Drop the smile and tell the truth.
You’ve been dancing around it for years.
I can see it in pictures from our youth and the fear falls to the floor like an old woman’s tears.
Like that time I said that thing that I could never take back.
Like that day my heart attacked, and you kept it on track.
If we could remember all that moved,
all that crushed,
all that flowed uphill,
Then that would be something worth remembering.
2-25-00
Soft warm water washing against it,
Lapping up the knees of some timeless animal.
Living the lives of all souls ever incarnated.
A ghostly reminder of history.
of posterity.
The creature of our past.
Ever wandering the shore where the land of our reality,
touches the ocean of life’s truth.
the ocean no ship has crossed, no soul has transgressed with consciousness.
Ever shrouded in a fog we create.
Some divine transcendence might allow a realization,
but the strength of our reality, our land, our hologram, billows choking blinding clouds.
Yet it still walks, swims, and crawls on the edge,
where the ocean meets the sand.
From ‘97
Sadly sitting somewhere,
sifting through stuffy sacks,
of soggy stacks,
of photographs.
Mountains of monotonous memories,
molding more me than you.
Reading red inked backs,
recalling rusted revellings,
rolling under to renew.
Falling fictitiously,
for fear of finding,
a forest of facts,
missing any laughs.
regret
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somewhere there’s a reason.
somewhere beneath my excuses. but you might as well push down the plunger, ’cause you’ve already lit the fuses. something that used to be so easy. I’ve been trying to find the bottom, sometime it won’t be there. |
Housework
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Do you ever drink while doing housework? I love to. It’s a trade off thing. Do some dishes. Drink a beer. Fold some clothes. Take a shot. Vacuum the rug. Have another. By the time it’s over I’ve passed out on top of the made bed in a nearly spotless house, save for the empties everywhere. Sometimes when I wake up I’m not sure where I am. “The hell? We don’t have a maid. Who folded the toilette paper this way?” |
It’s Regular Tea
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When and why did regular iced tea become “Unsweet” iced tea? It didn’t used to be this way, at least not here. I go to a restaurant and I say “I’ll have iced tea.” And they ask “Sweet or Unsweet?”. I always say “Regular tea”. And they always say “Unsweet tea then”. Like there’s no such thing as regular tea! And it’s always with a sense of “You should call it Unsweet because that’s what I just called it”. Well you know what, I’ll call it what it is and nothing else! Not that long ago there was no “Sweet” tea. You ordered tea, and you got tea - REGULAR tea. If you wanted it sweet guess what, you sweetened it yourself. I guess that became too big a hassle for some people. I’d like to meet the lazy jerk who stood up and said, “Hey! I’m tired of pouring sugar into my drink and stirring it myself. My wrist is getting tired! Can’t you just sweeten it for me? Waah wah wah (tear)” Gasoline is called “Unleaded” because they took the lead out. “Unsweet” tea would mean you took the sweet out of the tea. I’m sorry, but I’ve never heard of tea that comes naturally sweetened. You know why, because there isn’t one. That’s why there is Sweet Tea and just plain Tea. There is no such thing as “Unsweet” tea.
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7-9-00
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You are all that is still good in the pools of June,
and all that is sweet in the cinnamon thrown and strewn. I am the unkind word which needs a talking to, like the Wednesday morning which won’t turn blue. Everyone tries to make something. Everyone tries to tie two and two together. Everyone tries to gather the falling pies of life and make them sing. Everyone tries. But a few have only to roll over in a bale of cotton candy on a November evening in New York and say “I love you”. But just a few. A few like you. Because you are all that is still lovely beneath the hungry twists of grain in August and everything after. |
The Drive Thru Lane
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Where I live there’s a very popular fast food shop called Rosa’s. They serve decent and overpriced food of Hispanic origin. I don’t care for it since you can find a half dozen sit down Mexican restaurants with better food for the same scratch. In spite of all of that, I found myself in the drive through lane of said establishment this evening. I mentioned that it’s popular. The drive though line is always out into the parking lot. The line of cars had a break in it. I wasn’t sure at first why, but soon enough I realized each car was leaving a space so as not to block the flow of traffic in and out of the parking lot. This was working splendidly. Each car pulled up into the drive thru lane when there was room, and the 3-4 cars pulled up but not too far. Then it was my turn. And just as the line started to move up, a 2008 Chevy Tahoe pulls in front of me. I honked and honked. I had the window rolled down. I held my hands up, extending my entire left arm and leaning my head out the window trying to see who in the hell had the nerve to cut in front of me and 4 other vehicles. I can’t tell you how mad I was. I thought about getting out and asking whoever was driving why. Why? Only I couldn’t. You never know who you’re going to meet like that. And I don’t know if I could have kept it civil. I could imagine the cops being called, and not caring about my grievance. So I decided to do nothing. I still have to wonder if they just didn’t see the line of cars? Did they think they shouldn’t have to get in the back of the line? Were they retarded? Am I a sissy for not doing something more? I did honk a couple of times while they were trying to order. I hope that messed them up some.
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