Antonio
Chow mein
he said - eyes dropping south
double-checked
his bike's front-wheel, upset and flat - he smiled -
he'd make that
Sligo bus by 10,
analyzing Bayern
Munich a lot those last few weeks
since March fell
into splinters April made its ark from,
gold-plate
speckles nieces turned to wrap-dresses nephews holy communions struggled
to overshadow.
He's a shaman
bringing Bavaria a freshly hunted Champions League,
Catholic girls
something Zappa was too quick
on the lurid
draw to see.
Back tire's
nearly flat too he conceded, work-up some voodoo potion I said
- I knew he could -
Sligo bus
tickling a cloud-fat horizon,
nephews and
nieces hoarding spare change

It Tore My
Heart to Pieces When I Heard the Levee Ain't Gonna Break No More
Though there
stands a brilliant white light on a bloody blue night,
water's voice
harvests pidgin talk amongst reeds,
smoke slipping
amongst gangling vegetation which withers that silence,
makes it spread
its wingspans, shape its shapes as God prepared to forgive vicious waters.
That made me
weep for two days more, then dry land came,
sung songs
burned from gangling cities.
I made a
rope-bridge from weeds I'd plucked after killing a coal-eyed cobra,
placed across
the delta and hoped God's music could give me ballast,
a pan of eggs
made warm and over-easy. Folks who howl at the moon start coming out at 9,
early show
tonight, voting-days tomorrow,
the waiter
arrived in the nick of time with the complimentary mints,
he knew every
proton was a work of art

Benny
Calabasas, California, July 12, 2020
Sun steals
darkness from his day,
leaves him
nothing to mourn - all is stark,
like a checkbook
sitting in a fire. I went to his funeral,
peoples
hopes soft like shoes scorch-marked,
drifting on the
cold-white of morning. I swore the light was him,
coming for his
wardrobe, his pistol, his biker jacket or a deck of cards,
maybe a shave
too,
when he meets
his grandpappy,
mowing a lawn
outside Tupelo,
missing the
twenty-seven by three times the number five,
and afraid
Ill forget him as I pull the covers over me wishing it was still winter