Jackson

The sadness is not his tame blue eyes        and his soft grey hair        and his gentle smile. The sadness is mine. The sadness is        down off the walls, into the boxes        down from the shelves, into the cases        out of the drawers, into the bags— This sadness is a highway. Read more

Bring to mind a nylon garden and a paper bird-bath. A lead bird with four wings and a plastic gardener with aniseed eyes. Do you like it? Imagine a melamine desert and steel tumbleweeds. A bald saloon with rubber walls and a silicon bartender with margarine lips. Do you like it? Will you eat here? Read more

The fear is overwhelming. Disturbingly, I dream of you with your slick black hair your wide smile and your comic accent. A roly-poly person, you suit a t-shirt: your business shirts are too tight. In my dream, I can see you clearly. It really is you and not just the idea of you. We’re in Read more

Take a stick to the truth, a stirring stick, a mixing stick and stick your truth all over me like jewels, like geegaws, fabulous flashes, black flak jackets, cigarette packets, like nothing on earth, like birth, like, like, California, I’ve never been there … Where are you? In America. Anywhere in America. And the wind Read more

They join     a planet’s lights come on A haze of birds          a song beyond A tuneful scream       a drum     a cymbal A new French film    a scene     a symbol The find    the loss     two final shivers The slackening          two newborn lovers Drifting dayness     not listening A wakened city      she sleeps with him Read more

this rain an earthmist a droplet blanket leaves fluff in my hair fuzz on my black jacket. a fine rain to walk naked in        if no-one would look. a spring rain to make love in        if no-one would look. it would be like under a shower but outside with earth plant smells with Read more