BIG GOD

for FPJRF


what the

fuck


my god
my what
a big god

you have
tucked there
between

my god
between those
my god

those breasts

Atmn 10

Gloss

October has scrubbed
the gloss off of Lincoln
but left alone Miss Gretta's lawn
where May is until January.


Running Asian

for Kyle

You get there
when you walk and glare
You get there faster
when you run and smile


#54 Vet's Hospital

Stare at man staring
at girl walking
his youth behind
oh, but her
youthful behind!


Poverty

for Dan

Could I piss
and moan
about poverty
too big pants now
unemployed
teeth

I went to Chicago
to hide
but should have been
hiding nuts here

and now winter dinners
are frozen spiders and
dirty sock soup

Childbirth

When I step from concrete

onto soil & grass

you can not know what I feel

and when I step from sand

to sea

the busted rhythm of the howl

of childbirth

the sinking pain of a new life

and a smaller atmosphere

now

and salt in its breeze

Pajamas

On the east-facing balcony

of a hospital turned house

minutes after midnight

somewhere between

Sunday and Monday

in a jacket and pajamas

shivering through a cigarette

together

quiet

no shoes

no wind

I see breath and realize

it is words

It sounds so pretty

you say

but the snow is fresh

and still coming down

and there is no noise.

God

Almost everything

in this sun-spotted shrug

and smile

is deitous.

Oak Tree

Old oak tree, old oak tree

a permanence, a fixture

sharing a pair of properties

shade

and windbreak

your roots in the foundations

of our homes

neighbors never nurturing

because you are too big to die, anyways.

time

What if time could be measured

as a series of smiles of

varying

levels of intensity

lengths of crow toes

depth of dimples

and you know a new age has come

when the woman who puts birds in her mouth everyday smiles and

they all fly out at once.

Outlaws

Like dogs

inmates do not keep memories

these outlaws erase the little summers

in little places

the hands of women and the branches of trees

the possibility of being in the backyard

at 2 a.m.

having a smoke on a stump

bare footed, toes in the soil

recalling

the thoughts kept about

the future coming.

Powder River, Wy

All things fresh have
evaporated and the rain
smells like rust
on cracking leather.

Natrona

Silver tipped mile markers
tease the anxious
-you know
there are no miles here.