Love is Not a Dream Returning

Allegory as Evidence
Metaphor - not a brick wall but as a transparency like
window glass & can you sometimes see a refection?
R  E  C  O  G  N  I  T  I  O  N
"The Poems"
light & shadow distributed among undersea flowers
at dawn or a little after
(Rimbaud at Malibu)
that articulation
a genetic predisposition to vowel sounds
vs lead-based grammar
but the music intrinsic
valves, gears, & hinges as rhyme could be Memory
of phrase or Image & where/how it turns
is that
but say it like you mean it
a spillover from the Higher Mysteries
Her eyes are the color of bourbon
in a glass
w/the light streaming thru it

Mexican Hat Trick

A choir of seagulls vs the shattered
vocabulary of April
revealing a heart that resembles a bus wreck
just outside Truth or Consequences, NM
where I could be carrying a specimen jar containing
a butterfly, some broken seashells, & 6 bottlecaps
mementos of X-ville Beach
& all of it boiling down to a
3-day nocturne vs a lost weekend
with The Pentecostal Blues playing nonstop
on subliminal radio
but you're not there to push the buttons . . .
Come Wednesday I'll have tears in my eyes
so I'll drive blindfolded & miss seeing the 
palm trees genuflect
as the sun skids along the edge of the ocean haze
like wind in the cypress vs pushing a tractor through
quicksand I said it's a catchy tune but
can you dance to it?

HIGH NOON by Noel Black

In these new poems from the author of Uselysses, the code of the west gets the rewrite it so sorely needed, but probably never wanted. The streets are deserted except for the rodeo clown driving by in a beat-up Honda Civic singing "Do not forsake me oh my darling," and all you can do is sing along.

Order your copy of HIGH NOON now.

Drama in the Safeway Check-Out Line

As if one could discuss the
deconstruction
of clouds
& score any points
with the rank & file...

Watching TV with the sound off seems like a
good idea right now

DIVERSIONARY TACTICS
(A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect?)

Seashell
Torch aloe
Pipe wrench

& a tangle of nasturtiums
cascading over the seawall

"I would have died there if I knew where I was"
The irrevocable left unspoken as contrast

Shall we dance?

Silver Orchids

for Pamela

Waking in the night
I can hear you
breathing
& it's a warm breeze
returning
like the 7 sleepers of Ephesus
an offshore breeze
bending sea-green eucalyptus
& my heart
decked out w/palm branches
& wind chimes
muscle memories
& orchids
rare orchids
shining like silver
hit w/sunlight
but only when you let me see them
in your eyes

                                      2.14.18

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