picture this:

wake up, take a shower
wash hair, soap body
rinse body, dry body
put deodorant on, (shave)
take pills, put clothes on
leave for work or school,
realize that you didn’t
brush your teeth.
just like falling in love,
isn’t it?

the dark is empty, most of our heroes have been wrong

LET’S SPEND A LONELY
BEER SOAKED EVENING TOGETHER
LET’S COAT OUR BALLS WITH PEANUT BUTTER
AND BLAST THE KINKS
LET’S BREAK THE CORDLESS AND
SMASH THE DALI
LET’S SPEND CHRISTMAS EVE
STARING AT THE STEREO AND
LISTENING TO OUR BEER GET WARM
LET’S SPEND A LOVELY
BEER SOAKED EVENING TOGETHER

Canada 5, USA 2

Canada 5, USA 2
they won the gold medal
in men’s hockey and
we looked at model homes
that we could never afford
and fishtail palm trees and
flamingoes with tracking bands
we walked through a jungle
we saw the gardens of christ,
we confronted religion by
walking away towards the
alligators, they were more
interesting anyway. the
kookaburras didn’t laugh
at us. the emu’s guarded
their eggs. you went in
the reptile house, i stayed
with the tortoises. we went
home, you left for the
grocery store, i let the
dog out and Canada
won the gold medal in
men’s hockey

in love with a headache

i sat down with my head
pounding, to write a poem for
you
i sat down lacking the
motivation to breathe, and
i wrote a poem for you
the lines write themselves and
the poem takes form for you
your love clouds my mind
and pulses against my ears
my fingers cannot hold the pen
but the poem is done

trust leads to complacency, pt. zwei

trust leads to some good shit too,

coming home and turing the heat down,

drinking the budweiser

while watching intervention

after a not-so-hardworked shift

at a job that i dig

and poking the buppy to make

sure that he's still breathing, and

checking the princess and lonely socks

to make sure they're warm

enough.

that makes the previous experiments
worthwhile.

we'll start a band someday.

i've only wanted to be
lyrical and dangerous;
now i'm dad, daddio, big guy,
breadwinner, bacon fanatic,
nickname-giver, fun-uncle,
sandwhich loving, diaper changing,
nap buddy, banana bread making,
self-doubting, gourd baseballing,
dance recital anticipating, proud of an A on a math test,
me.
and lyrical and dangerous
don't mean so much.

safety inspector romance

you came to my lips
in explosive crystal flames,
called in sick (again)
to be with you, yet
you're here and mindfloat
carries me away.
there's painful, but not
because of you.
wait for strength and
it may be worth it,
soul doubt swimwaves - it's
pictures of you that
tether my feelings to
less ethereal rationale,
emanations of caring loving-kindness -
purely incidental?
pull the window shade, there's
unlived
lives staring at you
through panes.

your satisfaction is my saddest fiction.

the young believe they can
outlive it...
the middle aged believe they can
outsmart it...
the old believe that they can
hide from it...

failure complete

i've thought long,
hard, and often,
about what to say
when i meet you.
no words seem adequate,
no sentiment exact.
i want to convey
the awe i was in before you arrived,
how excited i've
been to see your face.
i can't help but wonder -
is your laugh lyrical?
is your cry grating or
beautiful?
is your nose Polish?
in what way
will i
ruin
your life?

this is the material plane, and it could use a good sanding

margaret-mary
with blue eyes
and a sailor's mouth,
tended bar at O'Hare
with an easy laugh
and a hate of
ketchup on hot dogs and
the new england patriots,
68 years young -
you made an hour
seem like
five minutes.
this one's for you.