The Singing Robot Witch [43]

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I am aware my hands and arms move
in the way you expect: outstretched
offering what you drove to extinction
in the pursuit of results; self-calculations
cut clear through all that would root down
the mountainsides sloped into the gut
where fires are left only now to invention.

A wire mesh complicating thought
into a synthesis of chemistry, conceived
without the unknown to spark life – action
alone desiring more than it swallowed up;
a habit, unsatisfied by its own mechanics.

Oh, there is that one thin wire affixed
at the center spanning the whole length
alive with the buzz of nothingness
that I pluck sending your balls to lodge
in the throat, stopping speech certainly
as eyes ripped wide to all capacity – that
eidolon confused with your own sense.

Consider me if you must a geared robot
tethered to a golden balloon risen past
the safety of confinement into orbits
spiraling toward your bright, cratered
roundness in stalwart lunacy to chart
the crushed beauty of shimmering dust,

or perhaps better to think, coming down
at night from trees upon that scary hill
with a magic stick to switch out giggles
springing out from seven deaths, bending
each fold to face further than dark space
like a blooming monolith spread into each
blade of grass to be sweetly crushed softly
under this planet's tired, bare feet.

Heretics and Barbarians [42]

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Look at you, up in your thin edifice
face pressed behind glass, huddled
with all that unchallenges, looking out
upon the splendor of my winged head
writhed in the fire of Vandals whose heart
cleaves streets of sick gray leaving green
shoots sprouting through sockets, winding
though machine holes inside the mind
to be left with worms, rich earth and roots
plunged deep in limbs rising to the battle cry

axes gripped for severing across cold seas,
tiger heads cut from plunder, mounted on
keels, every pound of flesh thrown in rams
to crush through the surrender of restraint

The thick smell of sweat and blood drowning
counters with their poking pins and fools
daring to don crowns met with wood butts
up against their slavering thin skulls, cracked
just as the rule imposed by their own design
ripped in shreds and eaten, to be blown out

It is the beaten witch, wise in the way of flame
who burned the shackles of the dead willing
the hordes to flood forth from their corners
into the very eyes you see beneath you, bearded
skin hot with breath driving through the nights
ahead, into the Halls where only the honored
forged by the growl of their own sacrifice rest

Common Gifts [41]

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I took every number in hand
combinationally complete
expecting what we all believe;
the formation of soft chairs, laughter
in the wild garden, completeness
through the passing of night, the
red bead glimmering at the center
swallowed in breath to fan out
across all directions from this
singular point, offered up as
that unseen spectacle nobody
knowingly in company admits.

I took them all – they were given
willingly even by men stuck in
that inward bent without escape,
willingly because when nothing is
everything, either way one more
could matter no less, and so
willingly, for nothing, gave it.

It is my symbol of patriotism,
the gift that flows between voids
lighting structure while being
consumed, destroyed entirely
by each who may yet ignite.

Even as towers buzz certainly
in admonishment, spectators
leveling wisdom from bags,
or the insect imagined speaking
right above the ear with legs,
the ground is laid beneath us –

and this I will pass willingly
through to burn myself away
in forgotten shades of ash,
the remains of all in-between
rekindled by your own rise.

Boating In Steps [40]

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The wide lake, always still
reflecting perfectly gray
rough clouds, hiding the sun
and the blue sky, diffuse
like a wool blanket wrapped
tight, holding in landscapes
wholly your own, crisp air
sharp on the face, with breath
the excitement of footsteps
on the long wooden dock
reaching out, holding above
that chill mirror, out to the end
of its long reach where ropes
wound in circles around
hooks holding the small
wooden boat bobbing gently,
patiently, nudging sides, suggesting
a promising step within.

The first step, foot planted
on solid planks, floating upon
the thin surface of deep liquid;
a slip of balance, sideways,
slightly to be pulled back,
balanced with only a hint
of tilt centering on new legs,
starts with the push away
from tried ground left to
its unmoving stability
for the gently rocking trip.

Second, seated, oars gripped
two heavy wood poles held
together through hoops,
plunged strong in still water
then released to circle back
in the cycle that moves us
further out by our own strength
until we stop, drifting equally
distant from the circling shore
lined with a thousand docks.

Next is the reflection, rippling
on the surface, gray clouds spread
overhead, the deep blue flashes
colored by the unseen that is
holding us up, afloat with dry shoes,
holding to the curved substance
that keeps us upright: a container
displacing our tiny weight across
all the waters raised imperceptibly
changing the shape of the shore,
a small element of water rising up
tickling the stilts of docks that reach.

Four faces I found overhead, cotton
sculptures of men formed from chaos
having no will of choice but to fade
before our eyes, on soft waves, holding
to our small space within the surface,
where dreams, made indistinguishable
through setting sail upon the sea where
imaginings shared freely become true
as trust in our own senses, relieved.

