1602

This fire you want everything you see to be on,
Will that slide the secret window open

And will the eyes that look out see
What you need to let yourself into the good room?

1601

Chase down the cameraman
And give him his turkey back,
It's molting and petulant
And always playing quarterback.

1600

The light that's like a hole
And the fold that opens on tender night
Each have only sugar for the cell

The night burns our breath into flowers
The blood catches on itself
Little stones washed by the spring in the street

As piano music from a time of plague
The only word for it is crashes
In the one apartment with no lit screen

It's not your call I'm waiting for
Or even your good will I just want you
As the song goes to want me

1599

The beet is yellow.
You have no idea
Of what we went through
To just make this movie.
This poem you think
Is so the best beats
Have you spun down
Radio award show.
He lies in bed and sometimes
He lies on the floor.
Where did we fish
During the Christmas
Special? One time I was
Doing the glitter pull
When someone danced
On the outlet. Oh that
Was just forgetful me,
Leaving the bat boy
Costume on the mantle.
Now let us dinner theater
By grace and
A pipe cleaner is
What we needed for the
Rented misery whistle.
Did you sweeten
The dialogue dear?
Cook the Russian crackers
In canola. When your
Impersonation loses me
I'll create a diversion
With the zamboni.

1598

Hates competition, right?
That's the steno pool's
Damage, the window on the room
That poems say no thanks to,
Collar wide like books.
Let's hear some old
Powered By Howard music,
Get a standing o from a sitting whip.
So hungry he'd break open the yolk,
Learn about the words
That come from elsewhere
When you open the door.

1597

I can make you smile
Just by scowling.
When morning comes
You can pull me closer.
Recline, sprawl
Along the length of me.

You go into the warm pool
And the mood I'm trying to set
Doesn't know what to do with me.
Is it the sun's fault
We're not polytheistic?
The one walking toward the earth
Speaks of her many unknown feelings,

But actually she knows them well.
The afternoon watches the art go by,
The window stays open a crack
All winter. Feel free to come over here
And guess what I'm feeling. I in turn
Will divine your unspoken expectations.

1596

It's extra credit time
It cleans like turpentine
You have a vodka lime
And dress up to "the nines"

We build a rewind hut
To house our setter mutt
And feast on betel nut
To have a better butt.

1595

It's a free day so I turn
My attention to this theme song project;
Some words for JJ to set to sing
At the top of every show.
Maybe I could sing them with him,
Maybe that'd be too
Garrison Keillor even for me.
Think Dick Cavett, think Merv,
Bill Murray's lounge act:
"Star Wars, my beautiful Star Wars!"

I wonder whether the snow
Has made Christo's publicity
Any more poignant, and if
My lawyer has finished drafting
My new life yet. Green, red, brown, black,
The colors of the toy bricks
Talk to each other in Danish.
If I say enough different kinds of things,
Speak quietly to the fearless incumbents
And charge into the conversation
With a mullet and a Dokken tee

(Tons of dogs like bots and cod)

It will be a version of myself
I'm not embarrassed
To continue to repress
Simply because it's not me. Me Dick Cavett,
You Julia Stiles. Me Jack Paar
You Ursula Andress. Me Ellen Degeneres
And there the plausibility meter said

What, ho! fair talk show host,
Be this some Meatloaf type x-travaganza?
Forsooth a rhyme or two would
Bring gladness to an old machine.

It's Wednesday again,
The third of the month.
You know what happens then --
We find a rhyme for month.

In nineteen-ninety he had a dream
Of writing poems until he dropped.
Let's try this again from the top.

1594

My respect for the spare farmland
Curves over darling airframes,
And in the separate notions of rodeo
I find my seat is clean and prime.

Down in the bowl they diet on starch;
It skews the mortality figures awful
But what a confidence. I have one too,
I built it among unpleaseables.

Now, o mover of drapes, I whisper
This prayer for forgiveness in advance;
It will be quick. You will be
Remembered for what is best about you:

The current time is 2:02 p.m.
The bluest shadow drifts west.

1593

The morning hits the reset button.

The lego pirate crawls out from the marbles.

Victor is valuable.

Tow the line. Toe it.

The pinched nose

Enjoys the bowling alley more.

A heap of hoaxes.

Cigarettes for Veronica.

Wishing music into existence.

Symphony for highways.

The pieces scatter on the table.

Blast through the shadows.

Look at all those petri dishes

Naked as the day they were.

What are the lighthouses saying?

Olympians, have some blankies.

Litigators, it's quiet time.

My heart a supercapacitor.

My forearm the authentic demand.

