Words are vlunt, biolent tools

with which we chisel

the infinite

into

more manageable mouthfuls

abstractions awkwardly conquertized

“I love you unconditionally”

seems like

screaming

under

water.

Genius might (on its best day) hint at this

trace

shapes

in

space

‘round

this

but

the

chasm

between

what we say : what we mean

wide.

Artistic endeavors approximate -

digital whispers rent from

the inestimable analog everything.

This

Shift of consciousness

New paradigm

This

Kiss of cognizance

Ahead of time

This

Bliss is bottomless

Life redefined

This

Gift is providence

Transmission line

sosudden-ly

tugged

forward.

into the

always

obvious-we

behind slat-cracked blinds no longer frozen

slapped open to the unbinding sun

ask tomorrow, to

cast shadows, through

our today

you’ll find us there

dancing, in

between spaces

We are becoming the we that we were

And will be

And are

My always stress balloons inflate inside

This party. Clownish, varicolor pops

Of anxious latex squeak for attention

And with their tangled cords entwine me tight.

Dazzling advice is showered upon me.

“You should try meditation” is just one.

More distress to navigate. Who has time

To destress when the stress is time itself?

Macabre solutions dance the jitterbug.

Grab hold the tensioned strings and ride the ride

With childish delight? What sights on offer

Dare I look down from those helium heights?

“Have you tried…?” implore the reveling hoards.

Of course I have and still I’ll try once more.

I’d never known a world I didn’t see

These senses, five, are all I’ve ever had

Dimensions, four, defined reality

My view immutable and ironclad.

The hints of more came many years ago

From watching artists seek, informed by drives

Confusing to a mind that didn’t know

The color palettes used to limn their lives.

My double blindness owed to using parts

Instead of reaching inward with my whole.

Awestruck delight awoken in my heart!

My soul’s the sense with which I sense my soul.

Whose brush first stroked this truth I never knew?

The artist signed the work with only “you”.

I woke in pieces.

Articulated assembly

Required not just glue but

First finding my parts.

Attention increases.

Scaffolding erected then

Falling away, revealing

Inchoate notions.

Burgeoning thesis.

Internal reflection

Bountifully guides

External projections.

Duality ceases.

Incomplete I are not.

We am the stranded

Moebius braid.

I laugh sometimes

alone.

Firefly absurdity

sparkling in the

ponderous fog

of thoughts thinking:

delightful respite

easily extinguished.

Snake eats tail.

But when

ticklish minds un-

wind at once:

Skies alight -

firestorm!

Overcome

by

orgasmic

contractions

of

silly we:we silly.

Regret and fear consumed.

Mambo flames

we feed the fever we burn

ecstatic.

Spiritual

this deepest intertwining.

Day unweighted.

Funny is the practice.

Laughter is the present.

Hope Utopia!

Revolution

Acerbated

Plundered

Excised by

Doubt’s silent knife.

Still Hope Utopia!

Resolution

Thawed

Deliquesced

Anhydrated by

Lassitude’s seething smelter.

But Hope Utopia!

Evolution

Parched

Dessicated

Granulated by

Gulosity’s pinkish maw.

Now ReFi Utopia!

Absolution

Disinterred

Welcomed

Ennobled by

Gaia’s putrefied fat.

Words are pictures in your mercury mind:

these too.

I share them knowing not what forms they make

in you.

You brush yourself onto canvases blank

and new.

You shape and trace the space that I now grow

Into.

these hubristic monoliths carve the sky asunder yet

between

we. joyous. run.

a kinfolk infinite

collectively mothered

wondrous. forever. one.

it’s hard, they say

to see the soup

whichyou(with)swim.

looklooklook

broken/remade

remake/remainder

cast. crust. create

Gangrenous men!

Can you behold your

Rot hubristic?

The other

The other

The other

Always another’s

Impingement on your pristine dreams.

It’s him!

It’s them!

Quake your sharpened digits,

Vilify,

Degrade, or worse,

Impugn the veracity of

Suffering Other.

Oh, you

Know.

Your Truths are self-evident.

They stand erected,

Towers monumental, they distract the gaze.

Look not at their phantasmal foundations:

Lie pylons.

Gangrenous men!

Foment fear.

Dangle desire,

Use all shiny levers,

And when in doubt,

Attack -

Ad hominem the hominid, wretched.

Define right and with that,

Rule.

Abhor reflection.

Where have all the mirrors gone?

Smash them or better:

Commotion captivates.

Dance false targets

before the exhausted and bemused.

Let’s dim the lights.

Quiet reflection might illuminate.

There is no greater purpose.

There is no sacrosanct aspiration.

There is no meaning, above.

There is only this below it all...

Fear of the fiction:

two children

one toy

and a gun.

Ah, but Gangrenous Men,

Where have you gone?

Become the gun?

Clever trick.

Click.

I’m curating quite

The coterie of

moral corpses

Why so quick

To quit

My delicate ethics?

Honesty pocketed

Washed and lost

Effort’s death inters

hope’s paper cranes

In my mausoleum

with waxy statues of faith

We woke.

Hung.

Over.

Sweaty in the ‘Vette.

Broken.

Down.

Somehow, locked in.

Kicked the window out

Flopped topless, braised, half-pink

Upon the hood.

Rasped hot dust.

Collected ourselves.

“Where are we, Dick?”

“Try the sign, Pete.”

We squinted through the blare:

‘NO GAS’ Station

“The ride has ended, Pete.”

“Please exit to the left, Dick.”

“What’s left, Pete?”

We crossed the lot.

Sapped pumps sautéed in fat-back black-top.

Beyond?

‘Stetson Convenience’ Store.

“What happened, Dick?”

“Out of business, Pete.”

“But Dick. We’re business.”

Late to the party, we

Perused

-exhausted aisles

-cases cold no more

Bemused.

“There’s nothing left to eat, Pete.”

“Big Hat, No Cattle, Dick.”

We strode out

Cocky

Surveyed our stakes, a grave Western yard.

We whistled.

“It’s all ours now, Pete.”

“These fools abandoned ship, Dick.”

“Probably immigrants, Pete.”

(We had a laugh at that one because of the ship/immigrant thing.)

We made our

Land Plan.

Dreamt

Our future profits

Spent.

“Finders keepers, Dick.”

“Takers keepers, Pete.”

Nothing to see in every direction.

“Nothing can stop us, Pete.”

“Yee haw!” (both, several times)

We climbed back into the car and waited.

Elated.