A couple of Poems for the Night's Fading Light.

Thanksgiving the Day After.





Thank you for liberty as license
in excess to
make us fat and stupid




like turkey's portrayed
as what they are not
but they taste sweet
like the memory of
what we lost

God Bless us for being a nation of assholes
in every country where
they don't celebrate
what we have
lied ourselves into believing
was representative of our gratitude



where
irony is
the cranberry sauce
and the gravy lines the arteries
of our super highways
in the portable mashed potatoes
of wide load bodies
yearning to be free

where our children are pierced with
navel rings
and tongue studs
the one hidden in folds of flesh
and the other hardening Daddy's
fat cock
while mom cruises the aisles of the
open 24 hours Giant supermarket
in a Valium haze



searching



I been searching



I been searching every day



and generating vipers
like The Bible in hiphop
done by Snoop Dog and
dressed by Diddy
and available in Spanish
and Braille for those who
need to touch what they can't feel and



joined at the hip to
the country we fought to achieve
independence from
who never stopped running the show
and who joins us now
in another nation where
death is the technicolor
dream coat




and we like it better from behind
with a reach around than
we do on our backs and looking
into the face of the rapist
who made sure that the only people
walking on the sea of Gallilee are
Palestinians running too fast to sink



Yeah, I got your
gratitude swinging
I got your illuminated text
and the bloated bodies that
Rumi might have mentioned
if he had been Nostradamus instead



or Nosferatu
in the White House where
they don't get mentioned



We hold these truths to be




we hold these dark woods and
serial killer drop zones in the
ice plants along the sides
of California freeways to be
self-evident.



I wish I had a country to love
I wish I hadn't died in the loading zone
I wish I had not
shit in one hand and
wished in the other



I wish




I wish




I wish



we thank you lord for these blessing we
are about to conceive
indivisible
with no kind of fucking justice
in thrall
to the Homeland Security pigs
in the hall.





(there was another Thanksgiving
that wasn't on Thanksgiving where my
Mom made me hotdogs because the chili
the family was having for dinner on the
night I got back from the hospital
was too spicy for my 12 year old stomach ulcer



that I got because
someone was so angry and cruel
that I
burned my insides out



I lost it-



for awhile before
I even knew it was there

my health
my life
my heart broken inside




I cried




I wept




I died





My father called me a
special privileged character
he whipped me
like a dog




that's what I got for Thanksgiving




that's what I got




that's what I got
for Thanksgiving every day
and he was a soldier for life
in the army that protected
the land of
fat blessings
for which Thanksgiving is the
day before shopping is celebrated
and the day after the two day wait to shop)



Suffering
and succotash
cartoons and life
animated characters poping up out of the sidewalk and one of these days




one of these days



"ba ba bada ba bada 'bing' that's all folks."



cartoon spiral sucked back into the real spiral
"buddha budda budda" said the machinegun scream



"Down on your knees!"



"Good grief, it's Daddy!"



For these gifts we are about to receive
from a god that looks like John Wayne Gacy in a clown suit
on a bed of clouds with handcuffs



Thanksgiving
we thank you god for the rain of fire that
we richly deserve
more for the fundies and missionaries than
we do for the porn



What does it take to paint sugar water under the
eyes of starving black children for
photo-ops in a Banana Republic Safari Suit?



the same thing it takes to be in charge of
exploited children
the same kind of photo-op
of men congratulating themselves for
killing half a million people
so that
their buddies in supply and demand can
make enough weapons to defend the bottom line



I am thankful
on Thanksgiving that
I am not you
and grief sticken too that
you are a part of me
Here in the pumpkin pie wilderness of
the land of the free.










In Dreams of Appetite

fast asleep

coiled at the base of life

the love of self and its reflection-

the dreams of appetite…

twined one about the other

one and the same

endless longing for expression

there…

to be reabsorbed and born again

like Nicodemus

the mind asks stupid questions

because

the unknown

is just that

unknown…

and the reality of things always

more simple than we can understand

here

amidst the clamoring of-

the dreams of appetite

oh…for what a length of time…

with nothing to measure itself against

except itself

and emptiness

beneath

the grand empyrean arched

and bottomless

from which falls

the fiery rain

there in the cauldron of confused

and ever changing shape

came forth whatever was wrought

by fear and delight

fantastic beasts

and languorous Venusian witch

to dance

amidst the purity and squalor of-

the dreams of appetite

where is the solid ground?

swallowing sands swell the invisible winds

and serpentine funnels race

through the carnival ruins of

the wreckage left

from the battle for survival in-

dreams of appetite

how we mourn the passing of the patterns

in the kaleidoscopes twist

what special meaning has any one-

among all the rest?

when the colors go

only the backing screen remains

that…is the sum of it….

