MY LIFE IN TORNADO ALLEY

--came screaming
through my home
upending it all
in an instant
and then

left
my tattered vacuum
behind, forever--

:the wind and the women

BENEFICE

At my baptism feast
I was immersed
adorned in gown and turban.

The host, swollen with yeast
and drunk with thirst,
cavorted like a merman.

I thrust my jolly priest
into your church
and delivered my sermon.

Hallelujah!


BIRTH-GROWTH-DEATH

We wear our trinity within:
Birth Growth Death.

We place our lots
between these dots:
Birth Growth Death.

Expand the beginning, then end.



Though by zeroes
we are enclosed
--Birth Growth Death--

we still contain infinities.
Birth Growth Death.

I, BIBLIOPHILE

One wife memorized Solomon
to reminisce our marriage.
And another remembered Spenser
in bequest to our sons.
And my mistress archived Milton
to remind me of my sin.
If only I’d had more lovers
I’d have read more libraries.


O FORMER LOVERS

What did you do n my life? Were you the butcher or the bride? My savior? A suicide?
O countess, accountant, or clown: the one who talked all my airplanes down?
Forgotten parents, let's make amends.
(Or is my asking a form of revenge?)
You wanted straighten, I wanted bend.
The times I broke out, where were you then?
hi ho rally ree, hi ho rally ree
hi ho hi ho hi ho rally ree
O life, you're a fife
that plays out of tune.I plug my ears shut
but still hear your song.
Hi ho hi ho rally ree
O former lovers can't we be friends?
So many starting lines only dead ends.
Snippets of love songs lost to the winds.
O former loved ones, why not be friends?
hi ho rally ree, hi ho rally ree
hi ho hi ho hi hom rally ree
Life is a wife
who's made out of tongue,
Who talks while I fuck—
just on on and on,,,
hi ho hi ho rally ree
 O unborn bastards, shall we pretend?
Could we have saved some instead of just spend?
Why can't the onces becomee once agains?
Quit filling rivers with corpses and cans.
Hi ho hi ho hi ho rally ree
O — life is a knife
and it's nine feet long.
We're stuck in the gut
And then we are gone.
hi ho hi ho  rally ree
In your life, what was I? Just one more endless hammer on the anvil of your nights?
Rusty dull umbilical scissors? Unspooled string to your puffed up kite?