Wednesday, July 31, 2013

If You Can Get It

What will it be when I have caught up
to them and there are no more student loan
payments the anger in their voices at my loan
it lingers lingers like in that lingering song
my hand in the clear one day one day turning
brass handles of my future without debt newborn
American solid instead of a mass of whirling cells
that don't settle down smooth as glass I mean
borrowed gleaming future of America's got talent
in the good taste of the judges their sorrow absent.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Not Exactly

Just being in the future didn't solve
my loneliness at windows looking in
at night past the happy homes their stars
moon above belonging to me only that
suddenly the antiques look new and the
new has some antiquing expertly applied
sold in sidewalk bins quite a deal I almost
got a worn fleur de lis in Whitefish
it had crystals and a stake it was for a plant
it was the size of a hand now I think my hand
cannot stop thinking of the real glitter of it
but who would I give it to who would want it
like I want it they had blue ones and some
with yellow and green is there anything else.
 

Monday, July 29, 2013

Stumptown Madness

Whitefish Lake pillow waves
wash over the esker I tried
harder to understand why
gulls easy going all in all
what else would I expect the point
for me waiting I mean traveling.

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Summer Wrap-Up

My life an attempt to jump into symmetry
or out of it needless counting I catch myself
at it until new dandelions come back weedy
summer we nearly broke our backs this summer
hunting them from across their morning geometric
bursts of life in the middle of the lawn that is
pasture if you look at it exactly in that way.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Polson Jitters

Town glittered from a safe distance its
pirates sans boat sans shirt sans everything
at the pier of the lake world glacial
town where you could get a city suit made
western fashion at the Mode-O-Day windows
yellow plastic against the curious sun new turquoise
bras jeans blouses fit tiny anonymous waists
small medium-rare steaks and cokes on ice
I worshipped my blue idols sky and lake
they had no faces only intricacies shifting filigrees.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Polson Stickup

We were held up in Polson a spell
speed boats disappeared across Flathead
under the bridge water light maximum
a separate day hibernated blue glacial
yellow until winter until rumors
cherry season other lake ancient
flooded tutti-frutti multi rainbow rinse repeat
paradise located by sitting inside the dream
alongside the exquisite gravel its gulls its docks.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Low And Fast Along The Clark Fork

Montana ponderosa ghosts hang gothic
the coal train is in ravens match bins
short sound in summer clack clack rick rick
water so clear root so bitter Mount Jumbo
more trees still its L in white across
there's the M glass carafes at the U my hands
were students then up the Rattlesnake wild.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Said To Be Full

Blackberries already ripe in the corner of their field
poison oak obvious the river remembering itself
spooked deer white tail brushy agitation
out of the copse under the good pear tree
during the day it is cooler although I listen
that jump over the fence was it easy as pie.
The Percy Sledge Way. Blondie. London Calling.
Big Science. Déjà vu. My friends their hellos.

Friday, July 19, 2013

This July

We found the drama endless
she used to be a tigress
we'll drive all over history
wet knees glistening
day before I told it
then at night I dreamt it
a slack a slag I kept
laziness clobbered ready.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

The Show Still Goes

Byrne for hours
summer stories
plus St. Vincent
through branches
crash along electronic
thunder first few steps
magic drops hang there
generously lit for all
anguished moments spin
others dip to above below
are that if only this time
held still for now for me
I was that I am that.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Roseburg Half Shell

Along the Umpqua osprey look us over
tasty legs flop skim the surface
of the sloping lawn where we sit for free
worshipping the BoDeans their guts
blasting about an America I almost understand
too close to the speakers words important
sexy and then I notice everyone is up
jumping to the last songs happy sad
oh well David Byrne next language
where old growth will translate it
we'll go on to Whitefish after that
take a quick look around eventually
see Shawna the Missions her Missoula
after we step off the Empire Builder.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Expressed O Pressed Life

Loose innocent academy reject
denounced heart self shot in Davos
after extreme fit press destroyed
sharp cleaved granite images burned
no shelter from boot stomping
state bureaucrats Austria lost out
to functionalists their lists most frightening
hunted listed caged my face scribbled green
my eyes outlined in black black woe
churchgoer pink valley-dweller yellow.

