SAID JUST SO
D Press
Ellensburg 1982
Junk assemblage by the author
Photo by Richard Braleyfor Luis
"Here's splotchy velvet set to hide a
door in a wall and there—there’s the man himself
praying!"
NOW THERE THEN
Organically rising out
of common motor pools of 5
we find a new world
speaking a new language
Let's look at it—
sky cloud bird
mountain ocean sun
smoke house man
street dog bike
No Bike Riding
On the Sidewalks
While visiting our community
Please adhere
To a meatless, eggless
Non-alcoholic diet
And abstain from smoking
Mind-altering drugs and
Unnecessary nudity
Dig in—be happy
this bizarre circus stretches
beyond metaphysics beyond
meditation beyond your great
grandmother's condominium
AM I REPRESSED
or is this taking place
in a little espresso bar
along the peaceful Nile?
oh, I thought I saw
two shadows
I'm sorry—
I'm sorry, too
too much coffee
I'm damn jittery
.
we sit in a cool spot
amid the burning
the moon trine Uranus
.
miraculous water
partings, waves
splitting
finding
in the sand
the Pharaoh's grave
a damn rib in
her
icy stare
RODEO OF THE EQUINOX
There's an urgency
to his line, the
tension meant to hold
a wonder. Orion
lassoes an Atlas-bred
heifer by the hoof.
Nearly tugging free
Sterope is tied
hard and fast
with hemp.
Not too shabby, all
agree, and space is
taut in admiration.
The Olympian buckaroo puts
a silver buckle on his belt.
Sterope licks
her burn in
the calf pen.
IT'S A MESS
by the creek where I squat
with nosebleed after smacking
my face in the slash
a crisscross of firehardened
barbed sticks, o mama
the dead forest
and the hills
lush in bitterbrush and ceinosis
sea of noses
o mama
there's no hope for the trees
.
slashier slash
rockier rock
this little unit
has snow on it
and's unusable
out of shoot #1
it's Flaming Hoedag
ridden by J. Root
o mama
there is hope for the trees
.
Orpheus instructs the treeplanters
Watch those scalps
Keep an eye on spacing
Don't plant too deep
No J roots
I only want to see asses and elbows
.
We plant ahead of progress rates
into full pay with laurels
We're paid to plant a tree,
and we'll come back
and back again until it grows
The trees—
out of their depth
with this logic,
driven around in vans,
debated about like dots on a map
.
Go Fir It Reforestation
in the Land of Many Abuses
it's well
trying to plant in a week
what, destroyed in a day,
took 1000 years to grow
AFTER THE VOLCANO
No need to go
outside—there's
just ash out.
Quite a scene
at Joe Albertson's
during the ashout.
A man with a towel over his head
wearing swimming goggles
stocks up on beer, another
wearing a surgical mask
carries an umbrella.
It's dark.
We stay indoors and listen
to Orson Welles'
War of the Worlds.
After the Martian smoke settles,
trees drop their pyroclastic debris,
and birds start a new day,
although it's a bit gritty.
WHAT ARE YOU UP TO?
for Alia
Here it is, your birthday,
and you're 34. Four
is before five, bunnytoes,
and three is one
before four. Remember,
too, I'll love you,
never counting the decades.
.
I see you see
beauty, as we
share sunrises,
join silences.
.
Sounds pathetic,
but back there
a goose merged with a gear,
a tick developed a number.
OUR GARDEN
At first,
there was time,
and we agreed.
Summer bent into autumn,
then snow covered the rows.
If you go,
I'll be left the coals
that are the snowman's eyes.