Poems: 230122 - January 23rd, 2022

271221A
-----------=20

Those short long days
where anything is nice
but none of it is beautiful
and try to keep up
within bounds=20
of an off limits sort
designated social reach.=20

A short step=20
between not included
and not invited=20
moves tokens=20
around playing board
vintage games.=20

Jaded tastes
where it all went sour
midway bitter times=20
where they don't give=20
and nothing sweet=20
but Saccharin drops=20
swallowed hard. =20

Pride is a joke=20
someone played=20
covering over=20
what they took away=20
though it is all really
a humbling =20
worthless experience.=20

Our Scrabble game=20
arranges body parts
spelling out who we are=20
within the confinements=20
of a social dictionary=20
latest revised edition
who looks who up.

Collections arranged=20
bits of speculation
still pretending=20
it is ice cream sodas
and being wanted=20
as part of everything=20
being made to order.=20

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010122A
-----------

Word is there were some=20
who went to Heaven=20
would do anything=20
to escape and go to Hell.=20

Why some now say=20
you can get satisfaction
if you know the right people
inside the Pearly Gates.=20

There is a black market=20
right next to the Pool Hall
where they sell porn
and narcotics out the back.=20

There is a bar there=20
next to the Angels Club =20
always stays open=20
twenty four hours.=20

Can get drunk=20
or start a fight=20
tearing some wings off=20
to appease the crowd. =20

If you know the right people
you can buy a woman=20
you can buy a man=20
you can name a fantasy.=20

There is a dealer=20
where angels fear to tread
claims to get you higher=20
than the Most High ever is.

Lucifer is a high roller=20
made his peace
and makes frequent visits
to his chain of casinos.

The Kingdom is business =20
booming and growing=20
past the white sale
and not for the timid.=20

Some say it all changed
when times went tough
recruiters were failing
and god wanted his cut.

Archangels turning
blind eyed
to what you can get=20
if you pay the price.=20

The forces of goodness=20
learned a hard lesson=20
how good survives
by tolerance of evil.=20

------------------------

010122B
-----------

Bodies are fragile
and even hard ones
are glass breaks easily
shatter pane down
countless bits
into viral stuff
becoming particles.=20

Slow dissolution
boiled down=20
to anything needed
could not be had
past a forced look
at what comes easy
to someone else.=20

Beat your head
on feeling something
until you go numb
then start over=20
doing the same=20
and for some=20
that is enough.=20

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020122A
-----------

What is the point
starting something=20
that is already finished=20
only to pass the time.=20

What is the purpose=20
to any remembering=20
whatever won't be=20
that maybe never was.=20

Toss it out there=20
into something more=20
thrown away
into no one cares.=20

It won't be good=20
whatever it is=20
gets pushed in=20
to emptied spaces.=20

Dreams of accumulate
the way dust gathers=20
into every corner=20
of everything gone.=20

When pulled away=20
we tend to hang on
to what remains=20
anything it isn't or was.=20

----------------------------

040122A
------------=20

Real and unreal=20
nightmares=20
of the real and unreal=20
collaborative gatherings
reveals of faces
form dark circles.=20

Darkening round=20
the hollowed=20
bull's eye targets=20
formulated visions
divide the never=20
from the maybe.=20

No getting into it=20
in a lifetime=20
inspires novel fictions
concerned with afterlives=20
where none exists
and anything happens.=20

Fields of assumptions=20
measured out=20
stretches of string=20
connecting nothing=20
to nothing more=20
than pull up stakes.=20

Dig deep=20
for skeleton keys
that open no doors
death rattle soundings=20
into what came before
those dust clouds.=20

No returns=20
from becoming spent=20
on emptied rounds=20
and countless shots=20
along failing lines=20
of typical sights.=20

Should have been=20
but was never done
doesn't need doing=20
once gone that far=20
broken to haunted =20
mystery flesh.=20

Mix it up
in an ice field=20
among ship wrecks
until it sinks=20
into similar habits=20
of nothing saved.=20

----------------------=20

080122A
------------=20

It might happen=20
that it comes down hard
against everything=20
we used to believe.=20

That type of wavering=20
pummels the night=20
with new evasions=20
avoidant of sunrise.=20

The new morphine=20
might be dreams=20
melting the body=20
into purified discontent.=20

The worst dreams=20
are pleasant dreams
of what we cannot be
and cannot ever have.=20

We were compelled=20
into drab sequences=20
where normal is ruin=20
and ruin is normal.

