Disillusionment

on the commute
home
the ivory elephant
walrus
on the street
corner
turns back into
my
broken and discarded
futon

Dance

We met under the midnight shade of the tree. Your heart fluttered in the long line of your neck.

At dawn birds began to sing, squirrels heaped piles of nuts at our feet, and strays howled at the fading moon. But by noon the birds had tired of singing, the squirrels sulked away to hide their nuts, and the strays returned to their alleyways to scrounge for food.

Picnickers snapped pictures with their cell phones. Teens beat their feet against the grass until it became dust. The sweat from their brows pooled and turned the dust into mud. In the mud a pack of boys raped a girl. The police beat people with their shields and batons.The police undressed and danced. The boys picked up their discarded riot gear.

The sun set and the crowd thinned. They returned home to eat dinner and to see if they had made the evening news. Alone and tired from dancing we fell fast asleep.

~for mere

Lorne Michaels is not Coming to Dinner

Lorne Michaels is coming to dinner tonight.

Did I ever tell you how I met him

In Vegas? It was in the 80’s

during his short hiatus from the show.

Did I ever tell you that story?

We watched the MGM Grand burn

In 81’ during his short hiatus

In the parking lot of Circus, Circus.

We watched the MGM burn

And he said you have to laugh

In the Circus’s parking lot

When the sands melt into a sea of glass.

But that was Vegas in the 80’s

And this trailer isn’t exactly the Sand’s.

Lorne might come to dinner tonight

To share a drink and a couple of laughs.

A Bridge

a bridge;

loaves of rock bread

line the river’s bed.

sun baked crusts break the water’s

surface.

an old

man: a fisher’s

hat and a paisley shirt.

The small print like the parade’s

fireworks.

Baby in Stroller, in Elevator

Today an Asian child looked up at me

Then her mother, then at a pinwheel

spinning on her stroller and smiled.

Today an Asian child looked up at me

And I thought of you and hoped to

set my eyes on you and smile like the

Asian child that craned her neck to look

At me, then her mom, then her pinwheel.

Elephantine

The memories of

Mouse-like gifts,

March one-by-

-One, tail in

Trunk out my

Open window and

Turn sail-like

Trunks towards the

shores of Brodingrag.

“walking alone in the rain”

-Nela, 1976

I know what it is to walk alone
in the land of giant rain
naked, save an inverted canoe,
and smiling a happy slice of moon

in the land of gigantic rain
there is no place for dancing
nude, save for under my canoe
my sad, sad, slice of moon

there is no place for dance
in the weary canals
between the silver moon
and the buildings of falling water

inverted, nude, save a canoe
and do not worry because soon
you too will know what it is to walk alone
smiling a sad slice of moon