they'll put you in the ground
with a gold bell, a silver watch,
pennies for your eyes,
and one under your tongue

no one has ever mentioned
heaven is the iron
on your lips and throat
and coins in your gullet

someone has always said
'in the dark
they cannot get to you'
and meant it

Early Riser

adulthood has been standing in the kitchen
hungover, staring at the dirty dishes
what if nobody does them

you feel that? it's nippy this morning
maybe today will be the day
i finally get clean of you

Snow snow snow

Ya know how on the mountain course, ya told me to cut out doing stupid things?
I done something stupid. But Cello Girl burning in the snow needed someone.

If I was smarter I could have kept us both.
Snow will never be joyous again.

you're on an afternoon highway in the Southwest
the setting sun lights up the Sangre de Cristos
red as their namesake

alone in the left lane and
sixteen years old for the first
and maybe last time
in your life

I have decided:
tonight I will sit
in the room upstairs and
down the hall
with signs that
read
in large
capital
letters
"OCCUPY MURRAY ROOM 302
1% OF THE DORM ROOMS
CONTAIN 99% OF THE ALCOHOL"
and refuse to leave the premises until
they have given me my very own bottle
of vodka to nurse
until
I am so drunk I simply can't do
math or sing
slave songs
anymore
-------------------------------------
at the stroke of midnight run away to puke
leave a red bandana behind
because you have broken your glass slippers

Zack Kenyon

you made me nervous last night you

made me wonder

under my covers

whether my brain was aligning itself in

a functional way

because that would not be worthy

of Suzie Birdsell

sadness she finds me at my desk,

in the corners of coffee shops,

cold alleys, small rooms,

the edges of front yards.

coffee with the right amount of cream

transforms to a memory;

a moment I lost until then

(something I wish I could hold again).

reverse cycled
like some people do
'i don't want to talk
about the moon
in winter' he insists

closes the door
pretends that he cannot
see the water creeping
over the bathtub's edge

inspiration

Cock.
Black, hard, relevant cock.
¡¡¡¡¡¡¡GOAL!!!!!!!!

A few nice things.

We've all been tricked
into believing
that life's for consuming
Our needs relieving.

I think that I'm learning
despite what Trouble brings
all I need in my travels
are A few nice things.

water theme

My thoughts blew apart
and lay all over:
In the pleasure of my lips pressed tight
or pain of my finger caught on
   a hidden nail.

Might the faucet drip to ground me?
No, I don't hear it,
  nothing comes.

My knees numb and
mind wilted, dropping leaves,
waiting for the sun to near.

I saw you skating by the pier,
put down my pen
and ran to meet you.