Sound Check

With a subtle splashdown
yr heart hits the teardrop Aloha
pulling the wool over yr rose-colored
goggles when you square-off with that
sunset hardware

If you knew the steps
                              as I have learned them
              nowhere west of here
                                                fingers only barely touch
                              her moist composure

Carrying a bazooka in a shoulder holster
tossing an anchor out the passenger window
& the wind was silk
              sunlight a go-go
a frenetic palsied duckwalk
                              across the stage before falling flat on its eyes
              in a prophetic swoon

sandblasted & hoodwinked

A crucial love-in-the-tropics kind of deal
                              extravagant, yes, but all downhill

There’s glass in my sneakers (yeah yeah yeah)
parabolic ray guns, whistles, silent movie tattoos,
smoke rings & angel fish
beneath the pale TV flicker of exhausted
palm leaf wings