a man walks

into a bar,

good god

what luck.

See here

this clumsy

bonanza,

treacly sweet,

candying every surface

capable of pooled

light.

Amid arrivals

and departures

the moon,

shucking

to reveal

bright

golden bones.

The tragicomic gag

of beauty possible

only in passing.

The stooping

to grope

an oblong

hand stitched

white laced

inflatable

pig bladder

tumbling

among

the scrum

skittering

a frozen tundra.

The ladder

missing both

the third

and fourth

rungs.

The phone number

one off.

The son

failing to spell

even his own

name.

The large glass door,

suddenly

a wall,

when reflection

ghosts up,

bird like,

before collapsing

beside

the mirroring

window pane.

The children,

their infinite needs,

bustle

like static.

cherubim,

dewy,

wisp headed,

honeyed

with sour milk,

turn in a blink

giant,

hooved,

devouring.

The son

a letter off

is a

star.

the rich posole

bobbing hominy

puddles below

a mound

of immaculate mussels,

glowing ebony,

their slim grit

weaned on

shore scum

and fish shit.

pebbly

and toothsome,

yes.

the drinks

pucker

some sort off

saline punch.

the bar

trembles

a concussive clang,

backing a chorus

of head in hand

cursing,

the man

grimaces

a wobbly affront,

teeters and

falls

into a rangy two step,

pleading the evening through,

Oh miranda,

my miranda

you and your

dark eyes

they haunt me

how they haunt me

Bound to

haunt me

all my life.

Devastating

This wave

Away

The coastline

Plucky

along

The juan de fuca plate

Its dense

Roving

Stupor.

A common

Tern,

Supermanning

The dip and swoop

Of embanked breeze,

Clips the sunset surf

Motel roof

A collapsable thing

Inevitably collapsing

The plummeted bird

Slight, wrenched angular,

Patched in downy plume

Treads a baleful wake

Through the

Summer packed

Manzanita main.

The pageant ,

Immovable,

To say nothing

Of its arrogance

In insisting

Such wild ruin

Its blush of high hue

Tripsy in the get up

Of the now gone

This is

Not saying

its a tower

As it leans out so

But look

how it stretches

All its terrible length

Nervous as

A drought

Easily seen

From all points south

Of Nehalems thin spit and

the quick cascade

Of Neahkahnie

toward the dense myth

hard tomb

stoop

you stoop

thumb the residue

the kettle

along the pantry walls

the new

prettier couch

your childrens ears

your own

amid the tinny pinch

a brief moment

puttering among shadows

till shine

slips the bleached

frail blinds

batters about

a pale patch

of pinking skin

and two

rice paper thin

light violet

eyelids

you smell the basil

yes?

the counter top

candied

with hour old soda

i would tell you

i was blind to it

but the blind

know

with ease

this sticky

aroma.

i would say

i saw

how

seeming magic

the flat top

glows

The tidied

Forever undone

Returned

Impossibly

to form

how you,

in studied gesture

snap wands

for quick start

kindling

bring pots

to a rolling churn

bare this

and this

like a midriff

braced

in early autumns

frigid turn

he’d heard

barely there

amoebas

quake

with pulsed

longing

the moment prior

to a thing

leaving

‘if a thing

gathers

itll

clutter’

he’d heard

said `

the rough

motes

disarray

congeals

into

worrisome

growths

dusting

your broadening

body

the myth

of solvency

shown

bereft

hues out,

a blush,

across

a landscape

rich

in tense

and houses

and woods

and all those

good men

and all those

good books

poke at it

with dumb

denim hugged

hard ons

grinding

themselves

against

the mystery

convinced

it is theirs

instead of itself

basked in

a bloom of light

bobbing

to the

thrum

embraced

in the

ripeness

of being

here

for

this

one

sweet

moment

and then

Bear trotting

Tortoise shell

Moon eyed

Drifts

from her fresh

dug holler

up the

brambly mess

exclaims

a longing caterwaul

“oh rigorous life,

what gifts

you've loosed

your final fetters

molted my desperate

cling

made of me

a wildly

gorgeous

wing-ed thing”

Ultra- Black ____

dissolve craven light

in palatial pitch

absorb,

or

in mad gall,

embrace

even now,

all of this

I’ve drug

the thinning

peach tree

across our sparse

yard.

dug out,

and laid

in the rutted

gash

of grass and

soil,

rich with

untended piles

of slick,

moldering leaves

and

tatty

black

plastic

our canopy

hints

a timid blush

dawn

draws

its drawers

toward

an unkempt

navel

night now

eye high

dipping down

the jaw

fountains,

hunched

in flinty

thirst,

eye

unpeopled

places

off

white

odd angled

backboards

flag their

strange geometry

above

black

tops

flare red

hoops

flat-barred

or

plywood rounds

capping

their rimmed

containers

as though

a thing falling

were the point

not this bouncing

this knock kneed push

this flush

of unfurling

fingers

pawing

at flight

of course

the shot

careens

lays

thick bricks

against

unwilling rims

more often

than not

we miss

as it is

though one could

imagine

limbs

articulate

gesturing

a high arch

how it curves

untenable space

from a broad thought

to a narrowing thing

a hook

to catch

the large cache

of canvas totes

you tote

from point

to point

you catch me

half gone

in interstitial

storms

swooning

the coast

point out,

how ive always

wished

to point out,

that this

is a sacrament

meant to hold

in ones mouth

one beat

longer

then one

might consider

ive downed

the entire

package

of thin

crisp

wafers

as a child

might

my mouth

dry as a

desert

you press

your tender flesh

to my tongue

and insist

i sit

amid

the ripe perfume

of you

a moment

longer

i sit

and am

sitting still

your sweet

stink

now

both

the city

and the river