Saturday, March 31, 2012

mdcxx

“Do you plan to use it up?”

Usefulness exceeded. Take flying leap.
Directive (outward) or mantra (inward)
[Is the Buddha within?] at the Buddha?
Rat-tat-tat sometimes go bullets. Two

pages in, I sigh. Perhaps I can never
read again. Water plants. Pick up
quarters (off the street? out of gutters?).
Practice a soft and solemn laugh (short,

almost a chuckle). Ever so slightly de-
press (contemplate depress) an aging
mattress (the aging mattress) that im-
prisons (eats?) dreams. Yawn incoherently.

Wonder about dipping sauces (the lack thereof)
at Ananda Fuara. And video monitors (the lack
thereof) picturing Sri Chinmoy (Masashi says
it’s because he’s dead now). Pictures of him

everywhere, though. Just none moving. Does 
television exist anymore? Cancel subscription.

Cancel subscription.


Friday, March 30, 2012

mdcxix

“When I grow up, I want to be kara’age”

Yuki steals people’s hearts.
People turn off all artichokes.
(Pleadingly) I calm myself.
Kudos to Camille. Upstart

iPhone game competitor
gloriously stumped by
kudos. Udon for lunch.
Udon for dinner. Unable

to define friend. Someone in
Category 1 (subsection 2) sends
an abundance of photographs of his
new love. “Sexy, right?” Of course

he’s (photo-montage’s) my type. I’m
his (Cat1/Sub2’s) type. We saw each
state before each minted quarter. Found
altitude (yesterday) and altitude sickness.

There is glory in the scuffle. ALL HA 
IL pointing a finger at a loose emotion.

ALL HA


Thursday, March 29, 2012

mdcviii

Is everything a little bit okay?  Write the pain (of/or
withdrawal).  Or into it.  Like a jetplane flies into its
business.  Something that looks up and out.  I’ll be
nude them.  (This is not your forest of typos).

Interrupt with descendent of related algorithm.  The word
underage used only as a metaphor.  A flood of friends an
open floodgate (usually only TV or cinema but Jake Shears
number onstage).  Is it the male gaze that omits Ana Matronic

or...WHO DID THIS?  [point blame; like photo and get berated
same afternoon for never looking at pictures “IT WENT UP
A MONTH AGO!!” – long pause...]....  Who is this?  Ger-
iatrics?   [pleadingly] My forest??  Resign not to empathize

with hundreds of thousands.  Negotiate birthright.  Suck on
cheese sticks (after willingly picking from a variety of perhaps
more admirably or lustworthy choices that, if you were an item
in a refrigerator, you’d most likely be: a block of cheese).  Los

Angeles, California (return address for American Express bill).
A blurb by Eileen Myles.  The remote control.  Tiny leftovers.



Wednesday, March 28, 2012

mdcxvii

     When mother comes to murder me I’ll be in the shower
                                                               —Jim Behrle

My wings are tingling. I have promised to call you.
I step in blindly. But the phone keeps interrupting.
Text after text from the left. Right?

Currently I feel good but I don’t know what best to do
with words. Could it be that I want it? This hamper
myself? This less relevant (given the chance)? Dust

in the wind. All we are is a stack of books and a
long handwritten list (antique, almost) (all I am,
I mean). And the evening and the morning were

Mazatlán. Could somebody please tell me who I’m
talking to? Is it the lady crossing Pine Street? Or the
man at the drycleaners who always gives me peanuts?

I’m at a loss or am lost or am most likely just loss.
Currently I feel good. To make me best. A clothes
hamper in the hallway of some relevance. A rainy

noontime. More on this soon (given the chance).

Folly


Tuesday, March 27, 2012

mdcxvi

Should I update my profile to note that English is my
only language? Should I include my cell number
in case of emergencies (or if I’d like to also receive
text messages – added bonus)? Am I in danger of
becoming too sucked into THE NOW? In mock
horror, I go back to cataloging my digital photographs.
I’m up to September of 2008 (Oh, gay cruises! Oh, holy
Toledo! Oh, Boston baked beans and southern accents!).
Memory lane in 2,408 files (one month). I’m on my way
to somewhere. Thirty-one thousand two hundred and
seventy-nine postcards I’ve sent myself thus far. In case 
remembering can what? Equal a lifetime?

sunrise.  sunset.


