Viscera

I wander into
shoulder high fields
of green hops
and follow my switchblade destiny
to my father’s grave site
I take in the acrid vapors
of memory

He was the first
to adopt English
and be labelled citizen of America,
my father
suffered from
immigrant blues

I ingest his
left over dreams
passing from
seer to seen,
from agent to object,
from citizen
to consumer
of goods and evils. Instant
break fast to Instagram
by gram I
enter the buffer
zone, the smoke-free,
thought-free, shame-free
zone of abandoned
children. My scream
softened by official policy

for what choice
do I have but to protect
the greater good?
right?
Keep back behind
the yellow tape until
the investigation is complete
I am advised

Essential production
will commence on the
downbeat my instructor
tells me

Chattel, we are as chattel
to be splayed open
to the concerted delight
of the gimcrack salesman

I am a manifestation
between stardust and dust
my lover said
over her avocado toast,
as I scramble to avoid
the lure of Tinder
driven drag
and drop coupling,
and she slides
the slick blade between
my 3rd and 4th ribs

Break ups break downs
of trust of social
discord social intercourse
velocity veracity
veritas very very Tass
Izvestia da da Dada
duck duck goose
step have you any?

Focus my attention
focus be at attention
eyes front eyes wide
shut up on the hill
all the decisions
are decisive divisive
de-vice
vice is rich
on the Hill

Camera lens pixilation
demonstration for and by the agency
that lies within me within us within the other side
conversation deep in the heart lie
and death follows three steps
behind the curtain
grows a yellow orchid

From Earth, only Mercury and Venus
can tarnish the disk of the Sun
cruel airs infest my lungs
as youth sidesteps the smaller
cracks in fine tuned
chaos

Crossing the Vermilion Border

Active play released my inhibitions
crippled my spending accounts
armed with respect
I entered her
bedroom she exited
left folded up
her tent

She dabbed that sweet spot
where her lips meet
drydocked
beneath the vermilion border
she tells me
I should give
more
lectures on
silences

The early part of the 21st century was tattooed with the ascendency of despots, autocrats and
oligarchs (corporate and other wise man), tattooed with declines in health and wealth of the
masses and the commensurate rises in stealth and wealth for the other wise man, tattooed with
the fractured spine of civil society, tattooed with gender-based decisions that cut only one way,
tattooed with dismantled environmental safeguards, with the loss of privacy, tattooed with rises
in fear, with xenophobia, with LGBTQIA phobia, with alpha beta anything or anyone that takes
me out of my personal myth-informed comfort zone phobia, with the anything from the any other
wise man who promises, no, who guarantees to take away the pain of my trauma

Just beyond the century 20, so entitled,
signs of decomposition abound
nostalgia overripens
in the nation’s rear view
specie on top of specie
recognizing the agony
that atmospheric physics
does not
negotiate
specie on top of specie
pleaded
with the other wise man

In the early part of the 21st century
we traded in our automatic
for a manual
our reason for charisma
the hard work of collaboration
for the ease of the return to
the past that never
was will or could be
money back guaranteed
no questions asked
wish balloon

The early part of the 21st century
was tattooed
with a map
with directions
to the end
of the maze

Nostrils flared
a dragon awaits