Star smoke

You'll bow down before

God shivering and afraid

And full of shame

And darkness filling

Your heart handcuffed 

To a clown midget

And it will be easy

Ten hours will come and

Go and you'll be unaware

Of it's passing

A thin towel wrapped

Around your legs

Birds living in your beard

Remembering all the

Words of every song

You've ever heard

And it will be easy

You'll smile

And it will be the only

Time you've ever smiled

And your face will

Fall to the floor

With a clang

Waking the stranger

Sleeping beside you

In the car

You'll have a meeting

In a coffee shop in Seattle

Concerning a musical event

That will never take place

The woman you're talking to

Occasionally writing

Down notes with an

Orange crayola marker

All hope lost

You'll grow much older

And die one afternoon

In a hospital bed

In Houston

And your son

With his heart breaking

Will allow the nurse

To discontinue

The life support

And the world

Will spin through

Space forever

With the rest of the universe

And clouds made of

Billions of galaxies

Will gather together

On the edge of infinity

And it will be easy

The New Moon (acrylite, glue, paper and  inkjet ink)

The War Years

PART I

Chiến tranh Việt Nam

sometimes you have to write

all the good stuff when you're young

because part of you knows

you won't be around to do it later on

that's one reason 

i've held back for so long

i don't want to go anywhere

new right now

PART II

the american war

Life begins to happen 

around 40,

for instance

the presidential race

lasted most of the weekend

and the winners and I

celebrated our

victory aboard the

USS enterprise

the whole crew was in attendance

lt. uhura handing out the "punch cards"

unable to approach her i left before the police showed up

captain kirk

struggling with

depression

in sick bay

his daughter elezra

by his side

weeping

the ship speeding

through endless space 

inside the paramount pictures movie building 

the useless lights of the ship's control system

blurred and blinking in the background

The Stranger's Vision of the Brightest Future Ever Known (string, acrylic paint, wood, paper and glue)

light organs

it's best to write your poem

with a grease pencil

stand it up on it's end

and make it walk through

the city naked

drunk on wine

covered in the blood

of other poems

telling stories

to anyone who will listen

in a french accent

wearing the clothes

of a stranger

eluding to other

better times

where things

didn't seem

so hopeless

EATER (window glass, wood, acrylic paint, ink jet paper and pour on)

eater

her lover had died

she was all alone

at hotel seiyo ginza

in tokyo

the required effort 

is nothing to the Lord

(she thought) He can see 

into the heart

her father was dark skinned

because he was tatar,

when she gave birth to her first son

the moon belonged to china

she became the world's most influential active athlete

not just a pitchman, but a businessman

especially in the booming asian market, 

signing deals to pitch dunkin' donuts

she would eat dog food

urintating on her trainer

over bowls of mist covered

dreams

HAWA II

HAWA II (window, acrylic paint, paper, mod podge and pour on)

get hungry

eat the earth inside the mountain

swallow everything in the world

and your whole life will be gone and the moon will still sleep the sky

fill your garden with blue flowers 

while dragons sleep nearby

and your whole life will be gone and the moon will still sleep the sky

and the parachute you're wearing with such confidence

will not save you from tomorrow, tomorrow

and

your hands are so cold and your mouth is full of breath

and you look so good in that cop uniform tonight

and your whole life will be gone and the moon will still sleep the sky

i think i finally found something (watercolor and colored pencil on wood)

THE FOOLS

falling into a deep love

for no real good reason

outside of your car in the rain

familiar faces in the crowd

wherever you might be...

they are

inside a cloud in a building

under the black earth in a train

on the ocean drinking and smiling

opening up a convenience store

putting on socks in the morning

like a ghost

living alone 

in a garden

with the lord

asleep or working 

on a trailer for a movie

hoping for a miracle

reading books

someone else wrote

paraphrasing they're

favorite passages

writing poems

like this

I Have Seen Through Your Lies (acrylic, paper collage on wood panel)

the dead monkeys

(none of the unseen)

they were everywhere

one by the front door

another in the refrigerator

another wearing a crown 

stuffed into one of the bookcases

the car was full of them

and had been for at least a week

you couldn't open the door

i had the car removed 

from the grounds

the police showed up asking a bunch of questions:

"do you know anything about the dead monkeys ?"

"where is the toilet ?"

"do you know that there is a dead monkey 

in your toilet ?"

i told them i suspected

it was probably my old GF

her or her new BF probably

had something to do with it

but i wasn't sure and had no proof

it was truly terrible and now

i can't stop eating and eating and eating

last night i ate a whole cake

that i made from scratch

while watching 'wrath of khan'

on netflix

the politicians (charcoal pencil on illustration board)

the metaphorical sweats

i was invited by the m_______

to their party at the riveria pool mansion

they lived inside for most of the year

the dolphins there, were incredible

and would swim up into the house

late at night while the guards slept

we never worried about the

war ending or all the people that were

dying all around us either

sometimes we would eat fresh bananas

and oranges from brazil or other far off countries

in the middle of winter

we froze a lot of stuff at first

but later once we realized that all the fresh stuff

would never stop we just threw it away

i bought a table made out of weed

one time. we smoked it for most of the summer

me and three friends of mine who are all dead now

we had a party at becky's one thursday

she was so pretty back then

the birds would land on her arms. 

kissing the rows of scars on her

legs. the needles leaving long red streaks 

on her skin