This is a backup of a poetry collection from 2020. Relevant.
dedicated to Erinaceus europaeus, the European hedgehog
SUZIE'S LUNGS
Suzie's lungs are occupied
By a pair of beehives
She has honeycombs for bronchioles
And larvae in her alveoli
Sometimes she coughs up nectar
There's pollen on her lips
And when she laughs
And her diaphragm contracts
A bee from her mouth slips.
BEES & PEOPLE
Bees paint in palettes
That people could only dream of
Mixing megamagenta
With rich suprapurple
They see hues of ultraviolet
Shades only briefly glimpsed by human eyes
Dandelion yellow sunrise
Floating into naranja
Then finally extrafuschia
CATS & PIE THEORY
My cat winked at me with one little eye
And stuck her paw in a blueberry pie!
I shouted, "you've got it all wrong, little kitten!
Pies ain't meant to be poked, they're meant to be bitten!
They're meant to be sliced up and put in your face
And anything else is an utter disgrace!"
My cat said, "by gosh, you're such a pie Puritan!
You think pie theory ended when cookbooks were written!
To me pies have many extensions and uses,
They can be beds, or machines, or shampooses!
Why, right now I am using this pie as a glove
With which I will snatch up a lovely white dove!
If you just think for a moment, I'm sure you'll realize
There are myriad, byzantine uses for pies!
THE VULF AND THE BUTTERMOTHS
The Vulf is a friend of the Buttermoths
In them he is constantly swathed
He's also an incredible runner
When he runs, away all the Buttermoths flutter
They lag behind in a heart-shaped cloud
Until he finally settles down.
SLEDDING
Kate did place a bit and bridle
Upon a Stormish Vulf most Vuld
Then she did tie it to a sled
And put a helmet on her head
Like most Vulfs it was onward-bent
Through the white snow Kate onward-went
Into the trees the creature lept
And on that course it Katie kept
Past dead branches she did weave
Displacing snow and long-lost leaves
Her Stormish steed sought higher ground
And soon a windswept hill it found
With a single well-timed bound
The Vulf ascended to a cloud
That reckless girl her sled still rides
And higher still the Vulf does climb.
MAXIE'S TRANSFORMATION
Maxie wore her Vulf costume
For well over a year
And when she took it off she had
A brand new set of ears
With gray-and-white Vulf fur to match
And a Vulfish, fluffy tail
Her mouth was full of teeth like knives
And she had claws for fingernails
STARDUST CAFÉ
No doors
Only windows and wormholes
Throughout which endless night pervades
Pinpoints of light shimmering
Their full incandescent fury dulled
By a millennia-long journey
A Saturnian piad takes your order
Without using words, you tell her
You'll have the usual
Steam sprawls over the flowery growths
Of potted succulents
Providing the only moisture they need
While a dahlia cuddles
The engraved chessboard
On your marble table
Red hair catches your eye
Like a shoe on the edge of a dress
A ginger girl converses, seated,
Across from a paper lantern, floating
Anchored to its chair
By a green string
She fingers the
Whiskeresque
Pinprick of a cactus
Her hand withdraws, and her head
Tilts toward the left of her neck
Your drink arrives
Enveloped in a faultless white cup
Is the inky blackness of invisible space:
Coffee
With powdery stars of confectioner's sugar
Produced from the womb of a violet nebula
You stir and it mixes magenta
It doesn't have caffeine
But looking into it wakes you up
Because it's free of atmospheric distortion
Like the view of the stars from Earth's moon
Or the peak of a mountain on Mars
Everything becomes clearer
The drink is sweet
Having finished her food,
Lantern girl unties her companion
She carries him with her to the window
And puts her hand on the handle
Glass squeaks and whispers
Rushing nothingness pulls her outside
Knocking over a cactus in the process
Gripping the green string tightly in her other hand, she closes the window
You wave goodbye as she floats away
And then you open a book
PORTRAITS #1
Chalky polyhedra
Orbit her in a
Restless pastel headdress
Her voice is like the Kallyope
Giving hope, giving hope, giving hope
Roaring her lionish mane
Which falls to the floor
And gets stuck in doors
Her irises are kaleidoscopes
Scanning the flag of the Qing
Yellow, blue, red, black, white, green
PORTRAITS #2
A contraption
Of glass and plastic
Rests on their pointed face
Magnifying their vision
It is the mask that makes them
My own B.E.M.
