Old Enough

glad to hear from anyone who cares to answer my appeal for audience feedback artist may know better if only old enough that's what I mean by comedy elemental dear that you would say so much more than humid clean up the filthy light booth dust strikes back at enemies all siding with each other why offer if you can't find the stuff I can arrange something else even then the form solidifies you are not one to object say less as the actors learn their parts the whole I only dream

Alien Text

iris explosion root beer float "Alexander Nevsky" bear dance where is anyone knows or cares what shoes whose hair I wear who wins or not what matter grieving for what doesn't exist sink into the flow falling eyelids grace pages of the alien text third act resolution if there is one way structural analysis who greets or ignores me makes me hate them possibly came first

Day Off

I needed the day off shockingly tired I have been pushing day and night oh I love it I couldn't be happier but suddenly could hardly walk sinking as if dying fortunately I didn't have to do a thing but address postcards send emails make a salad eat watch "American Beauty" not "Alexander Nevsky" finish up a Sunday puzzle with my love renewed ready to cut my hair and be young again inspired enough to do what I imagine entertains myself and others

Final Blast

as my mother was dying no more food or water her mind gone she reached her arms up desperately I kept telling her it was O.K. to go she seized my head and pulled me down and kissed me on the mouth final blast of love from all our time

Patty Cake

Uma's bipedation takes me back and makes me wonder why do I not have more fun with friends although they are old now most sitting on the grass in aluminum and plastic chairs watching idly commenting and I am doing my work building set pieces wiring lights while Dan makes a movie on his phone which I can't load

Aim High

mosquitoes in the theatre don't eat bananas perfect food be chartreuse for example how express be happy all right now poolside line learning while Sierra swims will consolidate mad scene Callas sets the standard aim high chin down lemon sunlight frying brain waves goodbye awhile then exits onto the western veranda

Flat Black

what am I interrupting only Proust carefree whatever the topic bright light as opposed to heavy or dark and how make love language sing rip down the paper paint the walls flat black tribute when meant gay revelation alternative possibilities kid yourself not poppa cut losses

Dream Truth

how transition one mind wider practice chocolate are you here question mark a separate painting hope every blessing reveals the word quietly its meaning mad cadenza undisputed master no one here hears birdsong fluff blizzard subsides as twilight falls spelling Mozart of course I want to solve problems arising natural immunity more limited than wish fulfilling dream truth

That Magic

detestable Cheney spoils intelligence can be so sweet flashes of sensitivity laughing playing exhilarating death and gradually they know their lines I won't accept a single wrong word slippage pause and fix it wonderful actors know I know what I want not how to play it that magic their own this is not a hotel the food is better love real daylight focuses its poetry on you and all come together again vainly complicate each other's lives

Good Intentions

how can John Lahr say that about Christopher Durang doesn't have the skill it's true but isn't lameness a kind of virtue nobody reviewing me what's your degree in I don't have one take that you academic or take it back but I forgive you if you forgive me we're all in the small town soup tequila with cinnamon if you say so I trust you little sense though it makes to play Puccini on good intentions anything goes on your birthday

Good Eating

floating sinking bears erdbeer how does it matter whither my drift lies truth or stupid when I work for free if you don't know me I don't exist rational fear dictates lumber order while I have truck to haul it home after seventeen years makes good eating sleeping be called creative San Francisco claims Diane as poet laureate deserved just as Freddie surfaces through Soren's wild eyes as if no time flies like the present

Knowing Better

something cheerful if you don't mind it's only entertainment rain pain who will you tell if not me knowing better then again something has to happen after you introduce the characters it stops being fun if indeed it ever was something something more the same answer implies a different question of sanity calmness service to humankind

Tear Tracks

quickly do it before you forgot already the moment passed in spite of good intention missed cue deploy odd considerations even then you will be my own chosen dance partner spectral wraith wrapped around a neck or tree peeping losing respect I won't tell if you don't appear smiling tear tracks signify an allergy or unanticipated move cleanly executed really works

Some Return

an email from Johnny's half-sister what a wonderful world we live in time passes and also loops around some are gone forever some return new connections combinations rise I will write back nothing will follow only the idea is worth entertaining what can still be known recorded what is forgotten is most precious whether you care is all that matters

