My Friend Tree

Lorine,

I thought it was
the wind,

and turned in time
to see

leaf after leaf falling
between

my friend and me.

Alexander Meets Diogenes

gone to the dogs all right
and cynical a cur as any he knew
this purebred jackanapes blocking his sun
light would soon find his ass jumping
through hoops clearly over a barrel.

Hammering out a Definition of "Queer Voice"

--for Kenny Goldsmith

Don't throw a fit, egghead
If the hammer doesn’t fit,

Take everything down
And fit it all on the head

Of a roiling pinhead.


(My thanks to Joseph Hutchison for providing the initial impetus here.)

Poem

This scythe that cuts
Its swath through space

Of unremitting air, see it
Does not stop its wishing

To hesitate there.

Dénouement

to where road leads to
cemetery’s edging

marble moon littered full
circled threshing floor.