Monday, July 15, 2013

People of the Cedar: Downton Abbey Downsized

Whitehorse Falls is a lucky break on the highway. They probably meant Whitehouse Falls back then because it appears to be a fancy building complete with ionic columns that are always on the move.

The falls take a passionate loop around rocky knobs, ignore fallen trees both natural and sawed down a' la the Forest Service. I've meditated here how long? It did not matter one bit, after all, the steering was easy, piece of cake divided by two. I spaced a little then remembered what it was all about.

It would  be nice to have a representation of it later when swept-up in reality. Later, my thoughts and feelings would be absorbed in an elongated fashion. Some trees were purple. Some white. Their roots clung to boulders. The ash drifts looked pink sometimes, sometimes yellow.

The falls tore down my defenses, I could love again.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Scott Law Jerry Greene

Everyone has a twin walking around
somewhere but so nearby not hidden
with the same interests from the same
area same movements when singing
there was my ex on the stage and I could
only stare at the differences find them
if I could a kind of a game to see what
was not there or was it a Jerry Greene
tarot card at the Country Fair
later everything came together
to make a certain sense they call time
a rich bright lovely stream escaping.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Freedom To Shop

Eagle T-shirt
with the words America!
on one side &
Freedom! on the other
sat in pitch in summer moss
so crisp Gatorade blue
Douglas fir and soapbrush
next to air-conditioned ash drifts
along the rusty highway.

Still a cataclysmic mystery
how they lost the business
her Germany no parents
everyone too busy with binding
delivery of funeral wreaths
to take particular notice
all they noticed was
the too lateness
of everything.


Friday, July 12, 2013

Before Toketee After

How to spell it my history
pull between beauty 
seconds then moving
downstream through
plumbing devices every which way
water to turbines' static rumbling
misguided small against drifts of ash
sheer weight of erosion angled trees
elaborate piles of rubbish
masks what has happened what will
torn up built monument
working to harness the elusive
power light land water
quite Pacific.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Top Secret Oak Glade

The edges have it
need only to bump up
show shadows
maybe it was a mistake
mean blue lines
curvy purple trees calm lemon
scattered in the foreground.
Never mind favorite phthalo green
there in the background.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Blurt

Careful of the data
I spoke so carefully
but could not take it
all those spreadsheets
piling up piling up
so I went to Bolivia
got me a safe house
that would never be.

It is wrong for government
to spy on its people
but what to show for
after months days years
gathering armfuls of data
what will explode give way
will it be an explosion
of a new freedom what am I
thinking what am I saying.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Jinxed

At times I could not see green
nearly impossible to pin down
canvas chaotic without the living air space
rainbow next to another rainbow
so I thought extra thick remembered
they made use of paper sacks cardboard boxes
discarded napkins chocolate wrappers
American soldiers threw down exactly observed
then picked up sniffed same as eating

If I say guru he may disappear (not really)
I study their words their ways in the summer
A teacher appears then finds a way back home
generously stepped out of the green into it
Hobo wise Bauernschlaeue add integrity
so much so that my fear hitched a ride outta here
to the war to the machine to the factory

Friday, July 5, 2013

Making Night Small

The Bachelorette in a mood
to give out the next rose.
First order of discussion
bright color celebration
thinking already to next
how I was bomb-trained
small.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

The Alpinist

She leaped back
over the fence. I thought
I'd get tangled but didn't
the wire easy light enough.
How I thought I was being used
to get them back together.

Faraway wildflowers
were what I studied
their names their illustrations
convenient on the deck of cards
their names in different languages.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Jet Lag Reality: Language Blues

She said she apologized for bringing up the Holocaust. I said that there is no need to apologize for that, after all, we had just come back from Germany where the war is never too far away never too far afield. Just standing on a street corner imagining. Just picking strawberries raspberries seeing bread and butter brings a certain sadness. I snap back but not at strangers, just to the ones I love so much. Postcards might numb some of it. I can be friendly for a short while and so can the others. If I hadn't ripped out my back pulling on the tomato cage I would not be reaching for Bayer.

Monday, July 1, 2013

More Days

Love waits at night in a summer hut
out of weeping willows
their flex is the place (where I have been living)
it changed from looking at myself in shop windows/
museums to looking at the things people themselves.

When it came to footsteps the fox disappeared
white tip of his tail like wheat like him.