stolid sunshine: out of town & lost in the funhouse of tokyo in
the blue rain of winter

thank God tomorrow's memorial day.
     i need a holiday like a virtual desert
          needs virtual rain,
     and the blazing red iridescent flowers of my mind
          shall be drenched, not drowned.
thus, i pick up somebody's lost phone,
     and call one of the numbers in its memory
          to see if it might be possible to trace the owner.
forgive me, but i'm thinking of the cat in the hat,
     and the science of water balloons
                         gone flat.

all in a day's drag queen: in truth, she stays away

the bald eagle perched on my shoulder
          digs in his talons:
     "where's the peregrine?" he says boldly,
          "i've been waiting.
               the tea's on the table in my nest,
          and i'm serving up fresh kill duck.
she's a meaty one too. her blood is still warm, the heart was
     still pulsing when i came down to you.
          but you know," he whispered shrilly in my ear,
               "i don't think the peregrine trusts me."
          and then he looked away.

be plain, and hold a bit of onyx in your hand (that others may
or may not see)

giving up (without giving up)
     without letting go
letting go whilst still holding on
     tough, proud, & as guileless as a dragon (or dragon slayer)
     and as full of flame.
and now
sitting at table (gentle souls)
     battling the shadows that gather in the rain

astronaut's still life & foundation

i never did fall
     i stood up and sat down
mercy be! for i crawled through the void
     to the wall of stars neither at dead of night
          here on earth nor in outer space
but that comet grazed my eye and sung of me as a clump of moss
     discharged by a cruel and tender blue whale planet
               of a retired sun