Telephone Call to a Hospital in Pasadena

for Lewis MacAdams

Nothing happens just off stage
we both keep an eye on it
just in case the light rumbles down

& whether it's fate or karma or dumb luck
you wake up to find a nurse taking care of you

"What the matter? Couldn't the nurse take care of herself?"

"You bet she could but I found that out too late"

ODE, or I Can Drizzle & Quake with the Best of Them

The morning awash in winter sunlight
I can already hear the beach traffic backing up on Ocean Street
9:45 am

Backyard's muddy
fallen leaves (plum & apricot)
grass & weeds all overgrown
flourishing in neglect

The dog sniffs curiously at a praying mantis perched on the back steps

A Buddhist insect
(it bows to the four directions
before taking flight,

2.
Sorting out the terminology of poetic sediment
sifting through mountains of the stuff
there's no excuse & no apology forthcoming

All of it returning me to this endless tidal swamp
my native stomping ground here among
sea urchins, rusted batteries, star fish, anemones,
beer cans encrusted w/barnacles,

3.
It would seem you have motel neon running thru yr veins
along w/seawater, gasoline & a thousand postcard sunsets
shuffled & dealt in the parking lot of yr choice

A tangle of weeds
the grass is still wet
paw prints in the mud
destined for Pakistan
or the temple of Teotihuacan

Winter on the coast has its own kind of light
thrives on neglect
scraps of clouds adorn the edges of the sky

            Was the Feathered Serpent originally a praying mantis?

            If you run the numbers you could probably make it work

                                        Wind jewel talisman
                                        sliced conch shell

QUETZALCOATL

the dragon in the waves

Out to Lunch

I can still hear my father saying
"Time & tide wait for no man"

         I had no idea what he meant
         I thought maybe it was some kind of riddle

it left me feeling like an octopus peering thru a telescope

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THE LAW OF GRAVITY:
"A falling object gathers no moss"

         Makes no difference whether you fell or were pushed
         all that matters is that you stick the landing

                                                              never so tenderly

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Pain, Suffering & the Sickness Unto Death
(a romantic comedy)

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I woke up to a parade of ill-mannered dwarves
entering & exiting thru the bedroom window
carrying sledgehammers, axes, harpoons, Frank Sinatra albums, etc

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Please point me in the wrong direction
& I'll take it from there

Tarantella Two-Step Tango

Shattered sunlight sparkling on the surface of the water
stretching all the way to the horizon

                              just a hop, skip & a leap
                                                                       from here

& I thought the sky looked kind of Hawaiian 
although it's much too cold out to conjure the right type of ambience
to support that notion

                                          palm tree rustling like a grass skirt
in a refrigerator

Should we instead assume alligator huaraches
dark as the smoke that rises from the chimneys of Tierra del Fuego?

The streets are the wrong color for this time of year

old chrome set alongside day-glo sunset neon
& a deeper shade of bleached blonde concrete
rising up to meet every step you take