reins

in the soft sand
my feet are sea-lapped
like a puddle-dog

hark the Herald sports page
I hear something behind me
it is a beach horse
sniffing the sand like a fag

the incinerator boat out there doesn't care
about the chop
it has a load to deliver and it isn't stopping

I've portioned the vodka so that I don't get too drunk
for the wedding I see down the beach
the wedding I'm now about to crash

I'm already wearing a khaki suit because I felt like it
A family is wearing identical outfits and taking a knee
for a family photo from Darcy the nosestudded
I pass them like whatever

the wedding has a lot of shy people wearing pinstriped vests
so I act shy
I think they're yankees
someone is playing that Godzilla song
too loud from a condo

the officiant is a butch lady from Toronto
I know she's from Toronto because she
said "back home in Toronto we don't have this (gestures at the beach)"
wait I know her - Kris; she was the sous chef at Marty's
on Biloxi; She hasn't been "back home" in 10 years
I owe her $16
I slump down on the provided beach pillow
at the reception near the road she says "hey I remember you"
"yeah hey"
"how do you know Rand and Jess?"
"from back in the day"
"oh cool" she knows
"yeah well anyway it's good to see you"
"yeah for sure man see you around" she knows
I eat the rest of the sliders on my plate
and walk down the highway where everyone is unloading their Pilots
for the blissful sunset

the beach horse trailer is very rusty
I wonder if they give the horses tetanus shots
wow that's rusty

one of the horses has run away and is now running towards the reception,
dragging its reins in the sand
this is unbelievable

it's running really fast
toward the wedding
this beachmare is going to crash the party way worse than me
haha

the horse covered its huge face with the grooms cake
and flipped one of the tables
wow

Kris is acting like she knows how to control the horse with sounds
she's pretending to be Robert Redford
and everyone is letting her get near the horse
just because she officiated the wedding and is in a position of situational authority
that's not how that works

the horse rears up like the Ferrari logo
and at that moment a man in a Ferrari stops on the road
30 feet from the reception
and makes an honest-to-god horse call
and the horse shimmies its head and stares at the man
"heeyaw! Baby come!"
and Baby goes

and everyone claps

none of my roommates are going to believe me
just like they don't believe that I go to Marty's on Biloxi every day to work

Through a Glass Darkly

in the din of the Sperry's Restaraunt dim
bananas are fostered before my very eyes
on the table of lacquered ship wood
where the feet of a thousand Jamaican Maroons
could have patted as the Caribbean crucible cooled
to a concordant, whistling, hurricaneous majesty

she pinned the majesty on her blouse
and
our walk around Bicentennial Mall proceeded
as we relearned the names of the county benefactors
and thought about their closets

the Navigator limo had dirty chrome wheels
that should have been cleaned before picking us up
I shot the trees a look
and one sent a limb to my face

she pretended to like convertibles
and late breakfast
but I knew she didn't

I pretended to like zoos
and free love
but she knew I didn't

Whoa there

In the parking lot of TJ Maxx

Gabriel blew his sax

On the hood of a Lumina

In the shade of a young maple

After the test he walked out sighing

Like a pagan goddess who's perpetually dying.

He knelt before a crucifix

Better Homes and Gardens splayed out on the desk below

I'd rather not have a home

If all I ever feel is alone

Said the boy in the back

Of the prom stretch limousine

Alexandria is laid to waste

And I can't find the sensitive toothpaste

When I'm fumbling in suitcase

As the baby is wetting the bed

A portion of my income to you

For all the fine work you do

I declined one hundred mattresses in

Bagdad for a chance at your lips

I rode into the desert canyon

The camel was my only companion

And an angel appeared on a rock

That was shaped like a UFO

I turned down for what?

I limited who?

I feel so confused.

I spilled all the milk

And rolled down the hill.

You were not amused.

I kicked an old racehorse

I stirred up a zoo

Sneaking into the neighborhood where you grew

It's mostly rinsed off

The cheerleaders kiss

"I don't believe in rewards

Just taking risks."

