The Origin of Species

On top of poems are written
Other poems, thus

The destruction of the world's
Perfected.



(from The Intricate Evasions of As)

Logbook Memo

ship

wrecks


memories

harbor



(from The Intricate Evasions of As)

Small-Town Bootblack vs Clunkers, Raymond, Washington, circa 1960: My Almost Inaugural Poem

Coolly

Tooling by that run-down
Shoeshine stand

In their souped-up clunkers,
Our honkies must have thought

The town's sole token Nigger
Ned couldn't tell shit from Shineola;

And that they surely had it over
Him to boot.

I guess that explains why
He was never caught hauling

Smart-ass white punks like us a hundred
Miles to his whores in the city and back

Come late every Saturday night
In that beautiful, sharp, shining, slick

Mother-fucking classic of a black
Eldorado Cadillac.


POSTSCRIPT: I was seriously considering posting this poem before President Obama's inauguration ceremony but decided against it for fear of having my blog flagged for using vulgar, offensive language. However, after reading Ron Silliman's blog which had a link to a Guardian
article about a high school "teacher" in my former home state of Washington, I had second thoughts about not posting it. Hope nobody's offended.

How I Was Cured of Hunting

spied

thrush in thicket
looking

after its wound,
a sprig

of therapeutic

o-
re-
ga-

no in its bleeding
beak.

(First published in Shearsman 62)

Ecology

Jackdaw chatters on
Tip of blighted cypress,

Biting acid tongue.

(First published in NOON: journal of the short poem, #2)

Et in Arcadia ego

Poussin--
I remember

It must have been
Way back then

One spring it was poetic
I was sprightly

Dallying a way behind
Dilapidated swayback nag when

She sent my way a waft
Of her reeking

Slow ancient hind-
Quarters from what seemed half,

Nay, a whole classic pastoral
Country mile away--

I must tell you

I was genuinely
Swept away.

(First published in First Intensity #21, Fall 2006)

Pulp

curioCity kills Bloody Marys
maraschino cherries Pop guns
gang bangs poontang rat snitches
and Edsel squeals

cathouse beldams melt hams down
dog days nightmares ride hunchbacks
warning lights stop critters peeling
rubber dead in their tracks

cornered but ornery
disembodied vulvas bare back
their teeth like

the Cheshire cat.

(First published in Maverick Magazine 6/7)