Bach’s Toccata & Fugue in D vs The Belairs Mr. Moto (not in comparison but under perfect conditions)

Palace
Pantages
Palladium

Bali Ha'i

A bird, a fish, a pope
on horseback
                           Dragonfly visiting the
                           torch aloe prickly pear cactus
                           blue agave corner of the beach

or the Garden of Epicurus
is my seashell

Long Story Short

A lovely accident waiting to happen
meets the scenic cruise we never shared

         & just as I assume that God must
                  always carry a dictionary
                           a little misdirection can go a long way

To learn why the gulls prefer one side of the
beach to the other requires the application of
geometric logic & prophetic dreams

         It seems I was reading Ecclesiastes
         thru the wrong end of a telescope

                  missing a step while trying to cut my losses

                           which is something that is better left to
                           rust in the Elkhorn Slough
                                             beneath a broken seashell

Sunlight streams in thru the cypress
& when the road bends so do you

Read This Poem & Win a New Surfboard

I spent the dark before dawn dealing with a
case of industrial-strength paranoia that wasn't mine
"Leave it alone"  "Don't fuck with it"  Etc.
approximating the speed dreams of the tortoise

The small print contradicted all claims thereby
reenacting the Fall of Saigon on the beach at Topanga
w/sunlight igniting the haze that hung like a fine silk
veil between you & a water-logged version of Eternity

as if to say "I'm always here even when I'm not" & the sand
drifts across the pavement as deliberate as the
phrasing of an unspoken prayer only half-remembered
Incense, candles & cheap tequila left as offerings at

a makeshift shrine to one of the lesser gods
& though I no longer subscribe to that mythology
I receive subliminal updates on a regular basis