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Where the ailanthus grow large

Larger than I have ever seen

In this place I inhabit

Like some poverty dream

Datura are running

as fast as they can

their anthem is stunning

in this forgotten land

we buy our food

nonexistent in fund

lying about ailments

and things we’ve never done

conditioned in this place

its common in this land

to cry out like a child

and then claim to be a man

the roads are hopelessly broken

where dreams do not take flight

playing this serenade

with the people of the night

in the night Datura open,

louder than the train

silent in the darkness

relinquishing us again

the tears for the fallen

that haunt this place so deft

for a world that wastes nothing

for a realm with nothing left

within these cold nights

all that slips away

coyotes carrying on

for the coming of a new day

Under the hunter/still in the hood

Underneath the great hunter

The trains roll by, their horns cutting through the night, like the powerfully-dull whack of a machete

Across the street drug dealers …do their thing.

I hear dogs
whimpering in high pitched squeaks

like nettles stinging my ears
and seem so much like a scarecrow
standing in the yard

Leaning on my shovel, in awe of how many people will buy a pint of hard liquor before noon.

Dumbfounded by the regally blind, that constantly mob past

Unable to see the desert tobacco, for more than anything than a passing glance

The ephedra grows unruly as the nights and days merge

Conflicted within extremes that they will shed integrity

As their skin, leaving a crumpled mass in the skipping sand

Willing to do whatever is necessary

Surviving in this world for another day 

and I am among them
i am afflicted
survivalist,
landing like some windblown seed
from a jungle
exactly like this one
I am glad we have shared in this experience
because I have seen how orchids are as cactus
with innocence obliterated
on those balmy nights
where our flowers bloom
to the sounds of human chaos
offspring are of secondary importance
provided there's enough water
as we travel by night to conserve energy
our skin becoming leathery and worn
as we rub it upon the fabric of this realm
the smell of colitas
the distant crack of gunfire
somewhere in the distance the burros
run around under the stars and the coyotes try to eat them
occasionally you can hear of their victory
like whoop-whoop of some neighbor going to jail
under the flashing lights
the air pollution that lingers
like the ringing of the trains brakes splitting the air.
the hills rise like dark islands out of a never ending sea of lights
somewhere, it is all as it should be

Creeping Shadows

the shadows creep slowly

The road home is long

the bass has all but faded

we loiter to carry on

the letters still wet

plastered upon plastic walls

feeling nothing but prowess

echo a helicopter’s call

this is war

for the art we defend

the consequence of all-

in a life we never lend

it is the song of an alpha

the verse of king

in the shadows of a voice

with words that none ever sing

never backing down

but knowing when to run

in the blue hour of memory

snapping as the recoil of a gun

like the pawns in some game

hidden within this façade

as ants are to men

as men are to god

like some twisted folk hero

some cheap marionette

hiding in plain sight

where we check and then bet

make no mistake in this game

the stakes will run high

the end is always the same

across the river where they lie

the song carries on

silently in the night

with the words of my hands

sitting just out of sight 

The Rising Tide

Between all the words we don’t say

The planes vanishing into the clouds over the infinite black ocean

Venice at night; surreal in its absence

The clowns and jesters scuttled away somewhere to take refuge from the cold  

The tide smashing violently at the rocks as it comes in from a point so low in the sand I have never seen it there before

The foam running between our still legs, fracturing into little clumps of bubbles scurry back to the long curtainous waves like juvenile creatures that seek comfort

Your instrumental words are resonating across the ocean as the jet engines growl in the distance

What else would I expect of you?

This is why you’re here, now, in this moment

Dragging out into one long moment we’ve repeated so many times before

Drawn-out like the threads of fate; stretched tightly between Lachesis’ hands

Over curtains of foam charging back up the beach

Orange in the light pollution, smelling of feted water

The innumerable people and their inhabitations make us so small

I walked away

Trying not to think of the idea of never seeing you again

Where the kelp decays under an orange sky

you became an unidentifiable silhouette against the ocean foam

for a moment I felt comfort in the idea that we were just two shadows soaking in the stillness of the night      

irreverency

Before there is a placation to hunger

Before the solution there is

Violence. There is abuse, there is your way of dealing with me

That must be like some animal

That cannot be contained

hunger before there is concern

hatred before there empathy

I hate that I must call you my own

And be treated as such.

There is an obsession within you; that has in it

Only the will to dominate, a madness that has spawned out of impunity

a proliferation of impunity within myself

though you might feel as though you deserve mercy

You do not

You deserve what you have made

deserve what you have

And that is me

When time comes for your enfeebled old frame to take is last shuffling steps in this world know that I will be there if only to make them more painful

Know that I will wring the will out of you like the blood of mine you have spilled

I will crush you spirit so far into nothing

You will beg me for death

all the hurt you have brought me I have saved, archived in this unfair world

it will open up on you

as you opened up on me

a child

a monster

a torturer that that could put nothing before themselves

twist this world into a terrific spectacle

until nothing is left, but the way things could have been

to pass from this place as irreverently as you embraced me  

apathy

Moreso now than ever before

Ongoing like nevermore

The rally of the righteous

against the bane of all;

laying down arms in some attempt to call

there would be little, there will be none

in that place that remains so plainly undone

like more to be had, and more to be held

where the last of great giant remains unfelled

and I will wait, I will wait for you there

against the grain of the time that will inevitably wear

with the songs that remain still yet to be sung

abreast of the earth were you yet to be flung

where water falls still from the sky

the world never asks ‘what’ or ‘why’

with the trample and crush, the land and the space

the boiling cauldron behind this          place

and I’ll ask that you would, I’ll ask that you wont

push on in this aspect, as I do, but you don’t

and the words and scenario, the heart that lies pawned

a breathless vacuum where all of this spawned

so foreign in its context that none could relate

that the words tried to fill, and all wished to negate

but the rift was cast

the marks fell true

with so little left we were all forced through

then there was loss and then there was none

all was forgotten in a world so undone

  

Do you feel in control?

Sundering unstoppable

This sphere so palpable

Breathing deep

Deep into the ground

Trample and lay waste

To this fearful place

And arise from the ashes

The ashes once again

Defect and break away

Cut-rate in their own way

Running from the inevitable

Earth beneath your feet

There is fire upon the frost

Annealed among the loss

A desire seems to grow

With every passing stone

Making strides that hold so deft

Upon a way with so little left

The coyotes appear

When all the lights go out

Do you think you hold this place?

Are you occupying space?

They came to my aid

By devouring a rat

Beginning as if one knew

The purple leaves still grew

Against the crater in the ground

Without an afterthought or sound