Oblique Strategy

TAKE AWAY THE IMPORTANT PARTS


No grandfather or wine. No kings. Nothing even resembling a song. Only a blanket and the sea. Only the threat of something righteous contained within pork. A pie slowly congealing on the windowsill. Communal knowledge.

The remainder of the equation never equals the sum of its parts. It cannot be helped, the grandfather & his faded hat. The wrinkled hands as they caressed pork fat & pickle juice. The thought of faded royalty. Tininess. The word for something being small.

Oblique Strategy

REMEMBER QUIET EVENINGS


Jesus, that was horrible. The blood still hasn't come out.
& nobody has talked to Uncle Jesse since.

Oblique Strategy

HOW WOULD YOU HAVE DONE IT?


With whiskey and the promise of sin. With feet
& a snow shovel. With grandfather's oil &
a burning lamp. With need. With a solid

left hook. With something resembling a plan.
With a ramshackle van & hand grenade. With
my arms around Castro. With the world's

biggest sack race. Let me tell you about
this sack race--it involves everybody. We
block off the ocean with cones & reform

Pangea through sheer will. Then, at the
drop of Churchill's black hat, we begin.
Elbow & teeth, broken nose & torn burlap.

The struggle is epic. Lives are lost. Nations
are reformed around championship heroes.
That's how we build culture. That's how

we get down.

more poems.

My Name is Mud has three new ones. Two of them are from You Raindog, You Swan Sister, You Highway Surprise. The other deals with the immortal Mr. Scrunch.

Pindeldyboz All Poetry

The fine folks over at Pboz have an all poetry issue that can be ordered here or from your lovely local bookseller. It includes a few of my poems as well as other local luminaries B. James Williams, Tim Lantz, Kim Chinquee, Erin Gendron, Eric Torgersen, and Qiana Towns. Hooray.

poems

new poems in GlitterPony issue three.

new poems

The New Yinzer has picked up three of my poems. Spring 2007 issue. Yep.