…across the face of which

parade the wizards and fools who

pursue the mist.

a temporary focus

and uneasy sleep

somewhere…

In dreams of appetite

nowhere to stop

to stop is to forget

beyond galaxies and

beyond that…

homeward past bright angels

whose work is to refine

all circumstance and substance…

guardians of the soul

at that fearsome banquet-

the featureless night

the black table upon which are served-

the dreams of appetite

bardot upon bardo

from Paris to Tibet

elusive spirals

the upward swing into illuminated rooms

where imagination serves us best

but cannot prepare us for

the splendorous rites

performed by those abstaining from-

The dreams of appetite…

far in the unremembered past

there is a music like coursing blood

a shine without shadow

a milk of self forgetting

a rising, rushing wind of living song

it is the provocation of all longing

the unknown source of every want

to be achieved in silence

under lustrous love-hewn stars

when-

silence has

prevailed upon the world

with all it’s might

whatever world there may have been-

in dreams of appetite…

There is No Injustice.

There is no injustice

There is often the extreme nearsightedness

of selfish intent

for as long as i stand here

and you stand there

the appearance of difference

is the God divided

and worshiped from a bloody altar

that man has built to his own dark needs

everything moves

toward a unity

gone missing

time and time again

until pain has brought forth the blossom

of loves symmetry

but

there is no injustice anywhere

there are no innocent bystanders

there are no accidents

and being sorry doesn't help

maybe...

its not your fault

it may not even be wrong

who knows...?

whose view is vast enough

that passing time does not soon compromise

their line of sight?

who sees well enough

to leave well enough

alone?

beautiful bubbles break inside the oceans foam

the water leaks into the sand

then swims away unseen

the wind stirs the leaves

the grass grows

the bees make honey

the fish laugh beneath the surface

and the horses gallop forever beneath the waves

that will never free them

it is only longing

and there is no injustice anywhere

clouds float by like dreams in a peaceful sleep

and the sky is blue

and the sun is brimming with life

and the moon is pregnant with form

and the coyote howls

and the eagle screams

and longing and hunger will never end

desire is the agent of Gods will

and there is no injustice anywhere

the light changes

and gridlock comes

and the car horns honk in Hells unfinished symphony

where the smoke from hidden fires

blows from the manholes and grates

as Jesus blows on his hands in a broken stairwell

with Bethlehem two thousand years away

its going to be a long night

but there is no injustice anywhere

the heat blisters the streets in these cities of wanting

the mad fire dance

the insane dervish in a suit

it fries the palate

all sense of taste is gone

it burns the bowels

and turns the earth an alkaline white

devoid of life

here in the pushing crowd

where loneliness is king

where no one makes love

but are only ashamed

and cannot speak

eyes do not meet

the money changes hands

but never the heart

nor the mind

a place

is what takes place

if you want something else

then go somewhere else

love will only be a problem for you here

It is incredible

and it is insane

it will not get better

it is supposed to be this way

a million years ahead

or a million years behind

t’was ever thus

the city is the same

the drama does not change

the cataclysm comes

and the fiery rain

vaporizes the stage

so that it might all begin again

and there is no injustice anywhere.

The Big One

You want it don’t you…?
You sit so still and quiet
But I can see the squirm
The raw need
The need to do something
The need to be somebody…

You know there’s a price right?
I suppose you have something to offer…
I mean… that’s why right?

And you’ll be good to people when you get there
Won’t you?
Just like all the people that came before you.
You’ll be a decent human being won’t you?

You want it don’t you…?
Don’t grab….
That’s not nice….
Didn’t your mother teach you not to grab
You know, for a moment there you looked like…

Raw need isn’t a pretty sight.
But it will do

Were you told you were a special child?
You were weren’t you?
It is a real drag when they lie to children.
Worse for the rest of us when that child grows up.

Now,
In the world of essential MLM
In the world of smoke and mirrors
In the place of money and power
In the place of finalizing dominating sex
You know you got to be a bottom…
If you want to be on top.

