fumblings

[sgt.null]

A Possum With Ability
(no impossibility)

2 & 2 makes 4
if that is granted,
all else is the gallows

metal man is
obsolete, resurrected
by voltage & frequency

a dull dream

the jigsaw man -
"I hear radio,
radar in this
distant century"

stars glow hot
stars glow bright
the hottest are blue
the cooler are red
our star, our sun
it shines yellow
stars are so far away
but close enough to shine
watch for them tonight.

silver of the moon
you can not
touch the moon
a very long ladder
a very high mountain
jump & dance the moon
throw it in the air

[sgt.null]

Chekhov's Gun

shadows & broken glass
more beautiful than beautiful

the analytical engine
weaves algebraic patterns

she glows like the universe

four oceans - one people

[sgt.null]

Jabanosa

(prelude & coda)

acid yellow & black
a treasure-book in
motion, magic shaken
from formula, chronology
is hardly relevant.
patches of color &
angled shapes echo
nature but tell no
stories. the end?

radiant moon-drunk
poetry cast on a
wheel of clouds...

[sgt.null]

Möbius Strip of the Heart

kitchen sink realism, ethereal
and mysterious - where is love?
lost in the stars - falling from the sky,
the soft touch of a sledgehammer.

the pounding heartbeat, the engine
out of the blue - a brusque "I don't
know." the usual beats but invested
with a rare persuasive power. a low
key charmer - life is a grind, keen
edge of a turpentine bite. a vivid,
if monochromatic portrait of grief.

[sgt.null]

A Forest Without Trees

a totem - the fourth dimension
is made of invisible energies -
not magic - not spirit - but one
of several fundamental properties
of nature. experimental, magnetic,
kinetic - sound and light. cacophonous
antenna statues, delicately collide,
producing spontaneous sounds.

small blurred figures at the mercy
of the open sky and the open sea.

the splash of green - the splash
of red - traffic lights reflected in
a cracked window shield at night

[sgt.null]

Candy Spun from Trauma

sugar as a trap

resignation, acceptance, forgiveness

raucous - the enigmatically quiet before
the storm, disparate and desperate -
fragrant and acidic - you can smell the
smoke and mold. threadbare fabric -
blood and soil, dim candlelight in the
rainy dust - hell is having no choices

[sgt.null]

No Empire

a palace exemplifies lineage,
a majesty, an empire, a symbol,
a display of power. palaces rise
and fall with time, but the ground
beneath them remains, look to
the sun, flowers grow everywhere.

[sgt.null]

Paris

romance is our subject.
a cow-town lowdown.
mountains, valleys wide
and sage-filled hillsides.
transected by long, empty
stretches of four-lane black
tops. kiosks litter rest-stops.
ex-felons publish travel guides,
sold in local convenience stores.

winters are long and severe,
summers - brutal and short.
people are friendless and
distrusting. gathering together
in their individual solitudes.
mimeographing geographical
topographies. marking divisions
of resentment, counted off in
sediments. frustration hanging
over. freelancers travel in packs,
searching for new assignments.
enclaves built by wayward artists.

on opposite sides - live the
remittance men, still in exile.
ramshackle bungalows hastily
constructed in border towns.
tumbledown fly-by-night affairs.
half-empty shells, half-built and
half-remembered. solitary shotgun
shacks looping city outskirts.

scofflaw zones exist deeper
in the brush, by default and
consensus, most of the men
living there are of indeterminate
lineage and of advanced age.
the exodus already happened.
searching for escape the last
generation proved unworthy.

[sgt.null]

Law of Magnetism

who we are

not

what we want

[sgt.null]

Electric Sofa

red bag, yellow bag
don't breathe in my chemicals
don't breathe in my chemicals

the scene is safe
bio-hazard waste bag
bio-hazard white bag
I am wearing gloves
the scene is safe

red bag, yellow bag
don't breathe in my chemicals
don't breathe in my chemicals

[sgt.null]

Wheat Field, With A Lark

across fields
run away,
jump away
as high
as low

as the wind
as the wind
as the wind
can blow

I would go
in all that sky

if I could go