Attenzione! Vipers!

This snake of a thought
slims quietly into rockmelt
I am lost with talent
Unable to coax it loose

Oh, you mean that.

I will be born soon
Or rather,
have a birthday
Which is another way of saying the same thing
But in reverse
Or backwards

I take a long time to figure things out
And often get them wrong
It's amazing what parts of ourselves are so smart
What parts are utterly retarded
It's like there's only enough experience to go so far
A liquid in limited supply
Likely some slice of me
suffered a secret stroke
Blood was directed to other regions
Where it would solve other problems

For example
It took forever to figure out
How this would feel
It's a good thing
Someone came along
to remind me

I should thank them
Whoops

Too late

First There Was

Start
by saying it out loud.
When it's spoken
is when it begins.

Great Recessions

The farm could stay,
but when Lehman emptied its offices
late afternoon that Tuesday
treasure and all
the horses had to go

They were led to water
walked up the plank
dispatched on yachts
bereft of mortgage
the Atlantic swallowed whole

Back in Woodstock
the locked land
paddocks pristine
ready for residents
Snow is growing in fossil hoof prints
stables painted red
open for business
standing silent
in groves of gray ash

Nothing Unclean

When the door closes
I lose track of time
As it seeps backwards
I'm in a cab
I'm home
I'm in bed
You're shuddering next to me
I'm seventeen
They tell me she's disappeared into the bathroom
I'm with my broken father
Looking at the clouds
Expelled by the planes
Filling the only sky of Michigan
The air so fragile
It shatters when the rain hits it
Crashing on us running
Two hundred miles an hour
To the door
Thundered shut
My stomach cinches
The plane begins to rise