lockstep

lock step with jordan

and picking at my face

picking what I do, what I do

I don't pick on jordan

and he don't pick on me

we picked up the anhydrous

and no one picked a fight

“I'm gonna' cook it here”

ass, jordan, you kill us both

pick your face and pick a zit

pick your friends, my momma said

pick 'em well

I picked my friends and I picked jordan

lock step with jordan

“she gonna come later, pick it up”

we could meet her in the woods

or meet her on the street

or meet her by that house

by the gas station

by the church

that they made into a restaurant

so we met her by the empty apartment

by the bar

by the strip club

by the way, she knew the truth

and I was lock step with jordan

and jordan ran to the woods

and then ran back

and we knew someone was coming

ass, jordan, you kill us both

my momma used to cook in the house

but it was meatloaf and tuna and beans

never cooked like this

and someone was coming

and jordan was shaking

and I was sweating like a puddleboy of death

he started to cook

ass, jordan, I screamed

let's go to the woods

and he was shaking

and I swore I heard a siren

and in a half-light dream like damnass scream

I saw the flames

ass, jordan, you gonna kill us

and he was mumbling, mumbling shaky deathwords

and why he took the white gas to burn the stuff

I'll never know

white gas fail-pass white trash can

bake a crankman and a crankman can

ass, jordan, your face is melting

and the car is burning

and the stuff is going

and the house is catching

we got running

ass, jordan, your face is melting

so I dropped him by the clinic

by the grocery store

by the shelter

by the river

right outta my car

and his ass jordan melty face

all crispymelt eye-slit scary

and I ain't gonna walk

lockstep with jordan no more

Hidden

When you lost
Your friend, child, 
Mother, brother,
Our combined tears
Mixed together
To nourish
The water angels
Who came to care for them
When the flood waters came
With a complex power
From the deep
Without reason, 
Making no sense
As you go hungry
Hearts sink
Souls go numb,
The deck of cards
Is cut and warped
From a water stain

apparent self-strangulation

hanging by a thread

and hanging by a rope

they gave him enough rope

rope burn hives like beef-jerky twine

kick the stool if no one kicks it for you

drop like a sack of lead

if the lead in the paint don't kill you

“i got the cash, i got the cash”

“you got the crank?”

“i got the crank”

he got the rope

he got the stool

and a rope burn hive like beef-jerky twine

solid as breath

stagnant as death

and hoop-holler nightmare

stool-kicking time

waste it left and right in a blur

sexcrankroadtripsexcrankbloodknife

knocking over motels

knocking over gas stations

knocking over line after line after line

steelcold crystal burn like baking lime

and a rope burn hive like beef-jerky twine

run and cut

run and cut

runcutruncutruncut

cut his neck and

cut his crank and

cut his life and

cut it short and

cut

mick-boy sells it all (meth and sex and hope)

burned up hole-hide

hiding in the ash

hiding in the

little tiny bits

little tiny bits of ground up bone

ground up bone

and the parts that don't burn away to dust

hiding in the hole

that a hole-hiding

death-trap wizard sold as a dream

dream in a death-trap

and slap yourself silly 
with your high-priest scream

done it all, done it all

we have all done it all

but the death trap wizard did it more and better

(for more and better is what we like)

with a day of crank-stuck sex and sweets

stick in a place where it hurts more than usual

sure, you've done it all

we all did it all,

and the life you live in the life you live

looks like ash and bits of bone

and crank-stuck sex and sweets

offered on the corner of your perfect life

you death-trap wizard sliding high-priest steam

with the steam that bleeds

and never burns away to dust

in a crank-stuck stream

you wizard, you

Creepy Feast

Wormy green apples

Covered in caramel glue

Specially hand-made

By my great-aunt Lou

My sisters made popcorn balls

With something so vile

Last time they served them

They went up on trial

Uncle Rick’s soup in a cauldron

Is looking at you

I thought that it winked

Through the liquidy goo

Lady finger cakes

With real painted nails

Curled up and dried

Served up in pails

Next year – no relatives!

I’ll stay home alone

On Halloween night,

Watching "Twilight Zone"

 

Prompt #181 We Write Poems


Happy Halloween!
 

Procrastinator's Stew

Paging through color photos

Mysteriously coded instructions

Appearing as gibberish

To a clouded mind,

Growling stomach

Frustrated by epic long lists

Of foreign ingredients

Evading a sad larder

Crying out

For a farmer’s market fix,

Spice market sit-in

Butcher’s brawl,

Baker’s punching bowl,

Begging for an air-drop

Into a cramped kitchen

With a half-hour

Til company arrives

Time only for

Speed-dial,

A quick Ciao

And a pick up

Of Italian carry-out

"Food, Glorious Food" Prompt #179 at We Write Poems

Pulaski Alley, 1964

Old Mrs. Meezly

With the

Carefully sculpted scowl

Lived across

The street from

The childhood homestead

Never stepping outside

Except to yell at

Obnoxious urchins

Wandering too near

The wrought iron gate,

Protector of thorny shrubs

And hoodwinked rumors

From buffoons

Defying the pointed finger tremors,

Screechy party-line howls

Fear and bravado colliding

With children’s souls on

All Hallows Eve

Taunting the door

Answered by

Bruised crab apple treats

Scavenged from

A haunted tree

Tokens of trepidation

With an ominous smile

Scout's Honor

Listening for the sound
Of firing muskets,
Cannonball explosions,
Broken twigs,
Stallion breath
Paid with disease
For services rendered
Trade-off
Avoiding the
Claustrophobic walls 
Of fort school
Listening
For the Spirit calling
Choice between the
Ancestors of
White father,
Native mother,
Mother Earth singing 
Her ancient song
To a drum
Inside his chest
Spirit of Father Sky
Raining tormented streams
From his eyes



In memory of Grandfather Pierre