SKI LOW SON

I wish I was a little bit blacker
And a little less wacker
I wish I had a bro
with a nose
for my steez
I could sleep near

But when I got lost
In the snow
On Greene Street
All I could do
was think of you

And pray
you'd be
o.k.


Blizzard 2010


(photo by David Siskovic)

TRUE

There's so much lying

Involved in telling

The truth



I was hungry

But not starving

When I first met you



Any reason will do



In my soul

There's no soul

But in my heart there must be love



I'm digging my own grave

As war rages on



We all need something

To lower the highs

And raise the lows



(photo by Scramz)

SCHOOL OF DYLAN

Stoned baby blue
In Memphis
Just like a woman
You got to go
To school
Today

Tangled up
In the arms of love
And the hands of God
Looking at Jerusalem

White hat
Black coat
Red striped trousers
And sensible boots
Of leather

(A wide stance)

It’s hard
I know

So
What did you see
Darling ones
Blind
And broken
Children
Twenty miles out of town

I thought
The answer to my prayer
Was you
It’s just not as fun
As it used to be

Walking thru
Washington Square Park
On an asphalt
Wave of warmth
And fulfillment
We stopped a perfumed lady
Before we visited
An old friend of yours
On Bleecker Street

Now I'm on
Highway 61
Or did we just miss
Another road

Too hot to sleep
Not dark yet
But we’re getting there

He was the
Best Mind
Of his little group of friends

Not the smartest
Or the most
Clever

But the kindest
And it’s still not dark yet
But I’ll get there

A ballad of a thinner man
Oh me
Oh you
Oh my
Oh mercy
A new one

Like a rolling
Stone

Good night

 
(photo by Gerard Malanga)

ME AND YOUR SHADOW

You shoplifted my heart

A sweet-tooth
And a tiny fucked-up face
in negative space
It was never mine to take

“Love is that feeling you get
Right before you vomit”
You once said

The silent song
And diaphragm
Of a drowning man

Sure to break
For dancing apes
At masquerades
Filled with hollow grams

Mirrors and magnets
Oceans of Mylar

I’m the kindest kind of smile
You could ever devise
Now I’m overdrawn
I’m undercooked
Unsung
Done

Roll out
Roll back the old songs
In the Woe Is Me Hotel
The hush puppy lobby
With a coat check bell boy
Who waits in an ivory stroller
Decked out in plaid
The way out way my man

“He’s in the wood”

That neighborhood
Is a whole lot of hand jive
And a little bit of thought
I’d like to check out
Your inner adult
More than that new club
And you would’ve liked me
To have been a pretty girl

But frankly I don’t remember
What was in your best interest baby
When your ghost tried to catch a cab
For a headless tribute on a vending machine
It was a granite list memorial
A witty cellular stone

You were such a kidder
I was such a mystic

Can you handle that
Miss Amazing
Ly disconnected

Strum

Your family name
Ended with you
Another cycle
Another moon
pulls me into
who?

I see your lips
Lodged in the velvet sky
I’ve stock piled some stars
In this majestic roof
Fretted with golden dreams
For you

A night complicated by windshields
Voices lead me
But I’m too frustrated to explain
The pain

We tried to skip rocks
Box set lists
Trap hub cap
Congregations
With our matchbook bluff
We juggled the dirty looks
We lived life the way it should be

Empty

Constituents
situate your selves
On water
And watch

You’ll suffer the short wave sea sickness
With a trademarked tweak

He had goose bumps on his bicep
I didn’t expect him to reciprocate

Head beam billons
A belief in spacecraft flutters
Like butter
Four directions
Misperceptions
baptism in sweat
beneath wingless angels
wrapped in sheets
oscillating constantly
everywhere
a sharp point
pop in the perfect tempo
on the downtime
backbeat

I called



And hung up
On your machine

I used to send those hugs
Across miles
I’ve never been able
Or agile enough
To pull it off
For real

Candy skin jam
Homespun scars
Chapter rape
Boyish litter
Alien gold shards
Shipwreck
That’s my moody boy
That’s my bee bop stance
I drowned in me

The sooner you rise
The sooner you fall
In love

The sooner you try
The sooner you know
It’s too deep to feel shallow
It’s just me and your shadow

From bed to futon to bathroom floor
A little bit of teenage smut
We never melted we simply cracked

