At Risk Behavior

The sky brushed by wings
as ocean music is
sweeping in across the coast
highway
 
I would narrow but not limit the focus
boil enough water for a single
cup of coffee mid-
morning an exception
 
 L i b r e t t o
One voice describes
another voice checks the references
& a third voice sings harmony
 
Time passes & pelicans explain the
weight of the sky leaning pretty heavily
on the cypress right now
 
doesn’t necessarily ring a bell
anywhere but here

Whatever you want it to be

for Pamela
 
Horses lift their heads like sea
creatures emerging from a darkwater
tide
         easily translated in the mythology
of your eyes
                    but I’m thinking about your
dark hair splashed across the
pillow as you sleep
                             & the faint whisper
of your dreams
                    rippling in what’s left of the
moonlight as it spills in through
the window
          & your breath like the soft
seabreeze that made the petals of some rare
orchid tremble
                    in the dark
                              just before dawn     
the day you were born

Dealer's Choice

You had to tunnel thru the sand
to get there
 
dragging a surfboard
& a case of Mexican beer
 
In those days Odysseus was rarely
seen without his sunglasses on
 
no matter what time of day
or night
 
& little John the Conqueroo lit a pipe
like Lopez at the Waimea
 
on a re-direct from aliens who were
handing out cough syrup
 
as sunlight filtered down thru the sweet
summer smog

For the Marriage of Odysseus & the Coppertone Girl

Pier Pressure
The moon sends a message
only the tide can read
          You draw the lines
                   connect the rattling in yr head
to the rush of foam across
the sand
          emerald & chrome
& raw strands of burnt
                   kelp methadone inside your
underwater ballet as if it was
me tapping on the glass

Kicking the Tires
How’d you
wrap yr head around a
theory of reverence like that

Did you test the water first or
just dive in beneath the

What’s your mother’s
& why scan the zodiac of
tears on the sleeve of a god
you never met

Never wanted to
spent that kind of coin

What made yr eye that dark
yr blood lit up & souls out of Erebus

Why pearls and the signature
neon when ocean haze
crawls out of eucalyptus

Was it silver caught the sun
glare squinting

some of us would like to know

Soaked in Bleach
Nobody walks here

we are all driven

that is to say we drove here
with expired plates & a leaky fuel pump

empty beer cans rolling around under the seats

just the right kind of music for those who prefer to
sleep behind the wheel while
standing on their heads

Black and blonde sand blown across the highway
Pismo to Mussel Shoals burning beach tar on a
roadside voodoo shrine as the wind bends

Why would I tell you where it is

damp petals unfolding

The name of the ocean sky