ersatz errands

to great widths I've pursued thee
twixt the branches of the knowledge tree,

underneath the dugout sea
an upper middle class junkie

with Critical Theory HUD
saw Santa Claus's yellow pee

O clanging monks of humanism
(perpetual outrage and derision)

peer once more from rack of bras
the nocturne's inpursed alcohols

and nervous rings of Chinese weld
grazing merch; a child beheld

the GM dings and Honda cues
to buckle up and follow rules

on Christmas Eve the roads are meant
for all for one for heaven's sense

of certitude and familial hearth
and megaphones that sound like Darth

and cowboy shirts that look like Garth
and secret sips of Maker's Mark

the ebb and flow of theophobes
and mortum tuum neohobos

buffers hoards of bored and lonely masses
with Instagram selfies in science classes

from grandma's relevant juxtaposition
between worldly wealth and inner vision

EMP

turn my computerized contacts on

they won't boot so I roll in the lawn

I've been notified by my beeping thing

that I'm out of bars and so I scream

squinting in the desert of my making

twisting my ergonomic wedding ring

I meet the eyes of all I pass

no downward  hypercataracts

I love you through the EMP

I want you forever with me

under the grey and under the blue

through you and with you and in you

I found my self in some strange park

Where people congregate after dark

wooden slats and paper mache

my boohoo facemask starts to fray

I've fingerwalked a million miles

to find a truth that's half as wild

as face-to-face and hand-to-hand

combatting hearts in promised land

I love you through the EMP

I want you forever with me

under the grey and under the blue

through you and with you and in you

siliceous ooze

Buy me this joystick
I'll grow to be a drone pilot
intently lounging mid-flight

watch me learn to kickflip
asking questions as unto Pilate
I'll never drown out of your sight

Surrounded by flights
you're a Lite Brite androidess
excuse me but I'm heading west

a whole room full of cataracts
like a siliceous ooze of catatonics
"I'm in the banking world. Racetrack banking."

the worldly Pall Mall cougar
handled her wedges with precision
on the gravel pathway behind the student's house

Corey's moment

across
the distressed Pier 1 Imports
vanity

the background of her computer was a close-up picture of denim
maybe on a skirt that tugged at the sunset horse-riding brain trigger

I watched a video of deep-sea volcanic vents where those impossible creatures live
the entire time a large soda dripped in the back of a Lumina

until the entire rear floorboard was soaked in Diet RC and Reebok classics
Tammy's boyfriend has never been good

I bicycled around the cement factory by the Cumberland river
careful not to stop for the wet cement that made the ground look like
the ceiling at every hotel

I dreamed of homeless nobility
before cell phones by Radnor Lake

I prefer Wigger Corey to roommates from Boston
we kept company in the line at the DMV

we watched a beaver waddle in the decorative grass by the building
"I'm here for my carry permit"
"Look, there are some nuns who taught me in college."

I wondered if the good folks at Mt. Zion PBC
could ever not liturgically shout

I stared at the Stihl humming across the hedges

The Department of Corrections stripe on his jeans made me think of the Marithé + François Girbauds he probably wore at the mall before his fall

"He probably fell asleep at Luby's" I thought

I stopped thinking about hurdles and drew my mind toward the grey goo of unknowing that had overtaken every child in the backseats of cars

I am hopeful

America

The shuddering waft deploys its stay

Not upon the fifth of May

Not upon the eighth of June

From morning's burn to afternoon

A winded horse froths and stomps

In better hills and undead swamps

And after many seasoned hands

Have jettisoned the cult of man's

Wicked want and cruel jewels

Shifty truths and unbound rules,

Monstrous reports in crackled tones

Echo hard on empty thrones

From the pinnacle of okay so

On down the road of I don't know

An entrenched brow of more or less

Is unfurling ever over the West

My wonderment is hearty still

A testament of wonton will

And surrender to endowment plus

The engine that drives all of us

'Cross hurting rows of desperate clasps:

An upright gaze despite the gasps

I bay and shout til tattered rasps

Escape the maw of all my pasts:

America, despite your flaws

Despite needy minds and seeming walls

Of mystic, gracious nonconstraint

You're my wild eyed knit, O holy haint

Corey 2.0

In the present tense, I'm with your girl slathering Pert Plus
Past perfect, I was the one who took her to the back of the bus (tripping)

lunch timing with stale crust, monkey bars with lots of rust
Don't this flourescent lighting make my khakis look robust

Johnny Cage apparel like a Wal*Mart greeter
February calendar jampants with the wife beater

kidnap your family disguised as a streetsweeper
leave them on the grass in a field like a sheepish bleater

Ford Focus fan-club arthritic mathematician
box-fan fan-club like a dorm room magician (powdery)

lemon ice box pie in the kitchen like a geriatric
mom who really gives a shit about how Jerry actin

enjoying Apple Barn therapeutic candles in the Buick mandals
preparing power of attorney papers because of all the handles

grateful for my reason cuz the reason for the season
is lost in the season, especially when the season's freezin

thinking like a rock I sink like a stock on a run with the cop
ripping Armani textured jackets on the top

floor of the boredom column aka War-room Harlem
aka forty seven for all mankind's wrestler theorem

brazen no-look mall exiting sounds the maverick alarm
next thing you know you've got your crush under your arm

for a healthy jaunt through the campus plaza
dad opted out of health insurance for the tucked-in Mazda

wizardcore barista mafioso, asi-asi is Spanish for so-so
I'm loco like pokedex sounds with reverb and tremolo

