i

*here goes:

the tongue steeped in poetry poor deep as a wild child's chatter watching the world go by and going by the world in turn tuning want a fire in the dark want the wind that blows want the crackle of the wood in nostrils want the smoke of wood in hair when the wind has the sky in an embrace and to play faster faster faster when the low sunk disc of dusk hangs far away from the stars to the left lefthanded breath the air is a glass table charcoal glass

ii

i knew a man who was crucified every day for thirteen score years

never bled from the nails but from his navel where his heart

perched plucked-bird naked cradled by soiled fingers no mother no

(just as well for she was damned to hell a long time ago)

iii

is there a good enough reason for us to chain our children to our rituals so that some little girl in sub saharan africa or ireland or chile can chain her child to a funeral instead of to a song?

iv

i stood me on a mountain by my backdoor

the doves flew across the sky over my head

and the bats on silver wings a v did form

in soundless flight the many things flew and

in a while the planet stooped low ants a-crawl

in star shapes star-fruit smart in yellow points

i hold my own against my own when i win i scream

and the wheels of the bus go round and round

go by chongololo-style packed segment in black

never touched snow only desert dry snow and hot

there is a book it bears my name braille bright

and the art of breaking is shaking my dieseled bones

v

so if animals are inside, angels won't enter? such it is when the sun sets on the word of the day mushroom me i live on quiet slime not my own important dark i make them sick but i'm surprised they won't eat me i'm obsessed with the light and lightness my misery seeks miserable company and other tiny mushroom clouds

i dream of you and i drown in me eyes shut widely body filled with dew

what lies ahead is what we have all of it nothing we ever had is clearer in my eyes than yours maybe clearer in yours when drinks ripple and waves break into water wishes on water where sea horses cavort

vi

bismarck did you see the signs

our wishes lie at the bottom of the ocean

i remember every sunset every waving frond

my favourite words are swivelpivotinfidel

vii

minds are friends and before i fall into the sleep it tells me things will be all right suddenly how many are my words not enough not enough what prepares me for more and your cackles you and your ignorance queen of the hills it's cold your arms walk first your body follows legs tag along the vendor's balls are in my face orange and succulently bouncy the polka dot duo floppy hats twenty liters of water could it be vodka she has a tic white flutterby flutters by upturned umbrella

viii

i want to have her words engraved on my legs so that i can read them in the sun

ix

after a while the fish tank frightens me

and ivy street becomes a

magic mailbox with

wet streets and lights

the secret of the beauty of the desert is the size and the size of the sun there and the shade there and rows of dunes alongside each other early or late and the light that makes them that dwells there sun stripes horse dune mornings and when it sets zebras rise

my eyes do not fear what you have seen i will see it too because i trust them they are mine you are more than my imaginary friend but have you two met?

bull

you work hard at rubbish all day, picking at the threadbare threadies picking at your food picking your mental nose a no-brainer all day no boner either is suspected

sticky stoney lick my boney

snapshot take two

*:there went

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