from my journal (old)

five dollar billy was known for going
with just about anyone who had a five dollar bill.
it wasn't much, but it was an encounter
he wasn't bad looking, but he liked his fill
of beer and pot...when he could get it
and he wasn't likely to forget it
the next time you saw him, he
he looked to you then, to see if he
could maybe get it upped to ten.

the heathen brethren

deuter ramoney

on reading certain well known poets

i really don't get excited much
by reading famous poets i
may have known or may have liked
at one time any more

actually

half a bread loaf conference is better than  none

nesca sara lee

it ain't nesca sarah lea so
the raina lea show

at the fort worth greyhound

reminds me of the night
i spent in penn station
in new york city
decades ago.
at least there were lockers
for luggage back then.
i've got four hours left to go.
there was the man who found a
pair of jeans a few days before
shoot, lady, he said i don't
have any money. and then the man
who'd come down from jersey
a few weeks before, hoping to become
some kind of a writer.  it doesn't seem
that long ago in memory but
i know it went on...all night long.

we did not find love in high school
although perhaps we thought we did
sometimes, but it was stunted growth
that could not break into full blossom.
often we found it not at all until
we found our peace in You, Lord,
Lord of this present universe

among homosexuals

when hui-neng the sixth patriarch
practitioner of the chan (zen) school
first received the patriarchship
in secret

he had to hide for his own safety

he went to dwell with hunters in the south

and although he was a vegetarian,

he dd not abstain from putting his potatoes

in the pot with the hunter's meat


barron vaughn trump


e)scatalogical
scat/turd

got my little king james

no one else i can blame
it all turns out to be the same
it can drive you insane
i've got my little king james

people in the bus station
stare at the ATM
stare at the vending machines
stare at each other

amenihotep
i'm in a hotep
in downtown cairo,
illinois (ill o' noise
alfred noyes

the problem with the upper bunk
is that things fall off to underneath
i am lucky to recover them
such as this notebook with
my bus ticket hid inside

there are steps that lead
to the upper berth


the buddhist bible
tells us to chose
as place where even the
voice of a cowboy
cannot reach

the abdominable snowman

flori dada

side altar
sub altern
sub deacon
deacon jester

getting ready to translate myself
from houston back to fort worth
already at the station, took a cab
booked an earlier departure
leave here in about an hour
arrive in fort worth late afternoon
it time to catch the last local home

i saw an old poet under a tree
bearded and shirtless, looked
like walt whitman...scribbling.
coffee cups all around him
he gathered his in, a
shepherd of poems

the road to palestine (texas)
go to West Bank and Trust

in the reflection in the window
on the bus, i can see
the iphone image in front of me
as the woman thumbs
through her apps

pneumonia is a serious killer
it stalks us in the nursing home
when one of us starts to get sick
the rest just bitch, complain and moan
we can hardly afford to get real sick
but the truth is we are all just victims
and though we follow different dictems
we hover in our cornered rooms
and hope the angel passes soon


the duodenim elegies

layaman
lay aside

men o' laius
him a' laius

chop suey side

til Lon Burnham wood
(local politician)
shall come to
dunce inane


to go see mother
tegucci kalpa

a wandering cursor
a wandering tribe

the grateful dread

tad lowe
tab leaux

cow poke salit


the mimbres indians
mimbres pottery
mimbres hot springs
mimbres only
need apply


"he who endure to the end
will be saved"  endeavors

the troops adore a
trumpador

trumplicans

page turner

like hacking down a redwood forest
shaving in the early morning
hours, a twice used blade

stubbs stitution

lotus march and the marsh mallows

just look for me in the
burgher king, in
purgatory, colorado


project isle

to fu
chinese soul food

saint auden's way

a sliver of silver
slips like mercury
with a shiver
just by moonlight

chiffarobe
by cicero

the lorraine

when systems fail

aunt best

for pam

there were cherubs in the clouds as we
rose through rings of light
concentric circles, bowls almost
these domes were churning
against a back drop of blue

the clouds came in...in formation
lke marching armies, a large
white swan was descending
when you said you saw an elephant
charging down on us and then
broke up on impact, over us

that's good
that's real good,
hildegaard

von binghampton