If any of you in the audience happen
to have either the The Alphabet or Demo To Ink,
you'll find my portion of this process under the work Hidden.
Is this form?
My mother comes home from her date with both eyes blackened.
The perfectly overcast sky gives even this glade an indoor feel
like swimming in too chlorinated water the way antihistamines
clear sinuses while they cloud the mind.
A weaving pressed against the damp clay dish
will leave a residue of texture beneath the brown glaze.
We roll when first we wake, and before we rise.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Row houses I say.
this way.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The eyes of all raced to the line fall silent.
In Britain, monarchy is but a theme park.
The thick brush of the blackboard's eraser
is entirely sensuous-- chalk dust smells sweet.
The art of park sprinklers, automatic in the summer rain.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
T-shirt beneath linen sport-jacket, collar up,
is this year's fashion for about six weeks.
Realism, so-called, alienates, by virtue of the shell posed
around objects.
The eye, neither flesh nor hair, absolutely other, glistens.
The hand squeezes into a fist, about to vote.
I wrote that.
I write on the bus, in a subway, pleased by the smoother motion,
sensations of speed.
Blonde hair turning gray, a woman in a short skirt
walks in the rain.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Further questions-- is recurrence itself
sufficient to state theme?
I rest my vase and, jammed by brigands on a voyage
to fetch groceries, that which is merely accessible soon
blocks.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Mondo condo, in the epic of ear cuffs and jelly bracelets,
bowling alleys decline.
Everyone into software in time to flood the market--
canned meat, history in slices fit for Xeroxaria.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Argue out of anger and to wit halfway,
with a long blue dress.
But on roller skates he glides--
not a typo.
Red fish in a tank at a Chinese market.
When I drive cab, all lives are in danger
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Rose ties Cobb in tie game with Cubs.
Sun throws billowing clouds into sharp relief.
Hand thrust into a vat of hot tar on $5 bet.
The dependency, being chemical, is passed on.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
At noon, a beer would stem the withdrawal.
Drumbeat of Iams and blood.
I will not make fun of the poem, chalked
on a blackboard 500 times.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Wipe that slate green.
Coin-op, oil-based reviews present mock critique.
House at the hilltop offers generous vista, soon
to be blocked by condo.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Nickname fit for a collie, burned flesh
has long since dropped from your bones.
Genetic abstraction forms a tradition, clumsily.
Thick sour smell of restaurant dumpster,
or that you would call your clothing
concept Banana Republic only to sell out to a chain,
and this The Gap.
Stop Muni fare hike.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
These are just the facts.
Neo-punk bank officers formed a self-help network database.
New wave or no wave, now.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Baby finger roams in nostril up to the second knuckle.
Young man shoulders bottled water,
another drives a Toyota with a paint brush
clenched between his teeth.
Land-o-lawns if you don't mean it to be a portrait
don't put me in it.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Thus, one book follows another, only partly a corrective,
spreading new errors all its own.
And these are more powerful, rapt reason
is apt to get you shot, like a car bomb
trapped in rush hour gridlock, with only three shopping
days left before Christmas.
The window displays are stunning.
The muzak seductively familiar, though you barely can hear it
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Bagpipes blare out into the afternoon
from within a dark cavern.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Bored cabbie leans out yellow window.
Thrill mixed with terror--
first day of high school.
Slip aboard crowded bus through back door.
When I crouch to write, toes of my right
foot always firm against the walk, heel up,
on top of which I rest my butt.
Left leg turned out, almost perpendicular,
the body a base, my own best desk.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
One size fits all cereal bowl used now for soup.
The way you shove to slam shut car door.
Why so many women hate sex, is men.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Nails once painted, now a chipped purple.
Aluminum quad cane, lightweight on purpose.
Sign on lifeboat shell plastic point apparatus,
wait for light to read.