I know that they're a human
Underneath those eyes
But it's more fun
For them and I
To play out this silly lie
PORTRAITS #3
He munches the granola
In his Andromeda Parfait
While I enjoy the taste
Of a Milky Way Latte
The dye in his hair has solarized
To the oatmeal-seafoam color
Of an Echeveria
He's similarly elegans
Yet not adept at conversation
We sit in friendly silence
And sometimes quiet contemplation
MORNING MEADOW VIGNETTE
She and her for once would meet
stones and grass beneath their feet
Where oxeyes freaked the sunny ground
in the buried henge around
Wind blew in crystal circles clear
white and yellow through their ears
And Mestra hersilia hypermestra
and flowers all in orchestra.
VANILLA BEAN BABY
I am made of ice cream
Mostly vanilla bean
Although my knees,
Elbows, toes, fingers, and cheeks,
Are strawberry
If you're planning to visit me
Bring a coat, my freezer is chilly
Although I do my best to keep it cozy
You'll get to meet my chocolate puppy
His name is Sasha and he's very fluffy
(I have become concerned
That his fluffiness is freezer burn)
SAGE
Talking in deer tongue
A language which describes most incredibly
The springing of young trees from the forest floor
And the sounds of grasshoppers deftly evading your swift
hooves
Spots and stripes of fungi painting your home with the only
fourteen colors that exist
And the scents of alien objects visitors leave behind
I tell you exactly what you mean to me
LOVE MONSTER
Yes, I am a monster.
No, I do not have horns.
No, I don't having piercing eyes,
Nor a big booming roar,
Nor a sniffling snout
Nor tusks like a boar's,
Little clinkety claws,
Nor huge arms like oars,
Nor do I have tentacles,
Nor wings with which to soar;
What I do have is love,
And monsters need nothing more.
S(PE)C(T)RE
My landlord doesn't like pets,
So I got myself a pet ghost.
I found her on a graveyard
Sitting on top of a tombstone.
She has no bodily functions,
So she might as well be house-trained.
You'll know you've made her happy
If you hear some rattling chains.
It's true that she scares away visitors,
But she's all the company I need.
The walls were such an ugly color
Until she made them bleed.
WEEKLY LIBRARY MEWSLETTER
Infofelines feast on photos of fish
Classificats sip philosoft cream
And their classifikittens metamilk
Afore chasing a knitting magazine
I use the inkjet printer
To collate copycats in analog
Their Xeroxed paws zip back and forth
To catch the tails of catalogs
I try to read a mewspaper
That's black and white and tabby
But when I give it dog-ears
It reaches out and scratches me
XXXXXXX
She wrote a book of only Xs
Then someone asked her Y
So she went a step above
And wrote a book of only Zs
But it made her very sleepy
So she wrote a book of only As
To wake her up and start the day
The sequel was a book of Bs
Which ended rather badly
月野 IN THE STREETS
Proud posters alight
Beside blooming neon flowers
OPEN shout storefronts
Behind nighttime showers
Rivers flow past streetlamps
Into and over gutters
Red orbs glow like promises
A girl to herself mutters
The asphalt is an ocean
With a violent storming surface
Retroreflective schools swim through it
With a single purpose
SAILOR IN THE SHEETS
Seventeen diminutive bottles
Glass, plastic, and otherwise
The contents of the cabinet
Dutifully comprise
Mirrors show you only
What you are outside
Similarly I disclose
Only what I do not hide
This room has just one window
Through which prying eyes may spy
So when you close the curtain
I will take off my disguise
LUONG XIN
Luong Xin's head is a labyrinth
At the center of which is a dragon
If into it one gazes
They'll find infinite mazes
And more serpents in endless procession.