There are the lucky=20
leading by examples=20
that no one can follow
but most want to try.=20

It was all that trying=20
that consumed us=20
during the time=20
we consumed others.

The lifeless past=20
having had=20
and the stuffing=20
knocked out of it.=20

Teddy bears=20
without a picnic=20
rampage a night out=20
on a pitiful town.=20

Monumental errors=20
become the milestones=20
on plot lines charting
absurd projects.=20

Wish you were mine=20
haunts stranger words=20
slapping others' faces=20
with greeting cards.=20

Secretly we know
we never will=20
get past anything=20
so wall paper thin.=20

Respecting boundaries
on which are scrawled
actual truths=20
that no one dare say.=20

Do not confess=20
how you really feel=20
and never say why
during interrogation.=20

Exactly correct answers=20
immediately hit a pause=20
on the walk away control
then fumble fast forward.=20

Getting nowhere=20
followed by rewind=20
playing it again
as if missed something.=20

The game has changed
to mass infiltration=20
on playing fields
and a murder of referees.=20

Last remaining play
the coin slot=20
local slot machines
play their bitter cherries.=20

Stay further away=20
from everything=20
being best before
and long gone stale.=20

You become cravings
for all the knowledge
that comes at you=20
as fake news.=20

There we know=20
everything we can know
about one and other=20
until it no longer matters.=20

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180122A
------------=20

Two faced empties=20
and you can read
a brand on the front=20
fine print on the back=20
label smile one side
dark secrets back side.

The turn around=20
into the details=20
where they list=20
endless precautions=20
side effects=20
and ingredients.

Thank the makers=20
for telling you=20
you do not measure up
to the high standards=20
they demand=20
for their products.=20

Knife goes in=20
from behind you=20
and you can feel it=20
carving at your own
peel of packaging=20
as it digs down in.=20

The label comes off
and everyone sees
right through=20
your being no longer=20
and no more value
than a bottle deposit.=20

Paper that was held=20
gets scraped away=20
and there is nothing=20
other than the disdain=20
of window dressing=20
that you cannot afford.=20

--------------------------=20

200122A
------------

Giving up=20
on the whole thing
because it is reruns
and commercial messages
already obsolete=20
old ideas and habits.

No pay off there
in any of the plays
chance made
only wrong rules=20
and different game
switches programs.=20

Channel drones=20
saturate space=20
inserted vain attempt
amid vague clouds=20
models actual spread
into vapour thin.=20

We climb down=20
from tree tops=20
carrying what fell
from the sky=20
along a far reach
distance of waves.=20

Washes out over us=20
from the towers=20
to the battlefields=20
processions of notes
cascading across=20
jagged scars.=20

Helplessly watching
another spin out=20
careening wildly
out of control=20
to trash what remains
of possible futures.=20

We look for magic
among fragments=20
coming from wrecks
trying to imagine
what shapes and colours
once meant.=20

---------------=20

220122A
------------=20

The senses=20
and the mind=20
are never innocent.

It would be so tragic=20
if they were
that innocent.=20

Anything interesting=20
is far away=20
from real innocence.=20

Everything a process=20
trying to conceal=20
what was meant.=20

War always results=20
from crossing lines=20
into the truth.=20

Our diplomacy ends=20
in the dark=20
where deals are made.=20

I wanted you near=20
but that pushed you=20
very far away.=20

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First poems of 2022. For whatever reasons they did not come into being easi=
ly, and rather than over writing and revising any of them anymore I feel th=
e need to let them go. Once they are in "print" it is as if I have let them=
 go, and can move on from there to something else.