JUNGLE IN THE CITY

 
In the jungle,
if you’re not sweating,
then you’re not living.
Unless you’re a lounge lizard.
Their blood is much too cold
to be bothered by steamy heat.

It’s after dark and the denizens are out.
There are jaguars,
chrome‑plated felines with bulging chest hairs,
parked sideways outside the more popular
of the neon caves.
They’re hungry. They’re famished even.
But they do their best not to look it.

The prey shows up
and they are dressed to be eaten,
in slinky little numbers
that cost too much and cover too little.
They strut like they own the night.
Too bad that the night owns everybody.

Inside the club, it’s wall to wall wildlife:
spiders as big as tabletops,
piranhas swimming below,
while vultures lean against the bar.
Everything is meat to them,
in various stages of decay.

And there are snakes everywhere -
some with scales, some doused in cologne,
many a forked tongue making deals
while fangs await their moment.

Vines and other stranglers
wrap around whatever’s soft,
whatever’s slow, whatever’s foolish enough
to show their money.
Everything crawls and bites and hustles.
It’s Gaia’s grand plan,
or maybe just Saturday night
after the clubs heat up.
Drawn by the lights,
animals show themselves.

Chalcis

The Asli Elif sits across the road
Flying her Turkish flag
In this Greek port

Where the tides turn
Back and forth
Over the years

Swirling and curling
Under the old bridge

In Chalcis
Where the infantry trains

The July sun bakes the pavements
And cicadas scream

Butterflies refuse to lift

Heat—so much heat in this island town
The sun frying the dry hills

Like a short-order cook

Beating down
On the fortress
Built by the Ottoman Empire
Over three centuries ago

The Asli Elif
Still flying its flag

True Romance

He laid a line on me.
Says his new woman
Is just so fucking good.
Beautiful babe with
A plump rounded ass.
He just met her last
Night and they hit it off
Right away. No sex yet
But he’s really looking
Forward to it. Maybe
Tonight in the midnight
Hour. Woman’s just a
Sports digest. Knows all
About all the pro games.
Unusual for a woman
But he likes that. Shows
Me a picture taken last
Night with his phone.
Take off all the makeup,
Ignore the long hair and
I swear that that woman
Was on my football team
In high school.

August Arriving

I only have words
To play with.
Others have flowers
Or gold, or time
To do whatever
They want. 

My hedges need shaving,
And my beard can wait.
Tomorrow is a day,
Or simply another day.
But words cannot wait—
Outcome determines my thinking.

Wear The Mess That You Are


Wear the mess that you are.
Consider it, and you, a work of art.

Picasso, Kandinsky, Pollock, Rothko
would respect that which you are.

Be it. That terrible you.
As gorgeous and vile

as any queen or king
that chopped off a head

or burned down a city.

nowhere to go


... nowhere to go. And I’m a breath away
from total exhaustion. Dead lights
of another dead evening spread silence
through the ice-bound streets,
and something moves, muted by the snow,
moves toward me, carrying in its beastly arms
another catastrophe, another shadow
of my reluctant self,
reminding me that I have …

数星星的女孩
夜空又划过一颗星，
窗边的女孩，
在数星星，
有星星的夜晚总是美的，
星星像钻石，
像未来那个梦中情人对自己的誓言，
直到遇到他，
是100颗星星终于缀满了天河，
他是梦中的白马王子，
为她单膝下跪，
可那只是星星们对女孩的想象，
女孩的眼里只有那个在生活里的勇者，
那个喝酒喝得烂醉还有点脾气的男人。


The Girl Counting Stars

Another star streaks across the night sky.
By the window stands a girl,
counting the stars one by one.
Nights dotted with stars are always beautiful.
Stars shine like diamonds,
like vows spoken by a dream lover yet to come.
Then she meets him,
and a hundred stars drape fully across the Milky Way.
He is the white prince of her childhood fantasies,
kneeling on one knee just for her.
Yet all of this is merely the stars’ fancy for the girl.
All she sees is a brave soul living among the mundane world—
a man who gets dead drunk and carries a temper all the same.

January 3rd, 2023- Drunk Again
Just watching ice melting
Just drunk to live
I'm watching her– smiling
What even is this?

We’re all here
And so empty
Filling up on whiskey
Tonight it hurts drinking
Tonight I just miss me

The whiskey won't go down
Quite as smooth as I’d hoped
And now,
Even right now
To drink is to cope

The whiskey just makes
My head hurt like fire
And it doesn't change
The fact that we’re liars

It hurts, and it hurts
And the weather almost helps
As I pour Jack in the rain
And try to fix myself

The kisses are empty
The heartache is full
And nothing anymore
Means anything at all

THE CHEERY LOOKIN DUDE AT THE GAS STATION 

you got wife…
apartment…
smoke…

he was saying
as I sat at 
the picnic table
looking forlorn
and even in
broken english
I could realize
how 
ungrateful a bastard
I was


BIG

I’m big now
I keep forgetting

catch a glance of my reflection
good Lord!
what am I doing in Dairy Queen?

women just look away
it’s depressing

who cares I think
and I eat like a thirteen year old

but there’s no metabolism anymore
I’m too damn big-

sitting here having a fit
cause some of my Reese’s chunks
fell off my sundae

BEST-LAID PLANS


Having lunch with my mom at the Riverdale Diner, NYC,
I wore my Agnostic Front T-shirt, red braces, and boots.
In time, American skinheads adopted their own style
different from Brits. Lots of tattooed muscles.
Just in time for the ‘80s skinhead/bonehead schism.

At the time, I was 16. A teenage blond girl about my age
approached me at the counter. She wanted me to take
her to a CBGBs Hardcore Matinee. Girl needed someone
to escort her through the testosterone maze.

But I was moving to San Diego in a few days! Too bad,
so sad. My future wife and I parted before I could grow
my hair long, do beer bong hits in college, get married
and have kids, become a well-intentioned, middle class
member of the community. Wonder where she is now?

Yeah, that’s the worst thing that ever happened to me.
As I sit here and type and wait for my Deluxe Quarter
Pounder to be delivered. Oh well, at least I don’t have
to worry about A.A. sponsors anymore. I took a different
route to recovery. I’ll smoke a Rocky Patel on the patio
later. Raise a Coke Zero to the one who got away!