she stares out the window of the truck
    one two three the fenceposts whip by
a hawk perched on seemingly every other
    a butcher's hand upon her thigh
turns the conversation to her mother

Shocks — Tanka

electrical shocks
zapping from our fingertips
backwards up the arm
started as a teenager
another gift of puberty

a simple silver chain
    two emeralds and a lump of turquoise for her hair
hereditary beauty is this simple thing battered
    missing links and jewels mysteries of lost history
a fascination to be handed over

Pika — Tanka

pika on the ice
glissading down a glacier
snatched up by eagle
bear watches from the high pass
below the elk grazes moss

Souse

He's all right most of the time
    spends his afternoons in wine
evenings are the most sublime
    night is evacuation excavation time
mornings are stark and raw
    every whisper a pavement saw
metronomic periodic nature's law
    it all works fine until the end

Bay brats ave rats and general urban punks
circumstantial Vulgarians born and bred from necessity
from a philosophical absence of anarchy
or elegant kung fu of the revolutionaries
never forget your fickle finger of fuck off

Mouse Trap — Monoku

 We love her like a mouse loves tahini on a glue trap's certain death.

Withdrawal

ash falling from a cinder cloud
we watch our siblings falling down
how far will this one make it oops they lost their grip
plunging ever down the only illusion is a tarmac ground
who will clean the landing gear after the party
what will haunt their dreams

Chant

we squeezed right on in there
a song from a crack in the wall
interstitial, between the threads
existence here is nothing to dread
the space between atoms is infinite
plenty of room to chant down eternity

Access — Haiku

in business news
markets are volatile, still
access is Denied

Quillayute Prairie

three strand fence rotting only waist high
the gate hanging, the grass long and humped
the drizzle never ends and the sun is never seen here
a gnarled orchard of witch's beard on black apple bark
a solitary cow munches under the low branches in the rain

Sentences Without Meaning

no sentences with meaning
    no stones left unturned
not a single heart still beating
    nor a single book unburned
after this age of mass extinction
    we'll be fertilizer for ferns

Reload — Haiku

get ammunition
reload our big blame cannon
political games!

Little Spider

Oh little spider snuggled there right behind the sink
we'd like to swap our life for yours and wonder what you think
We feed you flies most every day and let your web grow large
The secret of our friendship is there's nobody in charge!

On Belay?

We pull the rope around our ass and holler out belay on
it's up to them to climb a route we'll be here while they're gone
an anchor and a figure eight would probably serve them better
but what we do they don't believe so they make us wait in weather

Poetry and We

 drips and drops from a turbulent youth
               — no mystery to we
                    we write simply and we feel free.
 we like the planet and bugs and snakes
and it is to them we'd rather relate
 than whining about the stain'ed plate
of leftovers we were given as fate
              — in poetry we tell the truth

Stress

stress is a function or a necessary tool;
a simple longing for greater purpose than a fool's
but in fact no greater purpose exists
save for in the realm of mathematics

Reason

She can't decide and she don't want to
she's perfect in every way
we spin the wheel of existential crises
cheerfully with her each day

A Spoon

We wish we had a spoon to sleep in
nestled in a cosy ball
we'd be a dumpling fresh and steamy
a big ole matzoh ball in fall!
spoons we hear are very comfy
not that we would know —
we're composed of lightning, hail,
graters, razorwire and woe

Ouch — Tanka

pain in our grey brain...
it started as a seedling
in our afterbirth
grew and reached our canopy
now it's going through our stuff

Cantor's Eyes

once Cantor's eyes saw infinity
aleph black mesas began to sail the desert
pulled by gravity and the weight of the sky
flyspeck-brief lives ziplined through paradise
calculating, experimenting with death and lies
wonder why they rabbited toward eternity...

Pressure

Ocean's moods beat every turn
her galloping mustangs pound the shores
from garbage patch to cerro torre explore:
Ur can't take any more.
splitting to spite the pressure on their core
not space but mass is their infection evermore

grey-white morning light hardly counts as dawn
cloud cover indicates our mood today is glum
are we a landscape or a little lost skunk on the road?
We are not so different from a plant, after all.

