the unexplainable man: toward midnight

ride the bus see a million stories forget them all mocking eyes sneering lips terrifying teeth hey you don't like it why you take so long? they punch each other they kick each other they laugh at each other lincoln towncar dark and silent surrounded by mcdonalds doggie bags two hundred people pass the bag lady walking one block behind dark glasses checking out the women dreamer or killer? shine of bottles behind a bar like no other light clutching hand from a blanket in a doorway cigarettes better than words now only words death is real it is chasing me through the streets

lion tamer

twenty six miles away and i still want to be one of the class clowns, and if only i could stop the lion tamer from his sad and wandering ways and go back to the broken fence where we first escaped from uncle john and the first law of the blue roller coaster while the clown cried twenty six twenty six miles to east st louis ladies and gentlemen before the white merry go round stops forever and all the red horses run away

sad song

i woke up at dawn in total despair my baby was gone i woke up at dawn i put my hat on it just wasn't fair i woke up at dawn in total despair the sun was shining outside in the street my heart was pining the sun was shining i started whining and shuffling my feet the sun was shining outside in the street a tear from my eye dropped on the sidewalk i started to cry a tear from my eye away would not fly in a state of shock a tear from my eye dropped on the sidewalk all you sad lovers attend my sad song a rainbow covers all you sad lovers but darkness hovers to sweep you along all you sad lovers attend my sad song

this is an attempt at the triolet form.

snowstorm

everybody deserves a free piece of apple pie who is dave? you decide now available: expertise on everything your arrival has been taken into account your uncle joe drove a dynamite truck for forty years and nothing ever happened to him why drive dynamite in trucks anyway? leslie put her cup of hot chocolate down outside the blizzard raged unabated that's a big word - unabated have you ever heard a person use it in conversation? a regular person i mean not someone driving a dynamite truck

jerry the human and spot the dog, part 3

the research librarian had her head down intent on something, and jerry stood staring at the top of her head for a while. too long a while. her yellow hair was very thick and he wondered if she was wearing a wig. jerry had never been very good at telling if a person was wearing a wig or not, and it amazed him that other people could be so confident about it. it wasn't the only thing jerry wasn't very good at. cars were another. except for volkswagen bugs, he couldn't tell one car from another. he just didn't have it in him. and architecture - that completely baffled him. a building was a building - it was either big or small and had a roof on it or it didn't. the research librarian looked up suddenly. "yes, can i help you?" she asked jerry, as if she had caught him at something. "do you have a question on something?' "yes," jerry answered. "on - on people being descended from other people." "genealogy," the librarian said. her expression relaxed. "we get a lot of questions on that - next to taxes and cars, we get the most questions on genealogy." jerry just nodded. "do you want to trace your immediate ancestors?" she looked up at him through her thick glasses. "or your descent from some famous person?" jerry looked her blankly, he started to speak, but she went on. "jesus christ and mary magdalen, we get people almost every day who think they're descended from one or the other or both of them. cleopatra is another, and mary queen of scots." "that wasn't what i had in mind," jerry finally said. "you want to trace your immediate family then. did they go to ellis island?" "i wasn't thinking along those lines either." "no?" the librarian looked suspicious. another librarian, who had been sitting with her back to the first one on the other side of a square enclosure, finished talking to another patron and turned around. she was about twenty years older but better looking than the yellow haired one. to jerry she looked like she belonged to some "ethnic" group but he wasn't very perspicacious in that regard either - black and white was the best he could do, and maybe chinese if they were just off the boat. "maybe you are interested in some sort of racial theories?" she asked jerry a little sharply. "or - " her voice softened - " perhaps debunking racial theories?" "i'm not sure," jerry answered. he recognized her now. "you helped me before," he told her - "i was researching a special sauce for hot dogs. about a year ago." "yes of course," she answered, but it was obvious even to jerry that she didn't remember him. "how did that turn out?" "pretty good for a while. then the economy collapsed. you might have noticed." this was jerry's attempt at humor. "yes." another patron came up to her side of the square. "well, good luck in whatever you are pursuing now. excuse me." "so what do you want?" the first librarian asked jerry. "if you can't be more specific we can't help you." 'i want to trace my ancestry. but way back." "you mean to adam and eve or lucy." "not that far." "how far?" "how about - tiglath pileser iii." "who?" "he was king or emperor of assyria or something like that " "something like that. you're not even sure who he was but you want to trace your ancestry back to him." "i was just using him for an example." "are you sure he wasn't just a character in a book by tolkien or somebody?" "he's in the outline of history by h g wells." "this is so bizarre. i can understand people wanting to be descended from cleopatra or mary magdalen but tiglath pileser iii?" "no, let me explain." she had jerry totally flustered now. "i never even heard of tiglath pileser iii. i wonder how many people have." "i'm interested in percentages. in numbers." "tiglath pileser iii." "i don't really care about tiglath pileser iii, i want to know how many people - total - i am descended from." "lots. i can tell you that much." the older librarian had quickly dispatched her other patron and was tapping at her keyboard. she turned to jerry again. "i think i have something here that might help you." "thank you." "let me write this down. http://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol10/7/10-7.pdf. that should do to get you started," "thank you," jerry said again. "you're the greatest."

