Aspect Ratio

The silver shimmering out there
in pieces
you can string together
& wear on your wrist
              while the coast road veers off into
                                                Bohemian rhapsodies
                              as imagined by a Japanese mariachi band
              confessing their sins
                                                every time you shake your hips

your once & furtive tiptoe collapse
              tucked away beneath the idea of it
like a black tar remedy
tipping back the flamingo bottle
                                                                lit from the inside
                              knowing all the while that death is out there
              welding pink shadows
to laundromats

              dealing seeds & mushrooms
                                                                bottles full of sand
                              trapeze clouds
                                                & a stretch of damp pavement

beneath the see-thru sky slated to house oil rigs
& laser-guided pipe bombs

              but carving a path
                              thru a jungle of grass skirts
I guess I’d prefer something
sublime & unreasonable
                              although I can’t complain
              the slight bend in her feelings is enough to make me
rebuild my carburetor

it was then that I felt the wheels
beneath the street
                              where the night revealed itself
              an empty elevator shaft

further is perhaps as far as you can go

& maybe an inch closer
to my heart