Your Mom — Haiku

your mom's a sinkhole
your mom is just that obese
for these your mom jokes

Bower — Tanka

foreign acacia
phasmatodean bower
o leafy thorned creche
you need have no alibi
exotic but you're welcomed

Jelly — Haiku

Red donut jelly
oozes sticky as we squeeze
like a pimple's pus

Opiates — Tanka

Endlessly high
the state at which we arrive
a warehouse of lies
drink smoke snort inject watch screens
Why don't we kill all the dreams!

Baby Hammer — Haiku

Boy named his penis
he thought it would be funny
but "baby hammer"?

Silence — Tanka

Our fickle ocean
in a low tide furious
kills us with silence
with desire trapped in doldrums
our loving whispers are drowned

Ants — Haiku

Ants like beethoven
marching lines predictable
Labor exultant

Blossom

nictomorphic blue blossom dangles a tear of dew
her sisters dance around her in the rain on green stems
but she clings to hers with all her capillary might
while the drops shatter and disperse around her
the night breeze calms and she remains weeping

Beardless Liar

in her heart she keeps ten lies
two for women and two for guys
six for us she really despise
oh beardless liar the twisted thing
she got us good with a wedding ring

Monsters — Tanka

goblets full of eyes
in closets filled with tiny dolls
creaking and scraping
storm howls furious outside
monsters have to live somewhere

Bean Salad — Tanka

we had a great toot
all was merry and smelly
after bean salad
it was delightful, really
there's just no harm in good farts

Bubo — Haiku

velvet-eared Bubo
the Tsarmina Santa Fe:
our eldest divine

School — Tanka

immediately
we start university
fourteen is too young
school was our sanctuary
from sibling-brute's cruelty

Geometry

They made us skip geometry
Euclid is a mystery
we introduced our Lobachevksky
and muddled Al-Khorezm'ly
but now we're trying topology
without the roots up this tall tree!

Squishy Skipping Heart

squishy skipping heart
like cracked gear in a clear Swatch
a precious muscle
filled with pelagian sand
dried out in desert lands
It struck us as weak
and struck us and struck again
clogged with humid air
tame lizards could breathe that soup!
We have places to get to.

Determination — Haiku

One of our grey suits
a suit we always have on
determination.

Arroyo

 A Fell, an Arroyo in gibbous waning
monochrome under star-spackled sable
This furrow serves as nighttime trail
a magnified fractal in moonlight's veil
.
daytime paths are animal
in dusk we track by plant and light
in darkness only dirt where water flowed

Intense — Tanka

she said "you're intense"
we defer to everyone
we are simply us
passion is not criminal
We aren't intense, you're bloodless.

Farts — Haiku

Dad's greatest humors
were his hilarious farts
"Pull my finger, pod!"

Hoopsnake Dreams

Winding wending never ending
our tail we clasp for fun
in hoopsnake dreams of rolling fast
into the setting sun
for Moon is who we love the most,
we band of hoopsnakes free
and to her arms we roll each eve
and we're welcomed lovingly

Fashion — Tanka

Grace and elegance
worked our body hard at those
we are natural
fancy duds are out of reach
or black shoes like latex sin

Hayalet Leoparim

Death and life and pain and growth
our leopard god spins on one toe
and when she roars we quiver quake
yet our fear her heart doth take
Then we are alone as one
her lusty breath hot as the sun.

The Gates of Heaven

The gates of Heaven are double wide
Elysium's walls are fortified
to enter three gates you must traverse
the first of which is pearl invert
the second gate of course is horn
and there from lies you shall be shorn
your wool then floats through final gate:
Past two ivory tusks continue straight
your truths will now be remonstrate
washed clean of thought your soul becomes
woven battered torn and spun
ambrosia from which a meringue is whipped up
with which the angels fill their cups

Story — Haiku

end of the story
seems to wriggle and escape
beginning's delight

Buthole Suitcase — Haiku

Fat grey tabby cat
warming up our chilly lap
why you bite our thumb?