Tuesday, March 20, 2012

mdcxv

Nothing special about your referrals.

     I couldn’t figure out poot from whiz,
     and neither could my father, or his.
                                          —Albert Goldbarth

Is this really interesting? Phone rumors? Cavorted into a
marketing campaign designed to ready your wallet for what
might possibly be the latest in electronic biscuits some
several months into the ‘future’? Of course it is. This is

all too much. But please be kind enough not to ask if I
(myself) have stood in line for each incarnation, have
anticipated each’s demise a few days before the
warranty dissipates (conveniently around the same time

a new incarnation appears with glorious fanfare). Just
disregard. Right? What is this something new that I have
promised myself? Do I just step into it (on it)? Can I get
$550 in my checking account (the rent is due)? I dunno.

I have promised. No premeditation. And on Friday, as I
have promised. And I have promised. Is there nothing
special about faith? Are we descendents of roosters?
I eat another banana because it is in the bowl. Something

I try to forget is still going to happen in a couple of hours.
I open a Twitter account. I send Dean a picture from the
ceremony. I call Mom and reinstate movie nights. I start 
a new game like Scrabble with a friend 2,000 miles away.

descendents of roosters


Monday, March 19, 2012

mdcxiv

Awesome Online Cherries

     You show me a tropical fruit and I’ll show you a cocksucker from Guatemala.

                                                                                              —George Carlin

So this is it?

On the way to the fireworks, somewhere between the barbecue and the coffee,
we pass a sign that gloats “Enjoy erotic aquatic adventures!” Everyone blurry
from broken glasses.

There’s music coming from the shower in a bathroom somewhere between
yoga and Diana. I’m just over here looking at pictures dead people took.
Of me. How to explain

it’s not the fame that I seek? How I got where I got (I am where I am)?
To simply (directly?) say something. To clean the bathroom, do another
penguin postcard for Kevin, purchase a tiny canvas for Otto (already

no secret). Up at 6:15am, job interview at 10:30am. How to be broke
and somehow ease out of financial services. Get quarters, pay bills,
be an industry.

4th of July. Nothing better to celebrate than a survey of George Carlin
on YouTube (extend all the way out to pre-bearded Carlin; even his
lopsided gay Native American gag a neuron-busting wonderment).

Walk to Ghirardelli Square with Otto & Erin to meet friends. Engage.
Meet more. Live long enough. Finish Bill’s tiny book, taking forever.
Even the fog refuses to make an appearance. Disappoint everyone by

leaving early—no need to stay for the fireworks. Life is good. If not 
downright awesome (amazing).

Awesome Online Cherries


Sunday, March 18, 2012

mdcxiii

New pen.  Reading Lyn’s iteration of
Best American Poetry.  The dots that
people our lives.  The glorious futility
of intellect.  This stuff I (almost must)
stand for without learning too much.
Too much a thing.  Just as important
(or more).  Obviously something is
already here.  Someone walking a
Weimeraner.  A great poem by
Charles Bernstein.  Rotund puffs
of self-importance lemming for a
tweaked-out spotlight.  So then
what?  Do a possibility?  Almost
(almost) artist?  Be a selfish baby
or learn how to make one?  Practice
perfect (intermittent seizure)?  I

believe it is.  I ink work and work
to school.  I knit dress.  I someone
journal.  I vacate.  And did I?  Va-
cation?  For the (I think) sixth
time?  I might live a little longer
and (puff, self, cock, guff) look
back and (cringe?) (cringe?)? 

Maybe no.  Maybe no awe. 
Look back and awe.



Saturday, March 17, 2012

mdcxii

     And who can square
     I want nothing at all
     with I want it all?
                 —William Corbett

No photographic memory here.
But I, too, remember the death
of the milk bottle.  Was it slower
in Arkansas?  Probably.

