All You Got Left

hijacked stares

and high-jacked stairs

looking for all the world

a loss

given to sucking his teeth

and malt liquor power shakes

wrapped in

fish-bone dyepaper

lost as a thousand

underwater lamps

shining on the path to atlantis

wrecked and wreaked

and

roped and doped

shelling the high heel goddess

with

man-sized artillery

shells and canister

super male vitality

macho

macho

satchmo nacho

give it quick and don't look back

wrap around the clock

he trips

he sneers

he quips

he tears

and a coal-black

(what is coal anymore?)

coal-black jacket

coal-black face

coal-black trousers

coal-black heart

hijack the goddess

and look for all the world

a loss

Jousting in Time, Again

at times I think we looked

like brother and sister

but then I come unglued

and the world begins to look

like a watercolor

I once said it was a feeling

like trying to swallow

too much under-chewed beef

it gets caught in the chest

but the lump in the throat

pays no attention to the glass of water

and I have to cough and spit

and cry out your name

and remember how gone you always were

and how gone you are right now

if I thought I could cry out

for your spirit to return

I'd probably have a crack at it

and see if your spirit

could edit a few pages of text for me

and chew the fat

and laugh

and make me believe

I have a sister