Politricks

We don't want your perfect smile
a liver wound is better
a quirky thing that startles cats
your lips two slugs dancing free
revealing stained and aging teeth
tombstones for lost souls indeed
lie ragged between your jaws
consuming with your green lust
everything dear to us

Hair Home

little gold and red lines
delicate, fine, and lush
barely visible curls
model the universe
cavern beneath brambles
our comfortable rest

Garter Snakes — Tanka

Garter snake poison
No stuttering here, people
Poison, not venom
really depends what they eat
garter snake pasta for lunch!

Piles of Leaves — Tanka

Discarded people
like dead leaves in a forest
jump into piles
dreams of cushions in a couch!
concealing vermin and sticks

Barefoot — Tanka

Barefoot and brilliant
you were our stalwart hero
vampires made you ill
two creepy holes on your neck...
what a weird kind of chemo

Liquid Memory — Tanka

In octopus nooks
our memory is liquid
thoughts sublittoral
influenced by Moon and Sea
We exist only to play

The Yardbjorn Kittens — 2x Tanka

the Yardbjorn kittens:
this kitten isn't heavy
a tabby named Twerps
siblings stay in weeds, waiting
We name them Beeps and Timebomb
Valentina lurks
proud of her healthy offspring
Magnum knocked her up
back around March, we reckon
and now she protects them still

Seasons in Hell — Tanka

pomegranate red
dangles from tip of long branch
empowers our dread
a grim portent or omen
six seeds of seasons in hell

Business Kids — Tanka

Started cigarettes
with Japanese business kids
We teenaged punk bitch?
we wanted a nice partner—
but we're still smoking menthols

Luminarias

brown paper lunch bags
one-third filled with clay and sand
a votive candle
these are simple things for
glowing comfort in winter
—
light the runways up!
our Moon— she wants to land here
to come for us in winter
frost in her wondrous curled crown
Luminarias all round

Cricket Umbrellas — Tanka

Cricket umbrellas
a circle of croaking frogs
toadstools glowing bright
this is the forest at night
at last we open our eyes

Her Lips

A mask on her face
assume her lips part and say
"No dear, not today."

lips open reveal
womb-stars of our galaxy
her mothers of pearls
we blush crimson on first glimpse
shamed in lusty engorgement

Argent — Haiku

Cat eye liquid gleam
he stares out from the unseen
our beastly Argent

Homeostasis — Tanka

internal functions
set to regular timing
pacifies insides
homeostasis is smooth,
getting there's a bumpy ride

Hollyhocks

sad hollyhock seedlings in soggy black pots
six inches tall because Marine Iguanas still use Imperial
they're rootbound and desperate to revive
we plant them just as we were told
behind the trellis under the soffit of carpenter bees
hope they 'trope at the cherry tree

Money — Haiku

cash in wallet claws,
leaves trap you inside like flies
your life for money

Turtles — Haiku

we like most turtles
it's as simple as they are
in other words: Not

Sand

this is the Anthropocene
where everything's made of Plasticene
run at the limits which you can never exceed, seen
get you a turtle's first last glimpse of storms
coccoon in comforts' casing and return thence we began
where everything is warm, in sand

Recipe — Haiku

we taste our own teeth
with every single punch
a family recipe

Lunch — Haiku

the rice is too good
she will save it for later
yoghurt and bean lunch

Genocide — Tanka

We will never be
not at this rate anyway
how could we exist
in a world so cruel as this
when genocide's in fashion?

Phil — Haiku

Hmm, a tiny gnat
Phil will be your name, buddy!
land on my finger

Avocado — Tanka

Butter-colored pods, 
the tree stands so tall and broad
halfway to our goal.
Each dawn a new trek northwest
bearing an Avocado

Cat Hankies - Haiku

why did she buy these?
they serve only one purpose:
Hankies for cat tears.

Ocean Water - Haiku

Hairspray lemonade
gives us a stiff upper lip
Sweet Ocean water

Mallow - Haiku

Mallow in morning
velvet lavender blossoms
needles on mint stalks

Passion Tanka

Down Dreamland's leaf'd lanes
we walk clasping together
our hands slick with sweat
passion catch fire and burns
wit-nessing your graceful turns

Carpenter Ants

Carpenter ants' stump
Monolith of memory
Oilspecks on redwood