inherent value

on the basis of
irregularities we
sat on the couch
and talked about
tenement life

lost in the territory
observations about the
paradox considered
meaningful

much to be
gained and lost
as heads of state
act without regard
to the community

where the shifts had
taken place in the
middle of invisible lines

they couldn't make
things better and
the grand play hinted at
widespread rumors

negligence

girl walks by
___ and i
_____ finally
___ just give in
desperate to think
_ about
anything else

unable to__ ignore
____the scandal
a syndicate of
preservationists
____ attack
only way the mishap
___ could be
__torn down

attempted to turn
___pinned against
__ the wall
but i promised
____to be strong

tried to conceal this
__torture
___split in two
i hid the evidence
___ behind closed doors

viewpoint

it can’t be easy to
look at the stars
when such
obvious contradictions
show that it is
only an illusion

there was movement
to stop the features
of deformity
forced to make a stand
and swallow words from
the burned book

worn out from the task
but smiled again and
made do without believing
claim left unresolved
and lacking clarity

describing the past
wouldn’t illuminate
their supposed allies
and would only bring
us back down to
the level of
nonsensical reasoning

disheveled

later i had a
conversation
in the parking lot
---- about those
-------------who would
orchestrate
------ shadowy claims
and did not wish me to
-------- think again

important to
-------- deprivation and
those who wouldn’t
--- consider
the way home
--------or even
-----water to the poor

they committed crimes
for the want
--------- to crucify this
-----system and to
question which
--------- of the elite could
keep them humble

women who watch ballet

i never could
----remember
the details of
-------the liberation
----- quiet
played over in my mind
-----yet it gives deniability

i lean in as i
-----tell them i’m in
--love with the dictator
in front of us
----some people dance

beyond the balcony
you could
-------read the suffering
---wrapped in the stars

we made progress
----- in the century
before
-- but a series
of characteristic
troubles
-----left us worse
off than we used to be

we wondered if we
----should go back
----and actually ponder
the other side
--but looking over the
myth was beyond mentioning

failure to explain

words are prettier than
-----remembered
----------------ineffectual
to move beyond love
but a good place to start

needed help ----- running off
--------- like lost children
-------------------------way down
we wanted connection in the soul

that sort of thing
------- invented
----------- in books by dead guys
and that guy with the guitar

but we settled for
------- baptism in
----------- the parking lot

------- placed together
where all might be
shaped by perception
------------- and failure to explain

sometimes it is hard to stumble
----- into the darkness
------- that sort of thing more
dreaded than encouraged

but the extent
------ known from the beginning
shouldn’t control discovery

and for that we are sorry

to restore peace and
bondage is a burden
unheard of among the
poor and lonely

collected thoughts
to be lamented
and to say that none
of this came straight

could see it in
each other’s eyes
varying stories about
getting in the way

did no real harm to
love the confessions
feel that in our selfishness
a view is torn apart
and sometimes bound

reason to believe that
any wrong betrayed
would devastate
this pretty century

sky rests easy

sounds like a love song
________maybe
__i don’t know
a dream in which
someone among the
____entrenched
openly says that such comforts
__do not please us

amounts to a nitpicking
majority ventured
____that concern for the
myth declined

a little
___last night
voice seems to come
____from the distance
a kind of love song
a sly look results
__in actions authorized to
____question decency

see how the
___ song is
easy like my baby
poverty on my mind
falls below the
____line

maybe because
___that’s just how it goes

doesn’t matter
____listen

passing movement

this is not what they want
but the crowd refuses to listen
and together by the issue
they feed the exotic into
the mouths of the starving

it was not simply that the
structure of grace and
harmony suffered
before an angry mob
or that the intolerable give
orders for the innocent
to be crucified

historians tell very
different stories
whipping was common
led to despair

that feeling and their own lives
the difference between
the presence of people
and the intrusion of a
daydream among the inhumane

characters write stories

even when we keep souls alive
____alone
_______lonely
________ and loneliness
pull the trigger and. . .

______pointless sabotage
right there in the parking lot

i have never killed a
__________legendary poet

but it's only a short-term fix

policy to the level of mafia thuggery

not arguing in favor
by nature
_______pretending to have control

my mind goes walking
_____no viable next step to

____understand what is
__________and what isn't

just

illusions

attempting to be social
____he kindly said no
and chose the schmuck
behind the madman

he referred to the myth
as a salesman or a magician
but he had the best of
____motives

threatened by long-standing
separation to remain just
_____but he believed in magic

it was a long time to be alone
and the interference becomes
___________easier
_____the older you get

antiquity

drinking sets in
and quiet
looking over
____the nun ponders the
plague of the beautiful harbor

she leans on the balcony to
get a look at the map

turned around the belief that
on a series of deeper thoughts
____the stars were details of
disease and death

media

the desire for heroes
paints a clear non-thinking
trend for both
____left and right

under pressure from the
people the three-legged
man works to bring
accidental touch by their hands
____cut off like reason shifted
in a daze

he turned his body
walked the corners and
seized upon precisely the
belief that he should
never say no to the
____community

but there was a line for the
man who could walk normal
and when he made the papers
____it was not as a hero

static

you seem so normal
____but our collective noises explain
__________that everybody is nuts
____given to some reason
you may feel that it is true
____but then it turns euphoric

remember that it did not
_____work well for her
and she only maintained to
be commercially successful

all that kicking came from
____a place called problem
when arrogance kept her from
________believing the voices

rest stop

a winter's tale

says the heart desires

an older poem, but one of my favorites - reposted for v-day

what we call love___is
____mostly prestige

it does not belong to us
to dish it
_____or worse__overpowering

find from its shelf
needed to be improved
_____only slightly
some drill bits or
a laser level

less effective
than imagined

______says the heart desires

opened big stupid mouth
_____skullduggery
saying things
did not improve

the world doesn't shut down
____down to remarkable

like this problem
saying stupid things
_____relentlessly exposed

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