You don’t have to feel bad about what’s gonna be asked of you
It’s an acquired taste
And you will acquire it
Easiest thing in the world

And you don’t have to worry about what it looks like to the angels
Angels don’t come into it
You’ll be dealing with a different sort here
We like you that way

This realm
This plane
You want to play here?
Well
There is a fundamental reality
And a necessary stripping away
Of certain components that would interfere with
Your ability to play here

Certain notions you have to give up
Certain ideas about the right thing to do
This kind of thing can confuse you to the point
Where you will fail in this world
AND
Miss out on the other…

Now I know you don’t care about the other
Or you wouldn’t be talking to me
After all, you are in this world aren’t you?
Well then baby
This is all the world you need

So we need to just lighten up on the things
You don’t need in this world
The things that will hinder you and
Hold you back

The fact is
You’re either all the way this way
Or all the way that way
In between comes the thresher with the big teeth

Many many have come before you
And many more will come again.
It’s always the same thing
The system is solid
Either way.

You know when you have sex
It becomes a dining area?
Well, that’s not important for the moment

What you need is
That Chase advantage
You got to get
That Chase advantage

Got to
Sign up and let the big one suck you off

Sign on

Donors get in line
Let the big one suck you off this time

Plasma for the war…
Oh yea


I’m gonna let the big one suck me off this time
I’m gonna let the big one suck me off this time

Get that Chase advantage
Get ahead of the pack
Get the smell of the hunt

I’m getting hard in the pocket
Hey son, let me connect that socket and…ooooeeeee!!!

Let the big one suck you off this time
Let the big one suck you off this time

All the buyers and sellers
Of stuff and of self
Along with the bankers and brokers
And interceding priests,

All the consumers and the consumed
All the press and the products
All of everything that comes into form
All of the manifest that was ever born
Except
The except
But you’ll see the disclaimer at the bottom
And be sure and read the terms of use


All gonna suck a big one this time
All of them waiting at the front of the line
Waiting
Anticipating
That really big one
They’re gonna suck it all this time
Glory…glory…glory
Gonna suck a big one this time

Get that Chase advantage
Get that Rockefeller edge
Get the big one behind you
To push you off of the ledge

David’s got a cup of hot widows’ soup
Gonna foreclose on a few lifetimes
And get the big one to suck him off this time

One day when the kingdom is blazing
With that great big Fourth of July
And everyone understands just what they are celebrating
Maybe we could get the black hole in space
To give us a little real deep lung time
And there’s another in Calcutta that will
Work just fine
Ah, what the fuck-
And never mind

We’re gonna let the big one suck us off this time
Suck us off to notness
Suck us off with no forgiveness
And fuck us up the ass at the same time

Celebrities and wannabees
Get in line

Cause when the big one sucks you off
You have no regrets
Man, everyone forgets

When the big one sucks them off
When the big one blows Stardust on their horn
There’s only one selection on the jukebox
You can’t hear the breaking glass
Or feel the impact of the windshield
At the moment of the crash
Did I mention?
The big ones got your attention…

You are moving through the line
The Game Boy is your mind
Plugged into the action

You lost your taste for Campari
When you found out that Tinker Bell was a man

But you’re waiting in the darkness
With your pants around your ankles
With your passion in your hand
Dreaming of a kinder gentler land

With the big one hard at work
Yea! Oh yea baby!!!
HARD at work
Good and HARD
For this portion of this lifetime
Waiting on the big one
To blow you right the fuck out of childhood
And every tricycle it rode in on

Get that Chase advantage
Mr. Rockefeller gonna treat you just fine
No memory
No tomorrow
No highway left behind
The way they came is gone
They’ve formatted the mind
(At the prompt type Y. Warning, you are about to remove all data from your system. Do you wish to proceed? Oh yes, oh yes!!! Oh God Yes!!!)

Maybe just one cigarette
A few bobby pins
A lighter and
A subway token
No heart will be left unbroken

One hallway full of shadows
Wet concrete and the chittering of rats
Gunfire and weeping in the distance-
too great to define

There may be some disappointment
After
The big one sucks you off
Just turn your head and cough

And get that Chase Advantage
Get 0 percent Interest
No payments till the end
This offer will be repeated
Act today
Do it now
Felators are standing by
They’ll be kneeling in a minute
Everything includes everything
No waiting
No waiting
No waiting
No waiting
Fade…

So, you’re okay with that?
And you know about the quid pro quo?
You know once you get rid of those items
Nothing you do will have any further effect on you.