Travel guides for times of day.

In a dream I was close to someone;

In another one I spoke French.

I wonder where the cannon is.

1592

The wall is made of sound
And the belief is wearing a habit
Get some speed under your feet
And some steeplechase in the field

The bad feelings are coming
Wearing nicer clothes than you
As popular as zombies
Go ahead, try not to detach

Broken lightbulbs, horns
Never building to a chorus
Garden pressed into the mud
The horses are running

Flash your song light at them
Give them what present moment
The scare can paxil supposed to
Now a shortness real is mown

What about having money at them
They go rent your call story with it
What about stirring the follow shaw
I'd wet nap a do-over for free

1591

I don't want to talk over you
I don't want to show you how things really are

The opinion is strong but I'm not
I'm just molecules of reasonable deeps

You talk every side of the swing set
You add all the mayonnaise you feel like

The truth bears come galloping down
The banks of the spillway

They live for the garbage of minutiae
And the recompense of prepositions

I don't know what that means
I don't know what you mean either

I just know that getting the weather right
Is beyond even the canniest rodent

And that focus on work is a friend
Of the remaining members of the Grateful Dead

1590

I'm going to break out this rhetoric for you
With no feeling in your legs: there is no you
To get woozy, no I to be your substitute teacher
No humanity to get worked up about

There is only a floating surplus of joy
Keep your cell on and watch for sky in the mud

1589

I'm a biter
Torrents of white nights
Come through the wires
Eager to sculpt the agenda
Without getting dirty

You're starlight in the macro
Asking me about the drugs
The reviewers refer to
Like I'd ever relax

But that sound like a smell
That feels the room
When we're awake never
Has a chart that explains
The mitigating fax

It has a quiet en garde
For when you accidentally
Knock the oak over
With the dream baton
(Thank memory for dreams!)

Another wide boat anchored
To the chrome floor
Trepanned comedy doctors
Burgle without malice

Be sure to wear pressed chinos
And a clean shirt; it's ok
To forget to bathe of a Sunday
But yes is not automatic
Or gratis in our parish
So blonde it causeth the light
To feel a tingling
In its generally unused envy lobe

The midriff deposed
The sheriff took a Wellbutrin

Some sighing sounds
Indicating the forced march
Continues year on year
To replace a wild cameo
In the soft parsley

1588

Watching Letterman it occurs to me
Maybe there's a point to all these poems
Other than each one's appearance at muster
In an army of feelings, thoughts,
And other psychic unplaceables,

The comedians blame the marketing
But I like the musicale
Want to go on shaking
The tree for honey, the tears
For a need for attention the which

Make me wonder when the secret
Will start telling us lies about
The dinosaurs, angels, and oxygen --
The hooligan at Houlihan's, hoodlum
At Muldoon's wine...

1587

Start talking. Start applying your jumper cables,
Red first. The thing is, you don't want to faint.
You probably also don't want to shout ouchy
Present tense processed foods. Nearer to the sea,
They covet the brand names somewhat less.

I remember the vitamins, the static characters
In their expressions of welcome and approval,
Acid and sweetener crumbling under baby molars.

Over a certain age? The audience doesn't want
These movies but we're going to keep making them.

1586

You want the contract. I want the contract.
The contract can't happen. The third party
Says the contract can happen, but you have
To make a separate contract with them. They
Want the words they want, not the words you
Think might better represent your interests.
I myself could go either way about the words.
True, this is more than art, but also true,
The enforcement of the words is only years
Out of my life. You know how funny time is.
I know how funny time is. How hostile these
Years are to the water and the air, squishy
Water, slippy ear. I mean air. Know what I
Feel like? I feel like the contract could
Happen when we're not looking, could just
Occur. A third party wakes and doesn't want
To discuss torts. It stumbles through town
Levelling everything that bothers its path.

1585

The first forty-six seconds of "Cigarettes and Alcohol"
Are very promising.

The last minute of side a
Of something else altogether.

The weather is fine here. Stitch it on your tie.

I remember
When a song within a song
Patted me on the head,

I was walking back from the Strand
On the street where the song
With the song inside it
Said it took place,

And I believed it
Why not.

1584

Where was I living?
It was dark, a sheet
Of blood on the stairs

I'd have counted roaches
Navigating the ceiling
If it would buy me sleep

A fridge full of oatmeal
Stout, a white mouse
Rigid and sideways under
The breakfast table

Looking out at a jungle
Through the onion smell
Of establishing shots
For Dennis Franz's ass

Complex music is necessary
But not sufficient I need
My own Halloween costume

Not to hold my breath
Indefinitely