Demure Poverties

i missed the punchline, the deadline, and the finish line

i was oblivious that i came first and left a wake of wanton

i was obtuse to immortalize your prophetic barbs

i was blinded by emergent light, its salvation impotence

i misheard  canon bowels, the rumbling irreverence incurable

i ignored the warning shots, the flares, a snail-pace savagery protection

i dispelled  sorcery, undressing effigies, despite reckless incantations

i misjudged monoliths, reflexive victim of fastidious art direction

i forgot to pay the price, extracted now by transubstantiation

i denied corrections to a fictive eulogy, the death of comedy, a three-drink legacy

i was silent cacophony, disrupting trash cans, aflame with somber desperation

 

 

 

 

Demure Poverties

sworn to secrecy, you confessed how your love

is a tomahawk hungry for skulls

the blood oath went  sour when i dropped the knife

because your James Dean eyes had shut tight

you looked at me through mirror shards

and the seven years bad luck multiplied tenfold

when i said no sex on the bed with a hat

you denied the chapeau though your nose grew prodigiously

when you held me through the storm, a drone lust explored

dread calm with fingers forced a rotary dial to the proper authorities

Demure Poverties

When i said i had no expectations i was lying to us both

It’s like cross dressing and saying you do it for the fashion

When i laughed it was carefully planned to let my breath escape

It’s like the psychology of torture, the aural agony sustained

When i took your hand in mind it was something of a blood oath

It’s like the pressure it takes to make coal into diamonds

When i kissed the nape of your neck it refused to satiate my hunger

It’s like finding the one, safe nest, and never wanting to leave

Demure Poverties

 

i once invoked a poor understanding of narcolepsy as a comedic device

it back-fired as with veiled emotions within earshot was a sufferer

so now i languish with the opposite of narcolepsy

i awaken at any moment, without warning or provocation

last night i opened my eyes and reflected on the beauty of Miranda July’s eyes

but most of the time i wait for sleep to return, to wash away my daily blunders

it is with sweet irony, perhaps, i can comprehend the terror

of losing threads, of breaking bonds, of being instantly alone

from dreams or reality it is the same, a temporal violation

that is seemingly unpredictable and utterly personal

which goes to show that knowing comes from being

until you feel the bars, the walls, it is a fictive cage

Demure Poverties

Banishing my fears with hoarse apathy

Tidal stowaways, they hide in milk bottles

Parasites of hope and wonder, bloated pirates

Hob-nailed boots upon my heart, my memory

My wistful plateaus becoming showdowns

Oh maudlin boy with zipper down

A sharp shooter with lazy eyes

The pacifist with hell-bent thighs

OK corral, a less than zero

Bowels askew, a gastric hero

Fingers on the trigger

Clothing on the floor

The judge, the jury, a guy who wasn’t there

All re-write history, and no one even cares

 

Demure Poverties

While I slept they found a cure for cancer and agression

While I slept ten thousand hungry mouths were fed

While I slept the final episodes aired with viewer titillation

While I slept our leader, declared unfit, was deposed and replaced

While I slept Nature reclaimed two continents, now off limits

While I slept the face of Mars smiled, an omen? or an invitation?

While I slept Stonehenge and Easter Island were tagged with more graffiti

While I slept the first hybrid of a yam and a sweet potato became available

While I slept they found Dan Cooper renting jet skis to tourists

While I slept Atlantis was fined for mermaid brothels

While I slept the Area 51 theme park opened its doors

While I slept espresso was found to be the fountain of youth

While I slept I did not register your absence, a still warm cavity

Demure Poverties

Meals of economy, starch and cholesterol, hidden pastoral spices

Russian heroes perish in noble flourishes, skipped over damaged areas

Re-steeped tea, colorless and ineffectual scorches throat

Dreams frantic melodrama starring food service chimeras

Myth-shaped clothing ravages etiquette with forlorn savagery

Showered in nostalgia, toweled in oblivion

Hours and weather conspire bereft of equanimity

Order provides a naked madness magnified ad nauseum

Chaos unfurls a misanthropic flag, symptomatic lechery

Hope sick roller coaster ramshackle terrors

Opposing thumbs, like teats, herald fetal surrender