A Different Dynamic

11 heads
2 arms
1 head
1000 arms                   & a mustache
1 head
8 arms
                                                     - Philip Whalen

LIMITED SLIP DIFFERENTIAL by Kevin Oxydol
         "We need something to replace the old gods"
                  she said & I suggested a package of Gauloises

CLASSICAL RHETORIC FOR THE MODERN STUDENT 
by Kevin Obstacle
         Her faraway eyes haunt my tidewater reckoning

HUBCAP DIAMOND STAR HALO by Kevin Oxidados
         I was burying sunlight in the wet sand
                  while she performed a suicide tango
                           swaying like a palm tree in the wind

Tell Tale Signs

MOOD INDIGO (somewhere between
blue & violet
in the visible spectrum
as orchestrated by Duke Ellington)

         Correspondence.  Light & shadow.
         Amalgamated blonde on blonde ambience.

That slight tremor in your hands may mean that you've
had more than your share

         It all depends on who the poet is talking to

Sunlight drifts down thru the Merovingian cloud cover
& an onshore breeze that tastes like sea water
worries the dusty palm trees on Beach Street

         This is springtime on the coast
                  spilling shadows across the pavement

                           Darker when seen from the inside

& I'm following the radiant energy 
         where it goes as the sky shifts from smoked
                  glass to morning glory
                           & the streets plunge into the sea

2
Descending the broken
         concrete steps I could see drift-
wood & seaweed all tangled in
                  clumps, sand streaked with 
tar & the shorebreak churning
dirty white foam
         as in a lost Homeric hymn
                  found again at low tide
                           & with a drizzle of misdirection
                                    paddling out into the
                                             lo & behold
bending light into colors
         blue, green, orange, red,
                  chrome & turquoise

but with a menthol filter

         streaming neural movies
         that were a hit
         back in the Pleistocene

3,000 Crooked Miles to Honolulu

Invoking the pink & green
gods responsible for this pale
sunlight I could envision a future where
spilling the ritual Santeria beads & talking
trash with a Peruvian beauty
queen who teaches Esperanto
would be my ticket to the wisdom, detachment &
compassion that would come to define my later years

I used to think so

& remember the way the late afternoon light falls thru the
eucalyptus trees on the bluff above the beach
& those pragmatic butterflies

I keep retracing the steps I should have taken
my saltwater credentials tripping the ghost
carefully placing puddles of sand 
in place of memory my rose-colored binoculars wet with rain
& every tree fern seashell morning glory (conspicuously)
from here to the Himalayan orchid you never saw but
once in a dream

“In Elementary Music the Relation of Earth to the Sphere of Water is 4 to 3”

Okeanos
O.ke.a.'nos
Oceanus

Toshiro Mifune

way out at the drop edge of ocean stream (Okeanos Potamos)
Dance of the Boneless Chicken
& a couple of old shape shifters out for a stroll

       THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS
       MEETS THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

                     Los Oxidados awash in ocean haze

Some of us will ride that demon all the way to the end of the line
as it was given us to do
driving blindfolded on St. Samurai's Day

       Forgiveness wasn't in the cards although
       any road that crowded with shadows
       had to be good for something

murky & indistinct all decked out in dayglo neon

so tell me one more time
what's my name

Payable Upon Receipt

Spoiler Alert
A pale blue sky was penciled in for Wednesday
locked away in a corner of my heart
along with you & the way your colors bleed

The Navigator
Mombasa, Cancun, Papua New Guinea
          (A brief psychedelic cartoon flashback)
Calcutta, Shanghai, Twentynine Palms
          (One size fits all, never needs ironing)
Krakatoa, east of Java
          (Apartment 3B)

Rolling Thunder
As in a biblical remix
her green lipstick & deep
burgundy nail polish

The Miracle of the Rose
We had to take every wrong turn to get here
drenched in radiance & apprehension
both of us doing our best to ensure that the last word
was never spoken

Eye in the Sky

What's evident is
not unknowingly La Providencia
          as the new normal continually falls short of
& the ancillary bikini doll confirms
Love's transcendence as well as the bitter after
taste in the classic sense
                    repeated in the windswept cypress
                    & wet sand when the tide is almost full
although her damp footprints evaporating on the sidewalk
tell a slightly different story
                              & almost translucent
                              in the rusty blue-white haze
is what the Ocean says

How to Steal a Submarine

Beach Street
You hand me a string of pearls
& a Buddhist road map
"I prefer the scenic route"
seaweed cigarettes at dawn
Bela Lugosi in Island of Lost Souls
Morphine Like Swimming
& the cracked pavement of my native land

Preview of Coming Attractions
Later in the morning the rocks north of
the cove will be under water
& a clean right-break will peel in around the point

The Day is Trimmed in Rust & Mexican Turquoise
& a heart-shaped moment later you
lift your head & ask "What did you just say?"

Standing By the Gate That Once Betrayed a
Husk of Roses in the Evening Fog
A poem has many moving parts

Same Difference

Sacred relics that glow in the dark
         adorned w/rust & beach tar
rolling around beneath the seat of a
faded green El Camino
         heading south on the PCH
                  w/pomp & circumstantial evidence

Every time I check under the hood I'm surprised that the
engine is still there
         a marvelous contraption streaked with
         red & green paint,
                  oil & grease,
                           the metal ticking as it cools

The road hums inside a cloak of sea mist that
thins out as the sun climbs into a flat blue sky
as though it was a litmus test gone terribly wrong...

Some folks keep track of the seasons by
watching trees & plants
         I just look at the way the light plays on the
                  surface of the ocean

         listening to seagulls riffing on something
                  Fats Navarro played in 1950
                           recorded a week before he died

& the wind shifts offshore to hollow out the waves
that Spring morning at Playa San Pedrito
as I drained the last of the tequila & w/numb fingers
unlaced my sneakers

Some things are given to you
while other things are taken away

                                                                     Fool's Day 2016

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