And Cecil, the driver of the
Wholesome Bread truck (my
mom would wave whenever our
Pinto crossed paths with his boxy
red truck).

Obviously something is already
here.  Obviously.  But what?
A Union Square Christmas tree?
An 11:20am meeting at Mont-
gomery Street Station (as Otto
heads from work to school)?
My pen running out of ink?
Love?

I believe it is.

I should be as important as
bad American poetry.  A
selfish baby on these thoughts.
Why don’t I believe in the
futility of persistence?

Then the stuff I stand for
without learning too much.
To get it out.  Names names
names, some of whom jiggle a
bell, somewhere a tiny tinkle,
but mostly....

A small hole through which
only the perfectly ignorant
can squeeze into.  And, per-
chance (AMAZEDLY), through.    



Friday, March 16, 2012

mdcxi

     It’s hunger and territory
     although we choose to call it song.
                             —Birds by Albert Goldbarth

Too full of self?  Hello!  Self too full?
And he feels I pull him away from his
family.  What do I do, wondering about
vacation, Charles Bernstein, talking on
the telephone in a knit dress?

We are poverty and war?  A
month without a newsblip
sifting cartoon sand with
blistered feet, the (pixellated?)
facade of Notre Dame as backdrop.

Stupid telescope.

I’m reading some of Bill’s Columbus Square
Journal for (I think) the sixth time.  Someone’s
walking a Weimeraner in front of me, left to
right.  Otto’s going to “hip hop.”

The world is calling out (like inocuous bird-
song: to what? to whom? to what? to whom?). 
Something is already here.  Is it intent?  Is it
intelligent?  And, if so, translatable?
Structured?  Cacaphonous?

Is it me?



Thursday, March 15, 2012

mdcx

fluent in blasphemy
                   —Stacy Blint

I’m drinking a latté at Borders
and I go by X. What do I do
about this?

Are your friends bizarre, too?

Are your friends bizarre, too?


Wednesday, March 14, 2012

mdcix

Nice Rapture

By now I am super fucked up. My
rental car is towed, I’ve a third of a
dollar, and a day in court. How is
anyone supposed to know if I am
the one, anyway? And who is this
Forever? Does he resent your
always having to know where
he is?

Pull away from the family
that is always running out of ink.

I-Phone I-Touch




Tuesday, March 13, 2012

mdcviii

Marching beside me I felt that breast of onion!
                                                —Kenneth Koch

I’m all trying to be objective & help. Then he tells me
he masturbated 6 times in a row last night! Scrub floors,
clean kitchen, contact Western Digital for access to my own
server. I’ve got Los Angeles of the mind and I keep hearing
electricity in vivid colors. & my angels are merciless. Nay,
ruthless! Then I realize it’s coming from my own desk;
my electronics are against me. In some sort of electro-
nics blow-up. I cover my job grid and get ready to
water the plants. The birds are downstairs and
there’s shampoo in the oven. The birds.
My angels, the beautiful birds.

My angels, the beautiful birds.


Monday, March 12, 2012

mdcvii

Perhaps I’ve kicked the illusion.

Like zonko!  Perhaps it’s all bad, all water
under the fountain.  Why worry?

I go for a walk because Nature is so almost
perfect (Camille Roy).  Donuts on Polk

Street nature.  I bone up on headaches.  Men-
tal nausea reduces depression.  I mean.  Like

Slam the door like a stomach!  Sue Rosen
said this on June 10th in 1957.  At least I

think that’s what she said.  I wasn’t there.
Suddenly, it’s so interesting to me how

anything can end with a sentence.  A
dream, a delusion, a character you

never wanted killed, Judge Judy....
I’m counting the animals in the room.

There’s a rooster on the top shelf (we’ve
a few of them; & we prefer ‘cock’), a

dinosaur next to a bunch of bunnies (from
outer space), a couple of lions (matching

bookends but on two separate bookshelves),
and Coco, nestled among the wires next to the

mega-multi-power-plug under my desk.  It’s
the middle of my 10-day birthday and I’m playing

scrabble with friends and strangers.  It’s nearly
one in the afternoon.  I have yet to shower.  I’ve a

page full of ‘to do’ items and I’m surrounded by
piles of books.  It is clearly a gorgeous day.







