Certain Voltages

Remember when our love
was blooming
and the dirty city felt as fresh
as flowers,
when the wars always
orchestrated by men
became faded video footage
from the 20th Century
and Italian grandmas
prepared feasts for destitute
immigrants on their island

Now it is
the lip balm I carry in my
coat
to protect me from the winter
or the leftover Holiday candy
I keep around to spark certain
voltages in my brain and
heart

Now I’d like to throw my cellular
phone into the river
and walk with you
in the Western woods
where the old old spirits are

The Prosperous Impoverished

when the corporations go away
we will still love
unloved by the
waste they have laid
and pollutants in
our blood

but when we
cough blood clots

when children ask

we’ll tell them
there was once this thing
called wealth

it’s the cost and the price of health

from the once high mandates
of fiendish men
always
men
stuck in the 20th century

and this is why I love your
blue eyes now
amongst the stars, averages
and standard messages
encoded

When I Don’t Quite Make It

I come close to the set where
the television actors are,
but I don’t quite make it.
There’s a sign on the door that says
“SET”,
so I do not enter.
I’d like to know what’s inside.
Massages?
Clean sandwiches?
Cheque books?
Townhomes?
Convertibles?

Somewhere beige-walled foyers are,
with clean terracotta tiles,
the sun shines in on a brilliant perfect
Southern California morning,
but I do not make it.
I’m not there.
Their children are, not mine.
I breathe in with blood in my lungs.
Then I cough and hack something up.
My children are passing glances at doors
I saw Larry Hagman go bye-bye behind.

Nice Dresses

These blondes are pretty cute on TV.
They place them in nice dresses.
Nice dresses.
They follow their contours.
You know what it’s like
to be placed in nice dresses
and have your contours followed.
It’s a delicate world of vanity we build.
It helps us in our head.
It’s delicate and tender the touches
in our heart.
All of them are. All of them are.
We build. We build.

You, I and God know
this is what those nice dresses do.
Let’s place more of the blondes and
brunettes like you
in them.
Go down to church, new shopping malls,
svelte automobiles.
Our thinking will be good for teenagers,
millionaires and tycoons.
Our thinking will be good.

Molochs of masculinity.

Messages from New York City.

Silk blouses across breasts.
Steak dinners times ten.