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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

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

What's in Your Wallet?

Way down in the hole.  Climb back out
& start over.

Couldn't say if I was feeling exalted or exhausted
"Is there a difference?"

There are a few things that we can be 
grateful for if we look hard enough
            sidestepping disbelief for a moment
or two

                        a Persian rug
                        a piccolo solo

                                           ( c r e s c e n d o )

AUTHENTIC RELICS OF AN IMAGINARY KINGDOM:
1. The wet sand in your hair
            2. (pink) Geraniums
                        3. A full set of half-moon chrome hubcaps

(A no color gray day of rainy mist & dark
TV noises instill a subliminal layer of urgency
though there's no real reason for it
all abstract with empty thought bubbles
hovering just inches above our heads

Thursday's Number One Drama

Feeling irresistibly restless.
I should move back to southern
California.  There's no reason for the
turquoise stain on my
left index finger.

An Escape Plan:
         Maybe a small portable Tahiti
                  that you carry around with you 
                           wherever you go.

I never think about where you've been
although I often wonder where you are.

                  Some things just can't be explained
                  others absolutely shouldn't be explained at all.

                  Don't even try.

There are times when one must answer to a higher authority
                                                      (a quarter-pounder w/cheese).

The trees are thinking leafy thoughts
disrupted by the faintest breeze.

         Hombre Secreto (by The Plugz)
         blasting from the radio of a murdered-out '64 Malibu.

Three days later I'm still here 
trying to find out what connects a leaky fountain pen 
to an extended vacation
in the sun.