Sunday, March 11, 2012

mdcvi

What can I say? What’s the point of this melancholy brain fart.
Maybe I should write a poem about it.
                                                                          —Camille Roy

“Not history – fuck! – I mean our presidency – fuck! – nevermind.”
I’m too exhausted to even trail off into nothingness. And this time it’s
politics? Such a bummer.

For the most part I’m still reeling from a conversation I had 2 nights ago.
Til 2:30. He says he doesn’t know how long – no – whatever.

Sleep. Snore. He doesn’t know – DOWNER!

I’ve never thought of birthdays as tragic. Perhaps I’ve killed the illusion.

export brains


Saturday, March 10, 2012

mdcv

I have gotten a bit carried away with making things happen.

     Now I am bleeding,
     my mouth especially.
              —Linda Norton

But I’ve never been in a fist fight.  A rite of passage, per my
father.  An appropriate and meaningful stepping stone to
manhood.  Although I have been chased around my own apartment
by a person wielding a broomstick.  And I have... ... ... ...

Feeling ... not so good?  A little down?  I want to be able to look
hopefully at the future.  My outlook is generally on the plus side,
right?  And I live almost every moment with a metaphorical
encouraging nudge (for me and the growing number of folks I...)
and a slobbering grin.  It seems to work.  It’s incomprehensible
walking around in a cloud of negativity.

Brunch on Saturday with Chris who talks about attending a fight recently
in Thailand.  Kids.  Talking about what a bloody mess it was (I picture
cockfighting, a ‘sport’ to which an uncle of mine has considerably
given.  Kevin Hurley, a classmate from 1st thru 12th grade, who committed
suicide some time ago, and some guy I forget, stirring up a whole lot of dust
behind the Circle M at lunch break back in high school.  My father’s eyes glued
to Muhammad Ali on television.  Tying a tooth to a doorknob and slamming the
door just to get the damned thing out of my mouth.)....

The mouth of a penitent liar.

I’m sorry.  These limbs forget the bloodshed they’ve caused.  Stupid limbs.  Brilliant
limbs.  Whichever the case, I will not be blind.  War is inevitable.  It’s a lousy day. 
I still hope for tomorrow.



Friday, March 09, 2012

mdciv

Fog leather?

No, something more serious
than that. But serious is serious;
it’s all I seem to know any more.

I have already forgotten the day before
yesterday (haircut, check between sheafs of
paper for important but secret information),
close out the rest of the world.

     btw, are we txting?
     bc u never responded to my txt

The world is un-close-out-able. The coils in my
neck tighten to reduce my line of sight but a pair of eyes
has already emerged behind my ears. My filters are
inadequate, to say the least.

DEL


Thursday, March 08, 2012

mdciii

...but when a hurricane blows into town you don’t
notice the breeze any longer, does it even exist?
                                                    —Kevin Killian

Ensconced in Schuyler letters. Something in me
I can’t quite let out (envision mystery steam). A
block away something fantastic is happening.

Otto says he loves days like these, he closes his eyes
to the cool breeze and imagines he’s flying. We’re
walking up the hill from Woody Allen who is

taunting us with namedropping and literary trivia
designed to both skewer and embrace the
bourgeoisie. He never catches up with us.

