--I WISH I WAS LIKE YOU, EASILY AMUSED

Miscreants and Family

Elvis Presley is drunk again,

warbling “Burning Love”

on the balcony.

Mom is still in bed at noon.

The cats traipse across the sink

like tight rope walkers

or bloated spies.

My friends never come over anymore

and that’s just as well.

I blink and think,

blink and think,

as shooting stars land in my hair.

A firecracker explodes behind the left eyeball.

One thing is not the other

and no one goes to the moon anymore.

It’s time to face the fact that

we’re stuck here,

miscreants and family,

doomed to do our best

or bleed in place.

Missing

We float in the belly of a black cloud

or whale

wondering what to do next

while the Pope and Dali Lama

tour the country,

rock stars to both political parties.

You decide to fold yourself in half

and I follow suit.

The air here is ice cold beer and

the rain has silky shoulders.

You fold again and again.

Beneath us the Dali Lama is wearing aviator sunglasses

and tipping one back with Bono.

The pope kisses a child’s forehead.

Together we fold and fold ourselves

missing the child we never had.

A Game Of Cards

Clowns and scars

are the things that scare you most.

Hold onto the sleeve of a rainbow

if you must.

Tonight the moon is a bowl of whole milk.

while the stars look arthritic but swollen.

Across the lake someone is shouting obscenities

and half a world away a mosque is being bombed.

Whether the smoke settles or not

there is plenty to see.

Hope hangs in the balance.

The future wants to play a game of cards.