In My Basement

I am trying to find god in my basement. In my own house (well, that I rent) – To tell you the truth, it’s money well spent – But in this wash of club fog, These hyperkinetic lights, This irrepressible sugar pop sound, It swears to me that life is sweet. Maybe only in moments [...]

Floodgate

Closing my eyes against this real light, I see warm red through my eyelids And if I stretch my hand out blind like this I can imagine caressing your face, Turning your chin up to taste your full lips And the salt tang of the sea That has faerie dusted them. Hanging out in trees [...]

Forgive Yourself for Evolving

Perhaps my only true loves Are those that are inanimate, Or are animated soley by my Magical imagination. They love me like a god – I give them life, they give me Love without strings attached. They could attach their strings If they ate from that forbidden fruit That Adam and Eve partook of. But [...]

Icarus Splashed

Icarus splashed when he hit the water. I was there; I, too, fell As he fell, when he fell, Feathers flying all around me, Sun hot, wax running, Sweat beading my brow. He said to me as he regarded the water: My father wasn’t strong enough To pump his arms In those leather strapped wings. [...]

Once Upon a Sky

Once upon a sky, I saw, imprinted: smoke from the pretty bonfire of each lie, lie, lie. I saw this thread from afar, black and hanging from God’s suit: my hair stood on end from the heat; it’s burning bright like a star. The twin scratches at my insides, carving words in my skin, inciting [...]

St. Michael and I

Scales and a sword and a pair of wings Is not what I have – I look at St. Michael, My namesake Angel, And I want to hug a bear in fear Of being capable of such judgement: Fair and exacting deeds. I find I’m wrong or mistaken Many times a day: My own carelessness [...]

Candle Flickers

a candle can move its shadows like the magic of an angel if you believe that it might be so. one word one attempted explanation and it’s war so I give up, keep my mouth shut and rot from the inside out. page after page of meaningless meaning to myself tonight to forget tomorrow to [...]

A Plea for Relaxation

People treat themselves like natural resources (yes we are as part of the ecosystem – we can be useful) but expenditure like the burning of a ton of coal to light one lightbulb? I ask if this is necessary; there is a chorus of affirmatives from the millions who know no better, who know nothing [...]

Spare Tires and Empty Alleys

I used to roll spare tires down alleys in Point Loma to see how many streets they’d cross before stopping: against a trash can or a moving car, a cinderblock wall or a pile of dirt. Stupid things is what I thought. Why’d they stop there; it could have kept going after that. Steering. I’m [...]

Untitled Poem #173

sometimes I finger the scars on my heart in the dark, all alone, rough ribbons of hardened tissue; they are braille lines of poetry; railroad tracks to remind me of my innermost fears. They feel almost skeletal, and read like the scriptures of God, and sting like the scorpions of God.

The Prince of Spring

for all of my twenty years I have had one healthy fear: that Love will find me cold and dry for being a Prince and held so high, but my heart longs for fiery blood, wide-open eyes and Love, true Love, not courtships played to gain the hand of the Princess with the tracts of [...]

Interview With an Angel

no wings, no halo, no beatific expression of heavenly rapture. on interviewing an Angel, he scratched his head and was most like any other man. I’m five foot eleven, one hundred and forty pounds (give or take five for the season) no, there’s no particular reason I should be renowned as an Angel from heaven. [...]

Fireflies in a Jar

I am still here; encased in steel, frozen in flesh; I am still here. the I, the me, and the one and only: Michael, an Angel, this quality, definitely the most beautiful man regardless of position and opinion. building and building my building, my self: a tower of faith in feelings. I’ve mortared each brick [...]

The Dam-Builder

the child: he, long ago, was the dam-builder, creator of landscapes in mud and clay with the courage to play a God or an Emperor to the hilt, thinking plastic men had lives to give and eyes to see the wonders he had made, the horrors of the floods that would inundate and kill thousands [...]

Without Trying

I I can wish as hard as I want without trying. Maybe it takes a nervous breakdown To examine the croak of a frog. A rich man tapes his hands to his sides Drowning in treasures but refusing to decide Which pearls he wants to wear for eyes. II To the grey lands to search [...]

Yugguy

quality time with this animal: Yugguy, rabbit and turtle combine, transforming in the blink of an eye, blowing bubbles through blue light bulbs and the orange one in my reading light. laughing quietly by myself with all my animals. god. he blows the bubbles well.

Antelope

I I beat a trash can like a drum in the alley behind your house at night when the stray cats gather on the fence around my feet. we are all going to fly to the dark side of the moon. II I see the big sack of your skin, hung up as if in [...]

Imitations of R.S. Thomas

Imitation of The Hand holding endless golden grains of sand at arm’s length – my hand sifts thoughtful each piece’s worth feeling the elemental drums of the earth. Imitation of The Island alone on an island, I build my own church to God and it was nothing because I’d rather have died.

Imitation of Sappho

we know this much: you are ugly; we have the gods’ word for it; they too would be ugly if ugly was a good thing. I untie my belt hoping to see you ream a sheep, but still you don’t come and I go on longing. you are invincible!

Prayer

window rattling monster, go away. I have no patience with your fleshless screaming skull plummeting meaningful to earth, runnels of molten bone flayed as streamers fly from a maypole. gravel crunching beast, leave me. I am alone with my artifacts, my talismans, my treasures and think little of your rancorous immaturity. I sleep upon your [...]

Mind Shaft

he didn’t need to be shown how to do things; he was good at figuring them out – taking them apart and putting them back together. he read a lot when he was innocent and believed too much for his own good. too many times he became impatient and cursed himself for imagined wrongs, blaming [...]

Little Raw Ideas

Did you sense the urgency in the setting sun today Did you hear the impatience of the wind this evening Can you taste the excitement imported by the weather Don’t the palms of your hands itch for solid steel I’m hoping God will unleash the lightning riders To rip my roots out of this ever [...]

Untitled Poem #93

It rains I stand In a field By myself Me and mud In my toes Sunk grass Ankle deep Silent mirth Big smile Oh yeah Oh god.

God’s Electronic Floor Tom Sample

Oh. Thunder, How I love your sound, The resounding slap Of a Thunderclap Even shakes the ground. I always fright: where does the bolt strike? Even if out of town, I wonder.

Demon

From a fiery plateau in the midst of hell Where all the fabled monsters dwell Came a sound which split the night A noise issued to God in spite On the mountaintop within the inferno Dance a supreme demon by the name of Mephisto Or Satan or Demogorgon or the Father of Lies By whatever [...]