We’re discussing inevitability. I mean infidelity.
In the future I won’t watch Nip / Tuck but instead
Battlestar Galactica. I wait months between

each of the last several episodes, not wanting to
finish. Later, I chat with my aunt in Missouri.
She’s pacing in front of a storm cellar watching

wood fall from the sky (and reporting such via
status update). A few miles from her, Joplin gets
blown away. Back in outer space, where weather

doesn’t exist, we’re discussing irreconcilible.
And Indonesia. The funeral full of women
with whom he’d been ‘unfaithful’ (was this

my father or a movie?) and crying buckets
(which is what we’re doing presently at
Cafe Mason). The super sexy Italian waiter

still works here, I think. I call the other
Larry to wish him a happy 25th birthday.
My hand and fingers feel crampy as I

stare at a bottle of wine. I concur, it’s
nice weather we’re having. I don’t fly, 
but just sort of lean into the cool breeze.

leaning into the cool breeze


Wednesday, March 07, 2012

mdcii

Then why do I write stories like eroded holes?
                                                  —Camille Roy

Sometimes it’s all about the context.  Other times
it’s all about the game.  Either way, biography
is always fiction.  Each composite mask is, naturally,
impossible to control or to define, particularly by its
adorner, its “owner” (its purported “creator”).  This is
not only eureka but religion (I speak personally, through
the holes in my own).  If HONESTY is the utmost (yet
impossible) goal, we can gush (with humility!) at
each step forward, each tiny evolution toward the
(unachievable) reconciliation of our red interiors with
our visible exteriors.  My truth is a shambles (a scene
or condition of complete disorder or ruin; a great clutter
or jumble; a total mess; a slaughterhouse).  Truth can be
proactively discovered, can be accidentally stumbled upon,
can be purchased for a sum, can arrive piped innocuously
through a soundsystem in a mall or a building elevator,
can be thrown at you with the intention to cause injury,
can breathe heavily at you during a suspenseful dream,
can be delivered by a mailman, or can land on your
shoulder like a bird – can comfort you or freak you out.
No delivery method should be judged harshly.  This is a
nerve-clustered masquerade.  Awareness is imperative.
Soundly seek the holes in your environment (it’s good
practice to vary your settings with an over-achieving
frequency); approach each with equal amounts of
caution and optimism, pausing to experience its
vibration (a hole’s ‘fingerprint,’ if you will).


Friday, March 02, 2012

mdci

     I read everyone’s twitter and felt so connected
                                                 —Jim Behrle

What are you derived from? What derives you?

I don’t joke with strangers anymore. Except about

Jennifer Lopez. To whom I’m now deeply indebted.

I’m feeling giddy. I do write. Sitting in front of $50.

U2 album in boarded Borders still reverberates (a

storyboard for a final class project). Daydreaming

the wired charm of inelegant disclosure while

looking out at the big Christmas tree in Union

Square. I’m reading Iduna, insufficiently lit,

thinking of kari on my couch, a housewarming

on Bush Street. Determine when unemployment

ends, laundry, water plants, sunglasses for the L.A.

trip. Losing two pairs of prescription sunglasses

in one week. I keep broaching the subject (in-

delicately, insecurely) that is the false victim of

our loudnesses to a blanket of silence, very Zen.

A swamp of desperation ensues, becomes louder

lies or mumbled nothingnesses. A conversation

with the California Street sidewalk stippled with

unintentional vibrato (tragedic, operatic). Wreaked

with uncontrollable shivers, a body heaves such a

melody.  Tomorrow, the calm swans of Boston.

Tomorrow, the calm swans of Boston.


Thursday, March 01, 2012

mdc

I Mean It

The urgent violence that is honesty
calls me out of a long nap, like a
cat smashed between a row of books
and a wall.  If one describes oneself as
charming?  And then ducks back into a
hut, pencils I’m so frightened of losing?

I used to be sober when I was serious.
The mental capacity to stomach en-
joyment.

That was wild.  Slowly I take each
book out of the bag, stack them on
the table, become a person who wants to
hide his true self.

Nothing is the right way.  Just a smile
to enjoy.  The delight of a mustache
over a drink of cool water.  Shopping
for groceries (frightened of losing).

It’s a shame, this grasping of my red
interior.  Nobody’s mouth to put a
finger on (to shush).  What’s a list for,
anyway?

I appreciate a residential neighborhood
I can call my own.  The ironic beauty of
certain vandalisms.  A capacity for with-
holding evidence.  The smell of a
freshly mown lawn.

It was a narrow escape.  We clutch our
hearts.  Enjoy the walk.  Enjoy the ride.