Outis Duo

2 dollar coffee (best in town)
50% tip (gotta support these kids)
buys a free show
with bald and bearded electric guitarist
and buttoned down drummer, improvising through
only a few changes
for over 10 minutes
altering tempos, rhythms
swapping picking styles, with and without tremolo
power chords, harmonics and arpeggios
this is a birthday gift to myself

ends a day of minimalist self-indulgence
couldn't be happier
or more anxious
my frail father, dismissed the hurricane with a laugh
will probably be in its path
come morning

cool born

I

sparkle brown
and maroon bleed

leaves' pigments
shedding into pond

small needles of fish
darting in and out of hiding places,

unavailable in season preceding
or still, frozen world to follow



II

I adore this time of year
while it is new
near-autumn baby
September, cool born

into the arms of a nurse
or a foster family
or a young mother,
adopting out of a lust to love

this is the fall to me --
arriving abandoned,
leaving love
to love, once again

One without a second

Genderless and genderful
Omnipotent and rather small
Size of a blue lentil seed
A shock of solace in time of need

Inner sunrise, awe to blindness
Silent sounding, sea of kindness
The world needs now, One with no second
Sacred cow and simple transcendence

It hurts to see the joy of release
It came to me once when on my knees
And there it bloomed, the living stone
The conscious rose, the unknowable, known

three-fer one

is it fate
or suction
is it love
or adhesives
that brought me
to your feet
in need of nothing
yet seeking a savior

a polished bumpkin
an educated fool
I was so very fortunate
to lose everything
to you

***
fake birds
on fake boughs
fake leaves
and fake flowers

***
little grey-brown feather
lost to the wind
powerless from within
knows what it is

beyond me

the rote
the post-rote
the trans-
rote
the smile
in the breath
the no-Zen
the freedom
of the fallen
un-chosen

reliquary

breathe in
revel in your essential Self
breathe out
exit your body

this cycle
uninterrupted for eons
carries us
conscious of our hearts
and those of our loved ones
bumpa--wump
beat little bird
of our ancestors, of our enemies

leaves out nothing
involves us all

an elegant unfolding
a flower
with infinite petals
in creation's
incomplete transformation

a newborn child
knew this once
moved on in a time of war
left us his essence
in a pot
full of ashes

watermelon rind

a chunk of watermelon rind
face down on the pavement
must've been a massacre
or a picnic
placed such an odd object
on the street, in the open
where bicyclists and pedestrians
could look down and gawk
aghast, or unconcerned
murder of a portly fruit
someone took out a hit
on hot summer commodity