so reliably

want 

  to do...

hi

after half a year of

psychic frostbite

I find myself abruptly 

spilled open like a 

cherry cordial

tears befall me here

and now then and 

there again

throughout the day

warm and soft like 

the bathtub Atlantic

I walk to the beach

stopping at the Brady’s

Yacht Club plastic 

white patio fence

to get a cigarette from 

a man who offers me 

a choice of Newport

or Marb Lite

how awful 

was that great

hermitude

it felt so 

sincerely endless

but was just

a long bad 

dream

I’ll never again forget

that family friendship

love comfort

privacy

emotions

and daydreams

are an utter

privilege 

to have in surplus

the way I do

I cry me a river

that leads to 

your ocean

but happily

this time

3 weeks

the sky looks around the moon

birds sing crazy and me 

into my hand

playing the child's guitar

green, easy 

as putting in your bag

our thing 

about kissing

cracker jack

red hook

black & mild 

flags blow

all the parks are the one

I remember 

the sun showers correct

and the blue green crop

i'm hopeless

in the bathroom between two songs between

two songs in the bathroom the way

the house works

can't sleep my boobs hurt

fuck hours and their minutes

how several is so seven

you wanted stories all the time

where its unburned

where the road opens huge earth 

grows and trucks shrink

the horizon is one big cloud

since LA kind of pink with 

feelings of when

lemon yellow trash bags

flung

one moment in the clearing

towards language/side 

eyeing the sun it goes

down

I desire the cashier in my

big pants

simple

secret 

top

reason as

tone

still, wanting fractures 

mixing sex with

negative tests

still wanting to finish you

last night, and other nights (notes on suicide)

wishing to be saved

I ask the cat,     will 

 

you?

when all escapes exempt

from linear time and            

each route

deflates   pre   conceive . . ..

the third party     I gag       

on talk    it loosens me 

badly

how night moves in lasso 

,catch 

how Nothing mocks 

my casts 

when heat syncs

this glitch   

                   in business

of wanting, I'm bobbing 

on moonlit surface  > 

the bedroom light  over 

cooks 

amnesia 

punish me

completely 

save me/same   

coin stuff .. . .

Defeat's severe, 

macro   daddy hold 

on (see/how) night moves

      here goes:

      one shape 

      of resist-

      ance to 

    night 

an empty (moonlit) diamond 

here goes

my small defeat 

bogged by sport and 

bench warm

sort of sleeping in shoes    to be contd. 

last day in ny

so bad how 

you called to say goodbye when 

I was     at the busy intersection 

how you're sorry for the mess 

also

clouds are lucky fish 

and the sun does shine

mid august 102

i respond already

thinking 

of your pleasure

in the moment before total night

i make up

the bakery line of the sky

we try it on like a ring

oh

how your handy   makes me 

blue

when i double text   you

come

hotline's edge

moods surface w walls

and cloud like ofc 

but which one

@death seconds

[themes] don't add up

to make me anything 

like sole it's slice like

your stress

while mine

is loving

the rhythm 

on hold

sleep ceaselessly

w the sun 

going

[dream] up 

missing rungs

(wooden)

rocking horse

pinging you

where

clouds 

are painted

and smoke 

circling

that love

again!

so bully

angel180

so wish

 

providence

wet hat first we

travel acrostic but

so down

our same shoes

the glass house

to unsee it now

for fiction I'm

dumb w music

spread out in love

around your bread

rising the pigeon 

sounds I drool to

compute beyond 

pleasure for sport

look other ways 

you say your ears

close like steel

volts/my computer

game approach to

recall-- the soft 

pound of every

water the drops

now are joke all

heart shaped 

kitty cat and

anyways 

another last light

its rectangle movie

w holes/in dis

array but 

the ballet of 

compersion

the movies

I swim out past the waves 

and bob till my fingers turn yellow

looking east and then west

it never gets old

being salted and dusty

heavy roses in the wind

the thing is I am very untied now

an un-caught drift, no container

biking up hill

past the business that sells glass

how beautiful to specialize in something 

so clear and sharp

basketball cigarettes rat slap

the slick green table 

Molly the bartender

I get to my car as the clock strikes 10

I sit with the door open

one foot on the road 

looking up at the bell tower

M says

the good news is people have been 

trying to figure out what to do when summer ends 

since at least as long as I’ve been around

like maybe it doesn’t this time

near palm desert

can’t release the windy night
circling it
holding out
the right/wrong of 
ajar my drama 
w the door

can’t let it go/I feel like
you’re wind

May, June

I like to wear my dad’s clothes when we reunite

         this evening 

my instinct to suit up 

in 3 pieces

to delete

the word date 

in total

the way it feels beside you in the car

the classic rock of it and now 

the balloon

you being a heart

breaks like talc

x 2

checks out

I've left myself in so many ways
once the jester of affirmation

but one taste of you & 

I'm watching my

self swim in the 

pool from the 

chair

"...whatever cute shape I created before sleep that became a trap my leg out papers on the bed/hot"

