The Body


start here and work your way down
these are the eyes where my poems sleep
now follow the bridge of my nose
to my torched lips, kiss them
here
and then slip down
through the thick hairs of my flame-hot chest
drag your finger across the belly
of this poem and poke
its navel
hold its calloused hand
pull it by the wrist
these are the poem’s hips
this is its groin
and the curve of its thigh
these are the knees which are
my knees
and the feet that hold the weight
of a few dozen parts waiting
for eyes to read it its wholeness

Aaliyah as Cleopatra


a slick of mascara
floats in her eye
like a second moon
the atlantic dilutes
the venom of her nile

each woman plunges
black into her abyss
and shatters her
shadow into a million
purple twilights

numbness


this is what nothing feels like
god, lord, most supreme nothing
man-god alone in his room
the ac on the other wall
blows a cold universe across
it passes between him
and the page where the letters
land like newborn stars
in the superwhite blaze 
which fries unmined thoughts
through the portal of his cornea
and afflicts him with nearsightedness
in retaliation they close
first hand then second 

hand over a rectangle
of pinkish light floats in the black
underneath his skin 
shapes split at the center
drift half dissolves  
turns his telescope inward
amoebic kaleidoscope photoosmosis
bright red blood supernovae
dance of the photons
some of that bedside astrology
psychedelic rorschach 
leftover light inside shuttered eyelids

eyes don’t open or close
hearts don’t feel at all
the terrain of his outer organ
doesn’t rise at the chill 
dark matter fills the room
his consciousness goes static
pieces of body detach 
and float through a negative space





Sweetnesses


once in the west i was a rose
looking for a piece of moonpie
to drop sugarbombs
all up my treasure trail and
straight down to my x spot
where the thorns were 
dense in the honey thicket
and cruisin up slauson 
in his sour lemondrop 
came my antonio and,
giving me back my red,
danced with the pythons
until one day they coiled
and all his sunshine got squeezed
and ran a river gold 
straight down the avenue
as my mouth leaned close
to sip a whisper
from the nectar spilled
on the sticky air





blood moon howl


by the full moon i become
a poet and tonight air 
dry in the window
watch porch lights cast eclipses
over peaceful 37th drive
neighbors turn telescopes skyward
concentrate as the child of earth goes
one drop then quatroon then halfie
and finally full blooded

the rent’s no steal but
you get your horizons unbounded
palm trees six seven eight blocks south
pepper jack peripheral landscapes as
helicopters push across the distance in silence 
line of sight curves with the earth over
everything from here to ports to pacifica beyond
a firecracker pops off to the east where
optical-illusioned heartthrobs shake supermoons
down their throats and incant 
looming syzygies thru the smoke

bent p.o.v begs how far does city sprawl?
accidentally make a wish on mars
hear expo line trains make good on civic promises
as i pray for no sun for forty days and forty nights
how not to squander sacred hours?
how to write a poem that reflects
all the sunrises and sunsets of my life
tonite i make a deal with the moon goddess
to possess all this darkness in twilight

inky space will drink the words dry
mark its seal on the night
with blood thick as wax
a mist enshrouds my eyes
as the neighborhood dogs begin to howl