TRIPLE WHAMMY

Musician friend has a benefit for his medical expenses
Poet died-her wake @same time as our open mike
And the host burned out,leaving choice of life or death
(i like this world -wherein and whereby one never knows
what will happen next-nor did i (bringing candles for remembrance
lighting them on tables /dressing in black for she who so recently departed
Now we all face the choice in every moment-to live or to die
So when chantreuse asks-will we/won't we?
YES! is our only reply-and a line of songbirds
sang words in lines,while anarchist individuals
leaped the stage and shared their lives
(Every moment is precious-we may only have tonight)
Tonight became winged-every voice sings!
Every one who wished to be heard shared words
More sipped their liquid wisdom dressed in shadows
Tea lights shared aromas and tiny brilliance
and she sang,and he stretched sounds
and every soul sang their bones and flesh
fell away-to reveal how humans play
even on the edge of precipice
There may be tigers in the night
but we have word wings
And we fly

ALL OF OUR TONGUES ARE BIRDWINGS

all our words=canoes
where we stroke,oar,paddle
waves oppose our rule
So we slip silent obedience
Become less by lack of belief.
Remembrance is everything..

ALL OF MY DREAMS HAVE NUMBERS

Names blank tags/AWOL.Remembering less than half a glass
Shadow fax fox night/day light outlaws fire extinguished
Shades/shapes/shadowdreams entangled calendars
in darkness,forgetfulness/stories shared by available light/moonshadow wing
Donated space/by the grace of algebraic equations
on the rigged tax forms of midnight/on the ship of mutiny
staffed by anarchist volunteers/with a Titanic tilt tolled
told souls cries loudest

GHOST SONATAS

Road tripper/bureaucrat/cultural catnip
knowing only the names of things(not their content)
because names are powerful!Which war?=
defining ourselves via conflict rather than resolution
Rodney King dethroned/free jazz seduction
Derangement or derailment?Love over remembering
forests of correspondences/sleepwalking devotees
Nation of documentarians/laugh @my anger
Numinous objects/incantatory qualities
Myth and archetypes pre-transformations..

EDITING

Each eye sees differently-
Rashomon,Usual Suspects,Memento,Inception
Every film a vision of imagined scripts
As our lives are surveyed/under surveillance
we alter our stories as we glow

He says she does not understand
She feels she is not seen
Each eye witness spots a different accomplice
How explain our deepest dreams?

Partners' perceptions partial
perspective ?or portions thereof?
Full picture means more than GOOGLE
or what you say after HELLO!

Who knows us less than ourselves?
Who cares less?What we see is only one line
dropped into an ocean of perception
fish thoughts await the hook ,line,sinker
Depth means more than perception.
Drag in White Whales or dolphins
They all end up Mermaid's tails....

ONE DAY YOU WAKE UP

and you decide to do no more harm to animals/humans
You might decide that all war is immoral
or that a specific conflict fails the sniff test
You might recognize the humanity in those you are trained to kill
You may make a personal decision to live-and to allow others to live
You may seek others who share your beliefs-
they may be rare and hard to find
that is why individuals gather
in coffee shops,libraries,homes,churches
Shared beliefs allow for individual choices
UNDER THE HOOD in Killeen provides sanctuary
for those undergoing a change of heart
The best experience is always shareable-
which is why we gather to support those
who support others who need space
to decide what to do/with the rest of their blessed lives.

159 teardrops

159 roses(all shapes,forms,colors-just like us
159 origami peace cranes(with the name of those lost
159 Austin homeless bodies buried in 2010
49 rememberers listening and singing with each other
One peace tree with peace doves hanging
One new bench facing Lady Bird Lake(paid for by House The Homeless)
4 bodies sleeping on the benches at 6am
$500 fine for sleeping in public in Austin
$7.25 the minimum wage
48% of all homeless disabled
4000 counted homeless every night in Austin
671 available beds(a lottery to decide who sleeps inside tonight)
This includes women and children(fastest growing numbers)
Something simply does not add up.

no one is paid to witness dawns

yet,without them,there are no songs
same with midnight,despair,solstice,dewdrops
what is not seen still exists
Angels are necessary illusions
dark ones in horror movies
sell desolation
White ones in movies
sentimental as teardrops
still no budget for miracles
no payment for poets
no spiritual accountancy
for the relief of this wold's woundings
yet everywhere/inadequate bandages
streets filled with dispossessed spirits
hungry empty eyes
asking for a fix

