Something for Loneliness

She stares at the man with his
Counting machine
His elixirs and syrups
Her exquisite sadness
Enveloped in minks
Where the heart hides in shadows
She marvels at the colors
Of pills like a rainbow
For all of the ailments
From rheum to tinnitus
And asks is there not something
For loneliness?

Gunboat

Who dances behind the clouds
Deciding rain or sun or war
Arms reaching down around me
All around me arms
No companion in the ballet
One arm’s finger points at me
In the end there is the ocean,
Countless little triggers,
All these bullets
And I alone at sea

Fandom

Why have I given half my days to
Fandom
Watching players in the height of
Life
Defying any reason, this
Projection
They have no allegiance whatsoever to my
City
What a masterful slieght of
Hand
They have agents, sports cars, homes, and futures full of
Luxury
I have my account, with its checks usually
Bouncing
I watch them move from town to town, following the
Money
Very good at keeping their eyes on the
Ball

Old Light

Don’t ask this shadow
To stand in the light
Of a sun that is hiding
In caverns
Memory obscured
In a filigreed dream
A lampshade around
The corona

Past Life Regression

I recently went to a New Age festival and consulted with a past life regression expert. She ran her hands over my shoulders and informed me that I was a high priest under the reign of Ramses II in ancient Egypt. In a later life, I was a Jewish doctor who survived the horrors of the holocaust. "You've been around persecution for many lifetimes." I wondered if everyone had such sensational past lives. I wondered if, in one of those lives in between, I was a plumber, baker, or maybe even a schoolteacher. But then maybe she wouldn't have such a great past life regression business.

Faceless

I rose from bed and went walking
Saw my neighbors stripped of flesh
No face, no hair, just skulls and bones
Walking from town to town
No beauties and no geniuses
Just bones about their business
Yet somehow in this faceless world
Beauty, equanimity, justice
Hideous and true
No line or mask dividing
Sleep from dream or
Me from you