All of the Above

the epic I am planning as I shop for pens
with golden accents. Perhaps if not for the dog’s
unspeakable licking. But at the end
of the day what.

I know that look the crab apple
felled by lightning. So many dear

dead dogs later still in one piece
and place hands empty so

if the usual resins from a walk
through the oldish pines should refuse easy
removal there are two options neither

of which but these days with the funnels we
must wear though who would know as long as you
can smize through hours of unneeded meetings

like one of those knives for chestnuts
which gave her hunting a slight edge
so she fed and bred better her
descendants had the same feature
that time licked into the precise
claw you see before you

then brave the cloying perfume of
seeping garbage trucks to catch a
meager and reluctant yes you
can cut them off or use this corrosive
but how will you feel one day when feet are
back in fashion

the famous detective has asked
that we gather though he claims there
is at present no one to blame

in the meantime that cabin in
the charming old forest is back
on the market at a discount

once we cared so deeply about living
in one of the smoother simulations
but the mood ambles off and who

knows what unwanted updates next
season will force on us though we

are trained in forgetting and so run off

with some fresh simulacrum and
redeem our last stars to clothe it

I want to tell it as honestly as I can. They were all masks. The indecipherable cartoons. The levitation. Phrases plucked from a radio in an abandoned car. Trying to appear simple to hide a different simplicity. New Ugaritic hymns on vintage clay. It all fed some demon that fed me unfortunate moods. Quasimodo as Beckett playing Don Quixote with a shard of glass in his or just K. Kat singing to the mittens the moment before the impact of love gee aren’t images grand?

Though immobilized by what those thoughts might and whether they could be liked loved subscribed to at midnight this pen becomes a pin when the free preview expires but I have groundhog burrows to inspect and potatoes to prepare, which brings me back to, and by which I hope to prove, once and for almost all, in the fullness of, and we’ll see how it goes. But soon the orange smear of our star glittering just slow enough out of this restless salt and then

the proximate convulsion over and soon such nothing at all

the knot knowing must be a part apart from shifts and stumblings of a shuffling

ocean the sometime light from the tip of a pen or the bird song background

yet mornings honey blue and pink cotton candy with musings on beloved retail outlets so

again we try to caress and nail down some mostly smoke and threadbare wraith

and that’s all wet and good but those beloved clammy fevers know just enough to stay asleep until a honeysuckle smile

wandering sunlit sundress you see you lost seven moves ago

loosen those bonds bind yourself better before we start again

but I kept wondering if this little issue is the
cute rabbit no that’s not am I focusing on the
horn and not the tons

of metal speeding towards is there a way to don’t
say hopeless at least peel and plant some sticker while
we while our wiles away and wait for a blank

face apologizing from a form for the trouble with the
abominations and those downwind who of course it has always

doted upon and wishes for nothing but the best with
mineral and film rights withheld

how does it slip so far in so few hours

oh was that it is it over already can we
go home I lost my

special hat somewhere and souvenir
emotion and just noticed every

surface in this room is
covered with a faintly luminous
dust we neither know nor
know whether we should
hurry away from or pray to

and which me did what to get where we oh
it’s no use blaming him of the past who did

his pitiable best so from
here to where and how

much what do I need
to chew for some stillness

but no matter how small I can’t escape the noise

suffer the usual restless pick up A put down A once B calls out put down B when C and so on until only cracks in mud though at each

pause I whittle more of an escape from the wobbly platform if the rabbits will have me but the halting

way it unfolds and snarls is a little hat to
wear while everyone else enjoys
their but one gets tired

of the smudges crumpled computers
scabs shattered windows eating for

the photo binging because it’s
popular but once upon a

so many times I’ve said start with candelabra calendula yes

we all long for a juicy full stop but if
you had one where would it end yes you’ve guessed
correctly for all I know but your skill tree is
not my skill tree which involves a cumbersome buffet of

negotiations regarding dessert so what’s
left of the agenda everyone
been bled as much as permitted in the next phase

we will certainly encounter certain issues we will slowly have
to knead and so on until we reach the center
for(r)est and off again on our obligatory rounds

yet into the clouds again

hoping to believe again in
those pure unbiddens before the
inception of assorted retirement schemes

but who wants to read
that either and no this

levitation is sustained by light
in early spring almost dawn
walks through wildflower waves you

can almost believe and just
about forgive your younger so

selfish self that denied those
sunrises and why not build
another boat ask that it

be kissed in a hidden
spot on the port side

by a dark woman filled
with spring water and soon
loosed on the surge for

some distant honey or ice