AGE OF AMBIVALENCE

Walmart gives poor wages and worse benefits
yet their gas is still this town's cheapest
Bouffant Governor an arrogant selfish narcissist
Yet he talks up Texas with a necessary positive mythos
Road closures slow down gridlocked traffic daily
yet freedom of assembly is cornerstone of our democracy
Gold artificially inflated as dollar deliberately devalued
yet QE2 is seen as liquidity assist (sans productivity)
Hatred is directed at all political incumbents
yet tea party activists scramble for public office
RIGHT TO LIFE go round shooting doctors
"Compassionate conservatism"cuts unemployment benefits
Education is piously defended while all budgets are shredded
Prisons bulge with non-violent drug offenders
while medical marijuana specialists offer quality services
Heterosexual marriages 50% divorce-yet gay marriages still banned
"Don't ask,don't tell"witch hunts lose qualified military personnel
Sex"education"means keeping adolescents in ignorance
while teen motherhood and single parenthood become epidemic
Junk food and colas promote diabetes,yet are served in schools and prisons
Propaganda replaces news,while comedians enter politics
and living poetry becomes a rant of unresoloved dilemmas
THIS IS THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS!

pointillism for beginners

Seurat @a French picnic
before Impressionists daubed emotions
precise as bullets in a firing heart
each singular digit a Matrix of micro/macro art
If every DNA is all and each
if snowflakes are starguides in sand
if beaches are universes of galaxies
if we are angels on pinheads
May forests fall with no sound over distance
scream from the man on the moon
deep space,no credit cards required
disposable diapers in plastic Sargasso oceans
This is forever-radioactivity,rats,cockroaches,
crocodiles,sharks pre- and after us
A blast and we are dust.Points in time
Part of a bigger picture.French atomic tests@
Mururoa.Gauguin.Picasso.Guernica.Pollock.
with Warhol merchandising mutants
of Dali's melting ant clocks.Art is not life
It is a visual representation thereof.
CLICK! @a point in time.Watch what develops...

BOOK MUSIC CIRCUS

Time changes formats-we adapt.
From cave art to stone tablets to cuneiform on clay
to papyrus to paper to page is a leap of ages
Ipads and KINDLE remind us of past styles-
yet rely upon battery/electricity to survive
As music once was live,and only recently recorded
we went from 78 shellac to vinyl 45s,331/3 LPs
from steel needles to laser beams reading CDs.
Now downloading means most do not buy old pasts
which are remastered and reissued on new formats endlessly.
Covens of vinyl collectors retain records for DJs to play
much as books become antiques and artifacts of earlier days
Who owns a cassette player-mush less cassettes?
Who remembers 8 track?Garage Sales and museums
make artifacts of historical stages.Books adapt as stores close/
we retain nostalgia for formats,and retro defines our age.
All e books will also be replaced in time ,as change compounds
and digital children demand GOOGLE with FACEBOOK and HULU
All you have seen is just the beginning.
In Australia,there are no animals in circuses-just acrobats
Soon,books will be screened ,and music seen
both live and virtual,digital and analogue
Markets dictate formats.Adaptation is everything
Join the Circus!(Virtual-a digital fantasy game sans sawdust
while children still sit through real Barnum &Bailey performances.
Download this commentary.Find an app that matches.
TWITTER this!

TOOTS

Too many stray cats in Austin!
Emancipet spays and neuters-yet still they breed!
So we pilgrimage to the Town Lake Animal Shelter
to see if we can relieve one cat from execution.
GINGER a legend,LOVECAT our last-
so we stare at loving ginger kittens ,generic tabbies
seek one with charisma  and panache!
In the corner of a cage,desolate ,unloved
a scrappy generic street cat stares with ferocity at our staring
THIS IS THE ONE!We take her home-
she fights and bites all the way.A rough life
We keep her inside to play.Slowly she comes to know
she is loved,and does not have to attack.
World of wars outside like that-this cat becomes calm
Over time,she purrs and talks to us.We listen
If this can happen to one street cat
why cannot this happen
for every unloved human?