1

dreams of good people being

slow at their jobs/loved ones

who get memos and take 

no action, the low battery 

business/backing it up 

at the post office 

in velvet ropes 

and   further parties

zero breaks 

from the 

crew 

the job I quit before

starting I walked

through her 

front yard 

was half pool

my wet boots

a children’s caterpillar

some friendship advice

just me and my 

alphabet soup 

as the Joy

my spreadsheets for it ^

how to allocate to you

and you

2

in my dream this random bitch

who I assumed secretly 

hated me was really 

supportive of me 

when I expressed

how I had decided to 

experience something

a certain way/a peaceful 

montage played

throughout our phone call

3

next it was my birthday 

and I told yves how it was 

my birthday and how

most of the day I'd forgotten

and they held me for it

then my 2nd grade crew 

(Rasheed and Drew)

arrived on a different tail wind

our historical trio of

baby legislature rubber 

balls in the empty classroom 

chairs stacked/vague

responsibility plus

the joy of our sort 

of sanctioned game

4

I knew well you were in the room 

I wanted to end the party/

cap it at 1 night but 

I was with mom so

no chiseling of 

timelines

we walked through a flooded city

water at our hips, behind a row of tall

matching people the vibe was actually 

high and mom stepped playfully on a 

fire hydrant 

u shape

 

friday night

notions of service 

stung by your priority

your pre k energy 

puzzled by Jazz 

when it's glass 

for some reason 

a table saw

the same serious songs

for summer/i was feeling

all new nikes

a premise that can run

all hourly 

no mountains this morning

even wet, cold water

but the way it doesn’t rain

in the arms of a 180

we saw yellow icons on the horizon

various IOS representation 

their respective glitches

you kept asking if

i dreamed every

15 minutes

the sun baked sage

i walk here

the constant soft shaking

your brand of alarm

your arms/they're

long corners

the word came first

a human being is not 

the calm at the center of the whirlpool

but the whirlpool itself

i.e. a pattern

and a pattern is a message

and I don't know what the f that means

but I do know it's poetry

Corralitos

trying to allow for

the multiple versions of reality

fashion a multi-tool brain

a mobile-esque consciousness

I like to eat with dirty hands

a navel orange off the tree

juice streaking soil up my wrists

sardines on saltines

most inside

scratch art clouds, walking 

on the earth's surface today

like a boat you said, SS

Patience (!) I'm suss of 

it (patience) you said 

you've seen it curdle

fuck reminding big

style archeology 

heart break me

better cuz this 

graceless ballet

look back at (it)

the sprinkler's 

rainbow you know 

me your cinderblock

it's January 

and next it's 

January in loops 

my private suffers 

our sestina 

our globe

miss snow

her peril and

ambiance 

regular poem

when midday has the vibe

of late afternoon

I know I'm in for it

I know I know 

nothing

covid and the wind

still blows

I consult my team,

smoke the crumbs 

on my table

the night takes every 

possible turn

the clouds interlock

in questions 

soothing to 

mind loss

I said I'm unhinged

you said nah half hinged

you said you never know 

if someone is feeling 

cloudy or sunny about you

tomorrow the clouds are verbs

the wet, white roses

in so many pictures

I can't tell our difference 

when the moon is right there

in the morning

the question of sleep

my dreams are 

dark daytime 

anyway 

a bad theater

I'm undone because

(half done) the sun 

is doing something

you had this snack 

that was an egg 

with a fig in it 

you said should I 

eat it now or later? 

and I said now

because you're glowing 

like the egg, now

revering 

our curveball

this gentle evening 

turning myself in 

my dream there was

water and you were 

comforting me

and it was just 

enough of you 

to say so

your calendar

 
christmas eve sunset is evil 

knowing

the yellow break through 

almost foreign

the unbothered city below 

(gotham) 

it's like so

fall on me

you can see the curve

*

christmas day is clean with

baby element

the sky with clouds is only blue

and only white 

skeleton woman

all over the place

picking up the phone like

cooking/finding 

freedom (within)

if life is the wine

between the jug 

and the glass

and if I'm not wrong

becoming the lover

of your own nightmare?

to be touched well

the pain after 

without it

my miniature 

hectic nature

(a diorama)

cuz in the Big way

I want you to feel so good

so full of love and

if I can be involved 

the way she

smells like soap 

on the 3rd hug 

hUge dream

woke up from the mess

with a sore throat and

your name in my mouth

maya says to see it

as a wall hanging

other side

yesterday was strong

and crystal

mom asked

is this a rainy day

in LA

I said 

kinda yeah

manually giving

permission to

abstract relief 

today is lazy smooth

I wanna have sex

but 

eat sardines

☮

the mountain looks nice this morning 
clear with delicate sun
I’m thinking about you 

the way it's 

warm, dispersed

somehow 

the thinking is oiled

a serious calm settles

on this long edge

in the shape of

a question or

it calls up 

the peripheral alphabet

I clock my kinks 

for phonics,

periphery

it's a good day 

for gravity 

the red light 

at the mountain

Thursday in 3 

slow pieces

when it's done 

 

work between 2 pillows

and the clouds want to break

Thursday 

in the custody

of its own gentleness