Runway Clip

in a waterproof jacket with no shoes
and a moral to certify
he ran down like bee bee guns
and furnished several apologies

after bread we broke down the table
learned how to write ampersands
with grace and skill
monsters

all over town the sheets of numbers
were torn off because it was so grand
to think of what was being sold
how it would be bought
and never sold again
scratched down with pennies
when the tin was gone
so was the theater but we kept the lights

redirected planes
tot the sloping hills behind
the picture frame
hot glass roasting like thick cigars
on the cover of a magazine
about lips

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You Andy Warhol Kid

Pulling up the turf
and down and down
racist pugs in rich positions
big empty fish tanks
where the chef wades
and the fake rocks go between his bubble toes
within minutes a cow is gone
and in his place i get born
but my bangs never grow out
so i have to take a bad job
in a country western funk band
you could write down
exactly the sound
in dead language
in churches where old women worship
they’re trying to take them away
be on your bent out knee
be on your upper palate before you answer
we’ve wanted this for days
and nights have never come so easy
up and down the same block
until we know the names
and can’t leave them behind
when the plant gets hot
even on our friend’s father
who’s gut seemed well place
we all have to wear out old college clothes
and squat around with our mouths open

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With My Red Thumb

I have an endless supply of rug dirt
Comes out of a nordic can
melted zoo plastic in organic shapes
I’m a rubber duck it says
I can’t help myself it says
so i make everything sticky
stick to dust
all the snow cones safe
all the saturated colors dull
all the instruments artifacts

Because it’s sweet to be free from animals
I rediscover the alphabet
and make it my primary source
who’s article is this now? I said
the kid looks like grover
I can’t remember his name
but he stares at the floor
like he’d like to bite it
but can’t find out how to get his mouth
around all the ceramic

then at the dance
the calls get no response
because all the kids are bugged out
and taller than any teacher could be
boys and nether girls
replay Mediterranean drama
from this century
when it became vital and small

I took their pigment when I was sleeping
and put it in vials
I drink it each day at 2 00
so that I still have the upper hand
in the very back of this office
behind the bathroom and kitchen
where polka dotted blouses
talked about piracy
and made a sensitive mess

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Organ Garden

I wrote a reggae song about the flu
looked around the bar because they knew the rhythm
was failing the big red ribbon was unwrapping
at the end of the night
when my telecaster was out of breath and needed CPR
like a rickenbacker it’s the blues beat in reverse

come down becomes figure
out of the crowd and i bet he’s been raped
because he says he likes it
and in Britain they don’t hear it
but down here it seems huns
are looking to buy hats
in GT Western Ware
with their horses making better lovers
now that they’ve got spurs

in truth they look slightly Jewish
but not handsome and over chapped
raised in a different atmosphere
where australia and alaska
seem more alphabetical than persistent
where the cabbages are the size of comfortable chairs

i need a musician
to treat me like a toad
because my rhythm has always been irregular
1986 time
in orange letters on a chinese menu
the year of the tiger
under a chine of a murder
and rat tail flu
burps out the speakers
in the empty soup bowl

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Ruby, My Dear

the news came on half way
and a big blonde hissed
that every line had been resolved
in true thelonious monk style
who was this jazz musician
best known for his work
in having interesting names

when she was a girl an old woman
in an invariable turtle neck
would touch her knuckles when she tried to play
and she dreaded that
odd old feeling

between college and high school
she started to take herself seriously
threw away all her DVDs
and let a boy such as I
look up her dress

sometime she rode on a ferry
with flat sides
and knew that metallurgy
was only inches from her face
was coming to get her
and she didn’t know anyone
who didn’t have an ice machine

she came back to town with another name
but nobody recognized her
between the law firm and the apartment
and downstairs to the snack machine
running in half calf socks

so she dyed her hair

I would’ve sucked off the dye
back then if I lived where she ran

now the room smells like paint
and I haven’t the faintest idea
who she wants to be
all I get are one way signals
converted from digital to analog