'Be Good'

secret anxiety then there he is waving to me outside terminal never doubt dreams come true ideate wait execute plan enjoy creative natural understanding say "be good" and he can do it be this just the bare beginning rehearsing is my favorite work

At Any Speed

a day without playing music apart from a fragment of Shostakovich he means it to fly like the wind is it good at any speed like Bach a day without writing apart from a press release reiterated if no words spring to mind start anywhere something follows Rohmer Jansenism Pascale much else missing from every day existing far away or forgotten weather furniture nature oneself insist

Soaking In

La Niña stirring still dashing against windows lashing unseen trees barn lights turn on the air moves drops hard some white soaking in she comes from the Indian Ocean she said everything connected high currents to deep cycles so far feedback eventually rebalances but the melting ice massive vehicles ashamed or should be won't swing back as far whatever we expected will not be the same it never is

Each Word

bought punctuation makes me laugh loud music overwhelms conversation stark rescue parts the singing waves here we depart from familiar routine interrupt if you have to say so speak each word heard clearly is important tell me again you mean it if believing matters actors are paragons of truth

Private Aid

blue cheese and apple is a start or finish the day eighteen hours old spelling natural right lively or did it mean to be real wisdom chewing through fancier stuffs what does this pattern suggest I will be your man if you want me speak in my tongues if you let me manage for myself on private aid or sheer necessity throw a party for what pass for friends excuse tardy rude obscure judgmental something brought me down I let it pass it does by then known figures introduce the gay routine

Too Soon

rewrites carpentry "Nashville" 1975 choose to remember instead the good times Mother now roll on season flames glass Bangkok Vienna wish hope miss what will be and the other too soon hum me to sleep before my ruin leave me a lock of your raven hair

New Each Day

being lucky is unfair who is guilty of history genes bad parents they probably tried to be better failed youth's light heart may overcome but then it overtakes pity no gift money only measures obstacles luck is not transferrable or safe no bank allows deposits make it new each day and it may stay

Here to Stay

write something anything every moment counts make an offer or pay in full no insultings please and if I have to be president again I am willing now you know what I am thinking about myself you need not express or even have an opinion but if you do I will try to find the positive in it therefore rise foamy smiling hold nothing back consider lightness my ideal if only I knew how I would lift us all be glad you are here to stay

Even Letters

fire in Santa Barbara again rain here I go to the theatre I go to everything I like it even if it isn't good not jazz football tv what else does anyone do complaining never helps do what you like I don't forgive you but it doesn't matter I didn't see Ann's punctuating gestures happy to know were made and in the end we will all be nothing words come apart again even letters forgotten eyes unsee the finest art existed and we knew it at the time

Not You

do not believe the I it is conventional to be sure even if you are not really one person who can speak of himself inexplicable encounters in the night unspeakable modes of maneuver between the sheets of paper poses more purposive than apparent truth experience refracted in a clumsy medium dogwood coldly pink only momentary sunlight sparks of dew fiercely growing grass do not believe the doubts arising early dark shadows falling spring you are not you except to another nor I the self that would appear after all saying close the book

Deadly Time

essential revelation already forgot I cannot teach you how to be alive critique of your actual being would change everything you barely have necessary arrogance wears a mask of classical humility lightly owned reveals the lying shapes in space contrived to counter deadly time this the inner nature of the drama dares not speak its chilling name

Fast Enough

words naturally arise like walnuts like cheese or cats hunting birds between gestures specific actions rehearsals my favorite doing fast enough today scene one tomorrow two certain moves perfectly thrill life decides who plays what music whatever you think you want this is what has to happen even now

Given Form

can't go on ignore everything the only way butters memory roadkill broken meat burned laughing hags worship death self-important collegians like your me once well mellowed stub of self relies on instincts word-choice beautifying what will presents that given form says more less relevant mind meets halfway home forgives dark plunge amid sunstorms

Dangerous Forces

everything connects Hippolyta married Theseus before Phaedra half my cast was in my Midsummer Night's Dream Guy Jackson coming to Oregon like a dream of confused coincidence I like and a wild storm struck just as Vere invoked Poseidon dangerous forces have me wondering can I be serious Woyzeck all commitment invention it is no more real to scream and get wet

Maybe After

lilacs and cherry blossoms replace the fading daffodils art reposes on logistics no way I can think maybe after the first hurdle once rolling will continue straight ahead