Fake Blonde in Red

A wind opens the door
the beach at Topanga
Mount Tamalpais drifting in the fog
the road to Dakar

It's the cool wind
coming in off the ocean
at dusk
the hills are on fire
I'm thirsty
this is an interpretive dance

O by the silvery light of tide pools
I often think of the
tear-stained pavement
of Todos Santos
         Hawaiian Mythology
                  & all the names that are
                           crossed out in your address book

                                    whoever you are this time

& so tumbling down the Odessa steps
           filmed in black & white
your pearls, your Mexican silver, your troubled past
assuming a pale shade of
                                variegated turquoise

but like alleyways 
         near the beach
                  held in the grip of
                           a sunset aura

the burgundy nail polish
was a dead giveaway

Organic Traffic

I guess I should remember the
name of the photo-engraving that
hung on the wall there
next to the door
& the way the light came at it
sideways

Was it raining?

It was autumn, briefly,
I could feel it in the light
but preempted by winter too soon
carefully set at a certain angle slant
among bird shadows in the cypress grove

I wrote the song they sing

Exit Velocity

      ROMEO FOXTROT
      Guarded secrets & lug wrenches await
            like the memory of summer rain

RCA BEACH
"This must be the place where St. Francis tamed the wolves"

            DID YOU FALL OR WERE YOU PUSHED?
                        It doesn't matter
                                as long as you
                                        stick the landing

Zulu as Kono, or The Parable of the Stolen Pipe Truck

Vaporware
Alternate possibilities like
       sunset in a parallel universe
              filthy with your fingerprints

Reasonable Doubt
1. The sky was the color of beach pavement
2. Descriptions should always be misleading

Catch & Release
If I was talking to you
I wouldn't have to say a thing

Water on Mars

I swore I heard Sweet Jane's kid sister
calling the little red rooster
& the foam
rushing up across the sand
was like a game of Chinese whispers

Surfing by Candlelight

I tripped over my first bloody nose
& landed here
                       57 years later
beneath a dark sky getting darker
         clabbering up to rain

& I played that clawhammer ukulele 
like a champ
         just so you'd know what it felt like
confessing to crimes I knew
nothing about

It was late summer on the coast
& you were like a brain surgeon
         smuggling a pipe bomb
                  into my most cherished memories

Steel Pier Freeze-Out

Nothing left now but the
soft caress of a breeze
edging ahead of the fog
rising off the beach

a kind of psychosomatic bait & switch
within the confines of our souls
each to the other

& if my heart is like a 
hand grenade exploding in a field of grass skirts
it's just what some call love

out there beneath the swaying
fortune palms

& following the roach of "whatever"
a late summer bend in the sky might be
just the thing we need to
reverse engineer the ocean haze

but gnawing on a beer can
one step closer to amazement

with that number 4 expression on your face
& those empty swimming pool eyes
like nine pound shadows

Confessing My Tattoo

The ocean shimmers
like a thin line of
bluegreen neon lip gloss
smeared against the sky at sunset
& I'm feeling as responsible as a Hawaiian cocktail
spilled on the sidewalk
in front of the pier
sinking beneath the weight of
pale pink angels who
talk out the side of their mouths
& carry guitars zipped up in body bags

I'd like to trade in those scrap iron halos
for a primer gray belch-fire El Camino
then gun the engine while chasing down the
starlet who wears crooked shoes

I'm burning out the clutch
& she's got black silk eyes

Sound Check

The Sky is Glued Shut

A faded pink nevermind of concrete

& the pearls she wore to remind herself

mementos then of all that brought us here

& all that will drive us away

Brings Us That Much Closer

You had to work to get those lost

empty eyes I know it wasn't easy but

like blue headlights on a deserted 

highway once you're gone

In Advance of a Leadpipe Reckoning

A voice on the radio says

"Accept nothing less"

but it sounded to me like

"Accept nothingness"