What Now

I don't have to decide anything I'm
programmed self-motivated disciplined
how true but what a joke and what now
when half the system is out of town
ten days like forever in advance what
changes nothing everything adapted
perfectly my habits shaped to presence
turn on more lights keep on existing

Go There

sleep when sleep
not stalled half
deciding whether
digging in deep

go there quickly
or slowly just go
you will dream
awake refreshed

wake when wake
new to this day
feeling this moment
making it good

Without Regret

Mozart finishes the moment without regret
nor I but how can I share his sense of fun
if this isn't frivolous I don't know what is
and yet the highest art a pinnacle of serious

what do we truly care about but our children
not even each other mortal even ourselves
developed countries declining toward collapse
if we don't get there first we will be sorry

not for ourselves or Mozart but the fun we had
playing when we remembered not to work
too much or all the time do a little something
every day and the great monuments are made

Way Out

no further plans is this
an alarming vacuum my
theatre craving flagged
read watch movies play
music ping-pong when
someone to play with

supreme commander
of myself crazed with
indecision aren't we
all blundering badly
stuck no good way
out of Afghanistan

Sweet Scent

pleasure in part of the body not to be
mentioned and others too numerous
fingers through keyboards ears hear
bird song eyes flowers reading art
mind as well involved in all these
skin in water muscles movement it
does go on sweet scent of the baby
proves natural best of all experience

More Real

"I don't want anything to change. I want everything to be this way and for nothing more to happen." —Michael McClure, "The Adept"

forgotten dreams linger as empty
memories voids where something
should be but isn't despite wakeful
"hours" rehearsing composing a
narrative embodied with feelings
not to be denied more real than
history every day more bad news
I prefer them to be lucid with me
figuring out what's really going on

Easy Eating

more feeling than memory a bird
calling from the topmost branch
a voice from a crowded stage hid
behind bright ideas in forbidden
dream utterance speak to no one
unless called then rise occasions
report our less admirable results
limit understanding further war
supposed intentions declassified
too late alarms identify new day
old errors coded for easy eating

Too Fat

what's happening one brown chicken
limping the other falling over on her
face feathers ragged let me pick her up

to Falstaff a chicken is cooked juicy
he's been mocked he's getting too fat
but still has his whole sense of fun

Fresh Viewers

throngs of children multiply screams is anything
wrong in this picture I am silent and withdrawn

irises grouped by color invite inspection picking
for different rooms where fresh viewers are few

opera elaborate as any project to make changes
budget rehearsal schedule all must be perfected

then who knows how well things go if you care
I will be there thinking how to do better always

Hot Water

cottonwoods' fluffy catkins describe air's
eddies make visible unevenness fluidity

floating in the last horizontal sunlight
enrapt dramatically slow like seasons

my feet in hot water not a metaphor
soothing no one wants scraggy nails