Austin 3:16

drinking airline orange juice
in this intentional community
of perfidy and profundity

the janitorial staff is striking
out into the arterial road
of the neighborhood in which I was raised

"you have a remarkable voice"
I fingered the body panel on the CTS
and the clearcoat pitting played like a record

The man who tinted my first car
later threatened physical violence
because we prank called him

I didn't go to Franklin for weeks
but I listened to Pat's violent encouragement
and returned for a milkshake

Tennesseans are always surprised by the heat
and I suppose we all do forget
the sting of death

Nowish

Finding an old pack of cigarettes / and the package is soggy from time / smoking in a Mossy Oak shooting vest / surveying the land that is mine

When teleportation exists / the Virgin will roll in its grave / a whistling dovetail in the mists / spending all the time that we save

Chesapeake water dog panting / a painting that melts in the shade / but it's instantiated ranting / an amorphous blob of 20th grade

Russell waltzed out in my houndstooth pants / expecting a keg full of fun / "my dad made money off land grants / in the summer of 1841"

The cooler is packed and we're ready to go / in tune with our feminine side / salmon shorts and braided hair / a portrait of field and hoe

A snarling string of Maccabees / recited on Peavey PAs / Tobit's dog was obedient / mine was the only life that was saved

sepuuki

"I'm higher than Burj Khalifa"
"I'm pedal to the metal every day dude."
"I'm going to study fashion design in Gotham City this summer."

"The last thing he saw were the kidney grilles of a pea-green 1500. He didn't feel nothing."
"I'll choose a fresh car wreck every time over Fra Angelico."

Mark had a big problem with babies crying. His pedophobia was most intense from behind the glass partition where he scooped and served delicious frozen treats at the Baskin Robbins on Elkins. Mark left the house every morning at 10:30 after he cleaned the toner from his counterfeit money printer. On the MTA bus he learned the name of the driver. They developed a friendship because they were the only people they knew personally who made finger tutting Youtubes.
"I saw a wreck yesterday. It was a pedestrian. The last thing he saw were the kidney grilles of a pea-green 1500. He didn't feel nothing."
"Hmm."
"Yeah man, I'm not a Starbucks Frenchy but I'd choose a fresh car wreck every time over Fra Angelico. 'Hi my name is James and I'm a recovering Catholic.'" James laughed.
"Well if it makes you feel any better I'm reading Kafka like you told me."
Bird droppings hit the bus windshield right next to Mark's usual headrest.
"Welcome to the thunderzone, Mark. I've spent the past thirty years trying to keep my head above water. It's been a constant struggle to 'abort the gnaw' but the gnaw won't go. It's entirely up to me to worship something; now they say "you cannot serve two masters," I am very convinced you can. I serve both negative and positive vibes. I have a melted heart for some things and a stone heart for other things. Outcomes matter."
A gentleman of color: "LET ME OFF THE BUS MAN. YOU TALKIN' ALL THAT BULLSHIT AND YOU DONE MISSED MY STOP. I PULLED THE CORD CAN'T YOU HEAR THE BEEP?"

For Jay

Κύριε Ἰησοῦ Χριστέ, Υἱὲ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἐλέησόν με τὸν ἁμαρτωλόν.
you were mortar fire in my vacationist mind
I have your wild brain

We drove down Mendenhall, and your fifth step
foreshadowed
my
flailing life

I plucked my pukas
and stared at a homeless woman

Memphian Mysterion,
a thousand tears old,
I know the burning.