The reason we called you in
You look like you know
What’s going on
And you don’t mind

Now
Most people
We don’t even have to talk to them
They get right on board and
Don’t even ask where the train is going
They think the smoke trails are coming from the engine

But you’ve got management potential and
We think you can help us with the boarding
Make sure there are no empty seats
And every now and then you get to step in and be
The Big One
At the cosmic glory hole
And remember
You’re draining into your own bank account
And the financial apparatus that
Makes the whole thing move
And shake
And bake
And that makes all of us here
(I know I can speak for all of us when I say this)
That makes all of us here just
A little more motivated
A little more ‘into’ it
We’re all about satisfaction here

Some of our biggest customers are
Some of our biggest customers

See,
In the end
Either way you go
Whichever side of the helix
You got to get down on your knees
Either way
On the one hand
It’s just all about longing
On the other hand it’s all about getting to it
NOW

And keep in mind
Throughout
I’ll be turning into an angel
At the given moment
Be not deceived

9/11 Dreaming of a World of Flesh.

9/11 dreaming in a world of flesh
………………………………….



flesh

in a world of flesh

sees flesh only

the heart and the mind may suspect
but still too often
see
flesh only

back of the flesh in the world of gears
manipulated triggers pull at the limbs
that dance in the world of flesh

orchestration
and the high art of fraud
are an easy task
in the world of flesh

and the tumbling bodies hit
and the dust rolls in clouds from the streets
but another dust comes
from the smoke machines
and the mirror exchange of the press

some say the Arabs were angry that day
some say there's more to the ruse
beneath the veils are a number of things
that
SOMEONE
has put to good use

other intentions have come through the fire
and now they would burn the world

the convenient timing

the fabulous deaths

the great down winding
diminished regrets

in the unseeing world of flesh

now comes
the junk and the tedious songs
on and on
ad nauseum

the Twin Towers Watch
the speeches and banners

"on Comet and Cupid"

and Tiny Dancer

the peacocks are fanning

the demagogues struttin'

the survivors are jostlin'

through cables and grips

very important envelopes of flesh will
inflate their gills
with the shimmering scales of eminence

and gravitas

and their importance as flesh

and

remind
you
of
that

and... remind you... of that


it goes on forever

it lasts for an age

and-
….. THERE'S NO MORE FUCKING ROOM ON THE STAGE!

for the flesh

that encompasses space in a world of flesh

forget Rwanda,
Sierra Leone

the Congo?

where that's at?

I lost my cell phone

where's my goddamn latte?

is this lettuce fresh?

it's so hard for me
in this world of flesh

no one understands what it's like
for ME!

no one understands!

I don't understand

"why can't we all just get along?"

in the world of flesh

in the world of flesh

flesh expands and presses out over the clothing
and all restraint

flesh billows with the fruit of appetite

the soft melting encapsulated lard
of chewy TV goodies

and somebody

somebody...

blew up the church of the flesh

the goalposts of the empire of flesh
came down

the towers of flesh motivating upwards

the upwardly mobile flesh

flesh...

the lightening struck tower

somebody....

somebody....

now walk with me...
take a walk with me…

behind the world of flesh

back into the gears

back behind the tech's

behind the bankers

behind the money

behind the images

behind the ideas

behind the numbers

and behind the initial divide

far from the world of flesh you have

the uninvited guest

the forgotten lover

the fruit of desirous quest

someone forgot

SOMEONE FORGOT!

a lot of fragmented flesh puppets forgot

a whole lot of somebody
seriously forgot

to invite God into the world of flesh

and God showed up anyway

like the sword

as the spirit-
informing matter of it's presence

but it will never do to look for truth in the rubble

it will never do to think in terms
that flesh cannot accept

it will never do to consider
the absolute precision of the act

the fluid grace

that caught everyone flat footed
with a stupid look on their face

things can only be a certain way in the world of flesh

the impermanent flesh demands it

the vanishing melting vulnerable flesh is trumpeting

and cannot hear beyond it's own noise

the flesh is God unto itself

in the land of stuff

where stuff is God

there is never enough
there is NEVER enough...

just the wanting of the flesh
in a landscape of desired things

the temporary paradise on disappearing wings

rage on flesh

RAGE ON!

wrap yourself in the colored images of dream

wrap yourself in the vain exhortation

wrap yourself in the clamoring

clanging detuned symbols
of the empire of flesh

scream
and laugh

and weep
and carry on

it is never a moment too soon
in a world that is too soon gone

one should never disturb the dangerous dreams
of the lords of the kingdoms of flesh

the heart and the mind may suspect

but they can't get there yet

the tiny voice in the silence may speak

but cannot be heard

not in the world of flesh

sometimes a greater noise is needed

from the lover you have forgotten

the lover
who
has not forgotten
you…

I know you're in there….

[BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!!!]

“I KNOW YOU"RE IN THERE!!!!!!”

[BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!!!]

“I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE!!!!!!!”

I know you're in there...

hidden in a world of flesh.

Buried in a world of flesh

HIs Rachel Corrie Moment (In Memory of Asma al-Mughayr)

the cross-hairs fix
across the rooftops

wind from the south-
....five knots

and leading
across the space where birds
have flown

but now
in the cold Ashka-Nazi eye

the young girls form
moves in laughing dance

arms gathering the laundry
she dreams
and surely she must hope
of a world and a life beyond today

as finger tightens
upon trigger...

when it came
the explosion was

of such a force that...

he came too

like Romeo's ghost upon
the imagination's palanquin of night

the bearers of the darkness
they toiled
underneath the thrust

of bullet and finger touching
the silenced heart

and
blood like a fountain
sprayed upon the sheets...

....some secret code
that she read as
she fell dying to the roof

this...

his Rachel Corrie moment come
round at last.

Should the Japanese Apologize for Pearl Harbor?

[I wrote this a few days after I saw that Congress was trying to pass a resolution on the fiftieth birthday to request that Japan apologize for Pearl Harbor.]


"Should the Japanese Apologize for Pearl Harbor?"



the Japanese were not the first
to bomb Pearl Harbor
we were

so i think the Japanese should apologize for Pearl Harbor

just as soon as we apologize to the Hawaiians
for bringing the mosquito and yellow fever
killing thousands

for bringing venereal disease

for the horror of sugar cane

and purple mountains travesties
above the looted plains

for sabotaging the beaches with kiawe thorn trees
to force the natives to drape their bodies
from the hot gaze

of their twisted
goddamned
christian missionary eyes


i think Japan should apologize for Pearl Harbor
just as soon as America
apologizes to the Japanese Americans
for interning them in concentration camps

and as soon as Richard Nixon's Quakers apologize
for stealing their properties

(which were left to them in trust to be returned upon their release
which they were not)


I think Japan should apologize for Pearl Harbor
just as soon as we apologize for Hiroshima and Nagasaki

(still simulated every year at a Texas airfield)


i will always remember how the blast fused their shadows
into the building walls

THEY DIDN'T GET ANY WARNING EITHER


i think Japan should apologize for Pearl Harbor
just as soon as we apologize to the Native Americans
for the ruin of their culture

the theft of their lands

the whiskey and infected blankets

the destruction of their hunting grounds

and for stripping them of all humanity and dignity

THEY DIDN'T GET ANY WARNING EITHER


i think the Japanese should apologize for Pearl Harbor
just as soon as America apologizes
to the African Americans

for slavery

beatings

emasculations

rapes

hobblings and brandings

pretended emancipations

segregation

lynchings

and

the slandering
imprisonment
and murder of their heroes


i think Japan should apologize for Pearl Harbor
just as soon as America
apologizes to Cambodia

for 3640 B-52 bombing raids
and 110,000 bombs dropped
during a war that never took place

and for backing Pol Pot
as the legitimate representative of the people

(i remember to this day
the pyramid mountain of skulls outside Pnom Phen)

THEY DIDN'T GET ANY WARNING EITHER


i think Japan should apologize for Pearl Harbor
as soon as Attila apologizes to Rome

Salome apologizes to John the Baptist

on the day that politicians become honest
bankers become generous

no fault applies to love

and the Pope shits in the woods


and should be delivered to the White House

by a woman on ice skates

ten minutes after Hell freezes over


Frogman

If I were Inside You.

I could form a garden from the wind
Make it stay for your enjoyment
Then turn it back again
If I were inside you

If I were inside you
I would not move
It seems so slow
But you would move
I know

Heaven and Earth

You would be the gate
And they would be the same

Flaming letters would write your name
Upon every living thing

If I were inside you

If I were inside you
I would expand
Till you could not contain

Thunder would break the sky
And lightening would flash

There would be rain

If I were inside you

If I were inside you
The door of everything
Would open
And we would rock upon the water
Till the sea gave up the dead

The fire in my heart
Would be the sunlight in my head

If I were inside you

If I were inside you
Every pore upon your skin
Would open into rainbows
That would tremble and dissolve

Over and over again

If I were inside you

If I were inside you
Because you let me in
I would fold my tent forever

Hell would curl up at your feet
And go to sleep

And I would never leave again

If I were inside you