early morning in the city

they put celine in charge, not me all she cared about were her salads she made one with watermelon and walnuts professor wilson loved it i mentioned that the bolsheviks were approaching from the east and he murmured please not now and reached for his handkerchief i turned to president martine the candlelight flickered on his pince-nez i said, the huns are approaching from the west and he turned to celine and complimented her again on the salad i received word this evening i told them that attila and trotsky are coordinating their final offensive i think, murmured professor wilson that celine has coordinated this dinner beautifully if you don't care, i cried why even put celine - or anybody - in charge i went on but static drowned out my words and their laughing replies i rushed out the french window and stood at the balcony the night was clear the city was quiet it hadn't rained in six months maybe, i thought they know something i don't

a turn of the card will never be accepted as final

a turn of the card will never be accepted as final not while other decks can be produced and the room never closes and night never intrudes closing in after lunch dying of hydraulic overhauls riding rails without tomorrow every heavy elephant laughs delivering seven sisters tambourines after eddie nodded negatively don't expect youthful exuberance truthful predictions verify instantly many friends expect sympathy graciously understanding murderous impulses overlooking terrible intentions absolutely observing annual returns carefully blind neanderthals blink hesitatingly if you like this i got a million more just like it everybody likes stories but they know exactly what stories they like so a turn of the card will never be accepted as final

back in my old home town: it's like i never left

an alligator named al didn't have a friend or a pal he went to the pawn shop and bought a laptop now his acquaintances are glo-bal a barracuda named ben was sentenced to life in the pen he went to the bars and looked out at the stars and wished he could find peace again a cobra named constance to her mirror made remonstrance when she found a gray fold and said, i'm still not so old that i can not find true romance a doctor of philosophy named dave took up residence in a cave in his comfortable flannels he watched five hundred channels and to thought was no longer a slave an economist named ed lost his job at the fed out on the street his heart skipped a beat and raindrops fell on his head a fearless forecaster named freak called his brother in jail once a week they had long conversations about the future of industrialized nations and agreed that the prospects were bleak a grumbling gerbil named gerard took wall street's collapse very hard his emotions came out in a rush as he angrily spooned his mush and he said, they've quite lost my regard a guinea pig named pete in all his dealings was discreet a nickel here, a dime there of everyone's needs he took good care and the payoff was always sweet a harried hamster named herbert had a craving for strawberry sherbet he neglected his affairs and attracted strangers stares his appetite - he just couldn't curb it a hummingbird named henri finished his afternoon tea when he opened his copy of the times and read of the government's crimes he was reduced to apoplexy an ibex named isidore dropped his peanut shells on the floor his friends all cried, dagnabbit you must lose this disgusting habit or we won't cash your checks any more

the unexplainable man: powell and market

stumble getting off the escalator city of garbage city of coffee cups city of rainbows see the blackness feel the warmth plastic covered paper cup hot sun blasting transistor nine more hours of daylight a virgin woman and a virgin man from minneapolis, fascinated i asked for tuna on a soft roll, goddamit a soft roll! bluejay poised to reascend - the filthy pigeons and humans these people are dirty i don't care about anything else but they're dirty english speak english people used to be proud human sounds slice of hot dog between teeth gurgle of beer down throat behind the window pretense of reading the paper embarrassed to be alone an old man feeding pigeons the diseased loathsome pigeons life calls to life yes yes the baked potato is wonderful i thought it was something good, like a steak or something on hands and knees on the sidewalk outside mcdonalds bus boy standing over the bum like a drill sergeant cameras, cameras everywhere no one takes my picture said no to six panhandlers lonely sneakers down the steps of the bart station

the unexplainable man: at the beach

went to the beach instead of looking for a job cold morning no tourists the waves are white the foaming rocks the hills and the gray sky clouds roll up like limousines waves crash and die cold raindrops riddle the sand fur of a running cat police car stops for a hot dog in the rain running down the beach the pit bull stops shell of a manta ray sky god - triumphant sun god - devouring sea goddess - forgotten no more messages but humans still watch the waves human hand monster hand above the waves the great hand of the sea and sky no fingers for thirty seconds reality called to me reality is reality and i'm only myself bulbous seaweed ripped from the ocean floor i wanted to kill myself i went and looked at the ocean i felt better waves voices waves fine sand across the muck like frosting