Down, a Prescription [39]

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I saw a mom only
she wasn't always
   a mom on tv
staring blankly at herself
as a small wind-up figure
bent plastic shambling
across a picnic table
   she was staring
shambling as a big voice
lulled on a list of negative
feelings you might feel
   when you need
helpful pills to change
   the heart's chemistry
like her son playing
ball, and happy husband
in the picturesque park
precisely imagined which
   unbalanced her brain
the sad plastic wind-up
   no longer content
matching symptomatically
whatever was amiss erased
through the magic of industry
content in the gray mind
that satisfies choice

Obviously she was
the one who in error
malfunctioned in place
   thankfully
through prevailing
corrections into happiness
now remaining able
   to function
within prescribed lots

The Green Man [38]

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There is no staunch trunk
to stand towering in wind
firm and gnarled bark thick,
rough yet palm-pleasant,
wider than arms reached
wrapping around, face-pressed
imprinted with the slow weight
that patiently stands heavily risen
up from its own long roots, spread
into the memory of earth and sky –
seasons of night survived, seasons
of hot light beating down, dry
seasons of wind angling to use
the resistance of limbs spread wide
to pull down all that dares to reach.

The staunch trunks stood together,
in their midst creating, incidentally
that haven of light playing upon dark,
accents of bright green moss, moist
growing like a soft cushion from stone.
Limbs round, bending in living arcs,
tall as cathedrals free from walls,
alight in a random flickering of leaves
lifting imagination high in branches
raining down, freshly, falling through
the delicate needles of the heart, pine
scents, wet, filling the chest, staunch
in the magnificence of perception,
shared from time beyond ours
where the ever-patient flow of sweet
sap courses, sticky with life, and set
in the chest, rooted through soil, raising
a litany of living leaves to refreshen
the more subtle air we need.

Money, Money More I Have To [37]

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So many people have no money and the
TV keeps saying send us your unwanted
gold for cash while the gold prices rise,
and grandmas, if you just can't afford to
pay your mortgage any more then give it
to us and we'll pay you money every month
until you die still living in your house, see
how nice we are, patiently waiting to snatch
up property people can't afford to pay people
with money who end up getting every bit?

So let's give all the poor people's money away
to the people who have money so they can keep
having money, giving the poor people money
when the poor people manage to do something
to warrant getting money that makes the people
with money have even more money, because
it's just naturally selected like rain cycling up
into clouds that trickle rain down on dry skin.

This is why I am two-dimensionally repeating
stuff everyone hears but doesn't hear or care really
because obviously they have done something
wrong not to be in the right position where
the money can keep flowing up into them
instead of being snatched away as it first lands
in their hands – even their taxes which go
to make the people with money want to work
doing a good job making more money so we
can all have more money but not ever letting
people without money have some food and
some healing from doctors instead of making
sure good people stay in positions where they
can make good money for places that make
money, no matter what they might make too.

So there's money and money, and money and I
love money when I have money or you have
money and I want it from you or you give
money to me, and I can give money to people
with money so I don't have to give money
to other people with money because the people
with money will keep me safe from having
to give money to other people with money
and if you want to maybe you can steal
my money if you need money or just want
more money so I'll have less but maybe I have
a lot more money than you but it doesn't matter
because I want the money you have even if
it used to be mine and you stole it or I gave it
to you or I stole it or we just had to pay it
for things we need to people with money.

This is why I am two-dimensionally repeating
myself because I have money or I don't have
money and you have money or you don't
have any money and other people want
money just as much as you want money or
I want money and anything else just doesn't
matter because it always comes down to
money and who has it and what wants it
and who needs money and who is damned
sure going to get money if it's the last thing.

The Writing Room [36]

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Along the edges of the ceiling
lined with lights, the same ones
dimly keeping feet from tripping
outside the aisles of a dark theater,
my wood-bordered room glows
each night stained smoke-brown
burning out in long sections,
destined to be replaced each day
with an unbroken solid glow.

A Lizard in the Church [35]

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A fat organic cathedral is squishing
my little lizard brain that simply
makes me want to be alive looking
out from the corners of my eyes
dodging unhappy threats aimed
at the heart of ancestral evolution when
I first crawled on stubby reptile legs
leaving that first home of green soup
taking that first breath of lesser-bonded
air in place of more densely ordered liquid.

That is the irony; an intricate, weighted cathedral
whose material, more vaporous than air
made of nothing at all but monkey thoughts
shared, should crush down upon survival,
causing stained glass to rise even higher
to point back upon itself, attempting to tell
stories of its own plight with big colorful
chunks glued together, rising above organs
in that great mass echoing through rafters,
a sound force that hits, sending lizards
scurrying to hide in the nearest cool cracks.

I am left considering what new cornerstone is
being laid even to ask that my lizard brain
might find even more buried than before,
to look from the corners, frightened in this
basic state of wanting to be happily breathing.

Reel Experience [34]

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I was surprised it was
just like punch cards only
people thought they were
doing stuff all by themselves
like it was not already figured
what feeling would come
next or the response when you
are certain this must be
plum crazy but it is only crazy
how crazy was arranged since
they knew they were special
but were always afraid to
wander off the running reel
into the machinery that loops
everywhere with that hot light
blowing squares up big
on the flat white screen showing
three dimension sorta if
you put on those weird glasses
looking at flat light that tricks
you into thinking it's all coming
straight at your face when it's not
doing squat but sitting there flat
in a dark room with everyone
else seeing the same thing on
sticky velvet seats separated in
rows all around where if it was
a good value you might even
be able to laugh and cry before
everyone wanders out the doors
going back home or to say things
about what might have happened