Bear your back side treat
From forth the fatal loins
Or so it goes
And so it went
The same chords
With a different grimace
Roughed up and ragged
We accentuate the comedy
Pensive and plaintive
Sensuous in the universe

The last fare
Paid in full
And painted
In retrospective red

Ah yes
He was an angel
He was a petty thief
He was a junky
A saint
He was my best friend
He was a liar
A poet
Drummer Boy
A complete stranger
He was a kid

I’m chained to these statements
They keep me down
In disbelief
The fine truth I’ve blurred
And obscured

So don’t believe a word I utter

A private school
A public hanging
Just a touch
He was on the nod
When he offered
That stray endearment

A lone viola plays
in a subway station

Forget the movie
Just listen to the soundtrack

I wasn’t his lover
I was his enabler

Do you know what corpses say:

“Lost envelopes--
Road kill blood”

Call my bluff
I’m not capable of religious
belief now

I was young once too you know

Burn a hole in my pocket
A sarcastic burden

I’m a weak link
I’ll sever mine for old time’s sake

But if I had held my breath
Waiting for him to kick his habit
I would’ve been

6 feet under 
5 years ago
4 drinks later
3 bags since
2 hits after
1 last time

the sooner you rise
the sooner you fall
in love
the sooner you try
the sooner you know
it’s too deep to feel shallow
hey it’s just
Me and your shadow

Another broken promise
Another frozen tear
The morning sun is golden
But it’s cold when you’re not here

Have you ever
Have you ever
Ever heard

The sooner you rise
The sooner you fall


(painting by Rene Ricard)

AFTER RUMI

I try to sleep
On an empty feeling

Face down
I stare at the ceiling

A pregnant pause
Stardust and television snow

I can't get enough of your face

The dumb grins
And senseless sentences
Confused thick lips
Steamy silhouettes
Against the shower curtains

All the particulars
Behind a white door

In the battle to see
Who cared less

I lost


(photo by David Siskovic)

LANCE

Today is the future

of the past

We try to make it last

Faster when the laughter

Disappears



I’m left with

The nearness

And the nothingness

I fear in my soul

Old and young

At the same time



I lost my mind in

A cloud of vultures



She’s great I’m sure

But I haven’t really

met her yet



Be nice to the kid

You said

And everything

’ll be fine



(photo by Xavier Veal)

MYSTIC MEMENTOS



I’m a million miles away
and I can’t cast a spell
over you

Lately
when I’m blazing
I’m amazed
that I even have
something left
to get started

I created a picture
of an entire life
Spent together
with you

Mystic mementos
and memories

What might have been

Now you have built
A world of fabric
scraps
Bronze trinkets
Plastic spoons
And tears
All held together
tightly
with delicate
thread

These little pieces
Mean so much
Each a chapter
in a frayed book
you took
from a lonely shelf
somewhere

The pages have
remnants of faces
I see myself in one
Maybe in the next world
When emotions overflow
You’ll stitch me up

But what do I know

PEACE OUT

There's something
about a chorus
When the verses
are a blur
In devotion
and intension
to dance
In a ceremonial rain
We'll try again
to become
friends
Or at least
Co-exist
Peacefully

One of your many
personalities
Is slightly dyslexic
On coke or dope
or Jack Daniels
You'll hurl
your skinny body
down
from a fire
escape

Only a year
and a month later
I see it all again
Another friend gone
He climbed out
a bathroom window

and muttered a scared line
for a song I'll never write

HAPPY ENDING

A light bulb blows out 
the phone doesn't ring
I've got my suspicions
And you had your fists

I'm feeling creepy
I'm feeling blessed
I want to kiss you
Regardless the risk

Darkness stretches
Across your cheek
An incomplete sentence
Or something obsolete

Let me begin again
A narrative
In first person
With the last chapter
Missing in action

Where did our happy ending go?
Where did our once upon a time lead?

To afterhours bars
And new spots to cop
Empty parks
And public bathrooms

Times Square
Astor Place
Or those exotic stops

The bodega
At Third & C

It's the same old scene
Cigarettes and scary dreams
Midnight sidewalks
And eyes of green

I hear you whisper
When I scream
I feel you breathing
Next to me

A suitcase of memory

Get this picture down
White underwear
An empty glass
A door without a keyhole

I'm half a word away
And I'm not sorry

A shift in weight
That took a thousand years
To properly name
Contra pasto

Seen in Rome
On a Vespa
Or in New York
On a skateboard

But no one's got
A good idea
To paint on a ceiling
Anymore