FEARFUL SYMMETRY

published 1996

You cannot be smart and have a pure heart.

SOMEONE JUST DIED

I know many unemployed drunks.
All pick dust from their teeth
combing roses from their hair.
They meet on weekends
and squeeze cider-sweat into village ponds.
Between you and me, none
of them feels safe with a gun.

I know many employed shits.
All of them dance fully-clothed,
slipping from cracked mirrors and
shaking rats from their sleeves.
They meet on evenings and grit
slime-slicked teeth at each other.
Between you and me,
none of them looks right with a bottle.

TODAY I HAD A STOMACH UPSET

Lightning-ball of fire,
Time burning, sweaty sheets,
Rose-gardens washed in seagull-shit
Today I had a stomach upset
and was importuned about the noise
my hamster makes

I need a joint
I'm leaving

I have no light
Except the inner flame.

FORTUNE BREATH
OF AFTERNOON

Don't we shine ?
Constellations�

There were more of us before
Weird rescued spirits
drawn from a spiral star

Black and bloody jelly eye cream tongue
squeezing through the gap

a cry wakes me from the poor man's slumber

There are blind buffalo outside my window
Down there on the pavement
Two children run around laughing
with a large red see-saw
in their arms.

Children.
Don't they shine ?
Constellations�.