I know the burning.

today's trends

side hair pose and triangles
or
whiskey barrels and stomp-shout
or
ukulele, children's piano, and knits
or
Spencer's Gifts backroom
or
rainpunk's meander X prii range
equals
market money
equals
Navy cousin

equals

Jergen's hands palming a basketball

Robituss Goy

Sun Kil Moon in the camper
on a Jordan of our own
somewhere in Cocke county

the stars actually move as fast as the time-lapse
heart-crushing D strings

"the blades chop our grass, Dawn; Settlers of Catan"
mighty morphin power rangers
swim team shame
mugatu and blastoise seapunk nautica pleated pants

"I've worked so hard to not have to work"
the girls of the world keep shaking their hair

I am mortified by the freedom
I am mortified by the deaths of my people

In the living room of coral the fish have couched concerns
// in Fountain City, my love is gravel
for your Vibram vibratto

The World Has Been Overcome
but get back to work

Cosmicomicon

Gnostic riddle CD case
Motorcycle alley pace
Me and myself over grace
Entire persons obliterate
Mark my words with rabid pen
"I'll never do that for you again"
Tilling vacant lots at night
Job opportunities out of sight
Party in the caveman way
Bottle rockets, tooth decay
Mean just that and what I say
Collegiate hunger, purdy face

Me a go go to the bar
To find an active shooting star
Freaky dealers in the Buick
Microcosmic absolution
Far off blood
Linear trace
A signpost turning
To a face:
"Back you go to youthful means
Carrots peas and Baptist beams"

Netscape: Mariana trench coat

in the garden,
a sphere reflects everything it can
I'm 1337 in her
...
in the downtowns
in the midtowns
I'm neon and urban

a car begging to be driven
I saw that actually happen
I was tripping

"I need to see you in my office"
What is your dream job
because this is a nightmare for the team

Palm Beach is a Lattice of Friends

Palm Beach is born againthis time it's Overtown

and one hundred swaths of fabric flown from Monaco
settle onto my floor

the ivy balmorals
squeek across the tarmac

and an aristocratic slap happens
*slap*

I've been slain by the day
I am churning like a child on the shore

I close my eyes to visualize base jumping
from this tower

onto a motorcycle of 1000ccs or higher
that squeels and peels and I slap a hundred drinks

from the hands of little black dresses
onto the cold ground

*slap* *slap* *slap*

Urreligion

the tartaned heart
I am foraging

neon wandering
neon icon

"I am for opening the door."
to whom
I know

It is.

I emerge from tomes of destruction
dusty with ink dust and paper dust

I emerge with exoskeletor grasping
a generic America
a specific America

on tongues waggish
in brains braggish

my striped tie is wilting
under the heat of fatherhood

my tartaned heart
corrugates my britches to and from
work

for my wife,
I scorch

this rapture of boyhood
warshes away
Merrie America
and I stand a precipice edge

ordinances blasting starry eyes
into the Nashville skyline

my bicycle's name is Chesterbelloc
my daughter's name is Finley

Anno Domini

Anno Domini

O tumult,

this night

ends nothing

but the refresh button

pushing of late

and Lo, my mind is process:

(this penance is a mockery

of first dates with myself

"what do you think of mercy

and the continental shelf?")

this year has mauled for quiet end:

cavity search for the tough stuff

finding the tough stuff

hating the tough stuff

Shenandoah Court

I meandered between
shelves

toward the tremendous tomes
of art history

"only third graders walk like that"

I'M interested in art books

for the nudes

I watched my librarian smooth her librarian blouse
and stare into the Peach Orchard Hill

the aleatoric music swam in the car stereo
downstairs


>>

during the fourth of July party
at a ranch house in College Grove


motown played for the frat party vibe
and I partook in a hayride

I saw a cow shit in the field
and one hour later I surfaced from the pool

with eyes burning and wide
and motown still playing into my ears

>>

we snuck to the "Irish house"
across the drainage ditch where we did play

Shenandoah Court
was a turbulence

the legend of our baby sitter's black panties
was an urgent prospect

so we snuck to the house that deserved a smoking pipe
and a tartan clad person upon its porch

>>

so now I sit and wait and hear
a baby heart purposed and clear

beating time like techno sheets
the folds of mitochondria weep

the fervent energy of climes
of tropic bird and pitted rimes

God is good and I am bad
I never thought I'd be a dad

I never thought I'd go through things:
wedding bells, diamond rings

underneath the urbane gloom
my childish heart is knitting bloom

upon a rafter perched a haint
my evergoal is toward saint

I murked a ramp
I tore the punch

and after all
there's no free lunch

about the faces
of positive people

my mother's Memphis
under tall steeples

Kentucky Bend ribbed by
river

I think I'll eat a chicken dinner
I think I'll meet a morbid sinner

I think I'll eek a truncate simper
I think I'll eek a truncate simper

fatima fatima fatima fatima fatima fatima

Moon dog
Sun dog

aspergillum of football sweat

"i need help framing my constitution this weekend if you're available"

Montanist bumper sticker on a submerged Firebird

corduroy book covering on The Cloude of Unknowyng
Saint Anthony the Great, pray for us
pray that our death hearts turn bogus