SURPRISE!
There once was a man from Mumbai
Who inside of a limerick died
He was driven by hearse
To the very last verse
Oh wait! He's alive! Never mind!
KITCHEN FROGS
Kitchen frogs come out at night
And sit around the sink
Their glassy eyes with fervor shine
And their ribbits go "clink"
One frog commands the faucet
And from it they will drink
Others wait for the sink to fill
And then jump off the brink
10014-4501
A twitching tail
As she jumps from leaf to leaf
Red stepping stones
In the concrete creek
Which we call Hudson Street.
ROYALTY
Like putting ice over a bruise,
I wandered further into the night.
My destination was collapse,
falling to my knees and
drenching my legs in molten snow.
I had a goal:
to find whoever was responsible
for changing bitter autumn
into numb, glittering winter;
to request an audience
with Jack Frost. To become lost.
ELEPHANT PLAY
Stepping upon every crack
in a sidewalk livid with ivy,
she deflects the sun on her back
with a slightly off-white hoodie.
Her part is as ivory
in the great elephant play,
Beside her screams a calliope
while trumpets bray.
People stomp through the streets
which are our ersatz stage,
tin cans affixed with string to their feet:
this is our elephant play!
CAN YOU SAY SYNAESTHESIA?
What if, when we spoke to one another,
we said what we say in different colors?
Instead of boring old black and white
we could talk in colors bold, loud, and bright!
When we exchanged out morning hellos,
we could synchronize the shades of our yellows.
If I wrote a poem about the moon,
I could recite it in illustrious maroon.
And if I was feeling dark and blue,
I could mope about in dark blue, too!
If we talked on the telephone
would our colors be muted by the phone's idle drone?
If we could speak in different colors,
what would we say to one another?
POSEIDON WON
Pikes,
Wooden poles with water blackened,
Spearheads collecting sargassum,
Will be the record
Of the day
Man in their folly
Declared war on the sea— and lost.
HYPNOHYDRA
The Hypnohydra appears to be
A simple garden serpent
Although possessed
Of an all-surpassing elegance
Through the grass
It will prey seek
And if it chances
Prey to meet
It dances
With impossible grace
It spins its tongue
Its head rotates
Anywhere
Its prey does stare
Hundreds of heads
Will propagate there
Unable to avert the eyes
The prey is quickly mesmerized
And soon thereafter dies.
SLIMY RAT BASILISK AMERICANUS
A basilisk lurks in my mind
Her face is like a sieve
I know she'll dwell behind my eyes
For as long as I live
Then she will devour me
And from my bones emerge
A now-physical entity
Who will all sunlight purge
But for now she gives me company
And is a sort of muse
She likes to tell me stories
As I my consciousness lose
I see her in my dreams
Crushing streetlights with her teeth
I ask her what it means
Her answer is quite brief:
"The Sun I will eat."
GHOST STORIES
Candlesticks
With candlewax affixed
To your coat-rack antlers
Lit in yellow flames like anthers
Cowls made from carpets
Sheets made into dresses
The curtains into robes
The lights flicker and strobe
We played around with shadows
Built castles out of pillows
Were gracious hosts
To a family of ghosts
RUINED FOR LIFE
I want you to be good
but you're like exposed film:
no amount of darkness
will take away the light that once shone on you.
HIPPITY
I knew a frog named Hippity
Who encountered the ultimate serendipity:
How fortunate, how was she glad,
To live upon a lily pad!
To be a hippity little frog
Who could live in a marsh or a fen or a bog!
I try to be like a frog named Hippity,
And be grateful to live upon a city,
Or in a town or a village
Or wherever it is that humans live.
ON THE TITLE
While I was lost on Venus
I met a girl whose hair was
Shooting stars and lightning bugs
Like a living firework
Against a night-black fabric
That fell upon your shoulders
When she gave you a hug. —G
