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