U.S. Truth
Tennis shoes tied together,
pink as sin, high on a wire,
a signal for the Tricky Dick boys
building prisons for prophets,
profits for polarities,
warehouses for secret cocaine
futures, hemp rope for hangings,
skull stems hammered on,
amped up for echoes
on the dark side of our
personal moons, rigid codes,
cancer loads, injustices on loan,
cowboys as cash cows for the state,
sharks driving spaceships on wheels,
for long thin men in red beanies
surfing the parking lots
in the pre-dawn shadows
with silver flashlights
poking their hungry noses
into snow-cold super trucks and cars,
breaking into the momentary
silence of your homes,
your minds, your memories,
your anguish and your regrets,
robbing the cold, bringing the heat,
the cops needing capital who will never leave
you alone, tapping your computers and phones,
crashing through the triple-bolted door
without even a false premise
to excuse unconstitutional thrones
of mislabelled power, big pharma towers,
out of pocket by the hour, side effects
diminishing mere disease, minutes of unease,
seconds for wishing, cell phones and dirty dishes,
inquisitional questions, shouting for answers,
stun-gunning you, with photo radar gone fishing,
fast as bad acid to put you on the floor:
Mi Madonna, mi amore ... Master lock and more:
Saint Peter, Saint Jesus, Saint Brahma,
Saint Paul, here are your chains
when you've done nothing at all
~
Job reports, private sectors:
Do you know who is zeroing in
on your pointy-headed vectors?
Optimistic in Boston, oil lagged
humorists no longer counted,
numberless in their lack of hope,
better suited for the task
of being chosen as common men,
women or the demiurge Pope
with three-fingers left
in the checking account,
traumatized, shocked,
in an emotional sock
after missing one
car payment, hung up on,
electronically challenged,
renting out their houses,
living in their parents'
living rooms ... Scared
in the so-called economic
boom, victims of the new genocide,
staying afloat in the telemarket,
smiling in defiance of the waves
still being felt in the cafeteria
of woes from the Bush administration,
driven by force, needing to rob banks
to see a movie: Might as well
daydream yourself up a trip
to Budha-happy Thailand, half-assed Hawaii,
or go on an economic mission to Dubai
to attend a conference on smoke detectors,
or follow the Byzantine route
to the nearest mountain to shout
back down onto the city, loud
economic defectors burdened by self-pity,
divided and conquered, with no bacon
in the meat locker,
beaten up and bothered,
drowning in an ark safety net
woven in wool, feeling like a fool
when knocked off the bar stool
by the sound of car doors
slammed beneath the snow-filtered sky
~
See the slap-happy weather man
giddy as the foggy beach bubbles
bobbing up from the sea,
telling you this is what happens
when the Earth shakes
like jello, from waves
generated by an angry sun
and autos often gunned
like weaponized engines
and coal-fire plant managers,
panting, choking and smoking,
always on the run
He beams, slick in breathless excitement,
donning his Columbia storm gear made in China:
This is what happens when the cyclone is on fire
This is what happens when ... he smiles again
safe and warm in some studio in hot-Lanta
We walked through a whiteout to get online last night,
took care of the tactics and logistics and uploads
of information to stay alive, God gave us groceries
and we laughed our way home ...
This what happens when bed bugs get into your bloomers
This is what what happens as science is dissed by boomers
This is what happens when the haboob blows on through
in desert lands assumed to not know that word is new
This is what happens as the pine cones, white hot in the flow
lava-red resources gone matter to smoke, black to white
as reservoirs air dumped from the sky, a helicopter high
This is what happens when the perfect storms
put a smile in the meteorologist's eye,
focused on the hocus pocus of ratings,
selling fear, channelized, a funnel of money,
a spectator sport
Can we watch the Weather Channel, honey?
This is what happens when storm kings, tornado chasers
are raised to the status of rock stars, voyeurs on video,
This is what happens when a tri-state tornado
last for four hours and a physician isn't sought
for immediate attention: Talk about the weather
with your doctor, then duck for cover
This is what happens when contrarian tunes
are set into permanent rotation, prone to the cold,
odd currents, coming off the Rockies, the Himalayas
and warm air rushes up from southern seas
This is what happens when both sides
are right and we turn left, hence,
the confusion over convection
and spinning over the counter,
clockwise, compulsive in the chase
Ask your doctor if it's cost effective
to go around, understanding climate change
to drive around pursuing a cyclone
This is what happens when we can't
remember tornadoes don't occur
year-round, caught on fire,
a swirling flame in the sky
We rushed down the stairs,
the morning clouds burning red,
Christmas green, dumb and mean,
the southwestern clouds coming,
complete, the prophecy,
the burning bush,
the finger of God
This is what happens
when your military dad
goes tisk, tisk
as we prayed
lying flat
as beetles
beneath a table,
embarassed
in the basement
~
New job available on Craigslist!
Title: Friend
Requirements: Reliable transportation;
female preferred but men
will be considered if applicant
is willing to have an immediate
sex change at his own expense.
Pay (none) not negotiable.
No phone calls please.
~
Talk radio is telling me
it's an enormous problem,
short term, long term,
in any terms: The moment?
Forget about it
The fast, harsh mouthpiece
for the American Enterprise Institute
sounds shrill, vicious, wolfie
in his roars and I imagine
compassionate conservatives
rooting for curbs against
further acts of sexual violence
toward the corporation domanatrix,
the congressmen perking off pages,
but my ear can only bend so far
and my dial in, so puny, my voice,
wanting to call for stripping naked,
and left on the street for seething
about the foul taste of stale bread,
can barely eek out the strength
to cut through the ice
Forget about it
~
You tell me at the morning bell
that life is just a living hell
I wake up thinking
isn't that swell
You tell me that until we divest ourselves of the cell phone chatter,
the gas, the pigs, the memories that don't matter,
the clouds will keep coming into our home,
and the nation, reduced to dividends,
won't leave us alone
My Cherios crunch to loud
you say, my breath is bad
now go away, my tongue is rough
as I run away to a safer
place where the sun isn't so gray
Tough love is a two way street
gotta get something better to eat
Tough love is a two way street
Gotta find a smile where can I find it
Tough love is a two way street
Starving me for your touch
well, I don't mind it
Tough love is a two way street
I roam
Coming home you are nice again
I say honey can I have some sin
then we do it all over again
Your agony babe is the sea I swim
Lovin' you is a double-edged sword
Not even Shakespeare man
could find the right words
Cause
Tough love is a two way street
gotta get something better to eat
Tough love is a two way street
Gotta find a smile where I can find it
Tough love is a two way street
Starving me for your touch
well, I don't mind it
Tough love is a two way street
I roam
Motor mouth, motor mouth
is a weird adjustment
I give you my crazy
I give you my judgment
My motor mouth, motor mouth
is my truth for tougher men
Motor mouth, motor mouth
shakes you brakes you as you run away
Tough love is the street I roam today
Late at night is make-up sex night
We do it again by you damned daylight
ain't no way outta this circle I find
aint no way to just be kind, Uncle Sam,
until we all unload this big bad jam
You pull in the shades to warn
me of fight, I'm Joan of Arc
love and death's eternal delight
Maybe some flowers would
be all right
Cause
Tough love is a two way street
Learn to live with a pocket of change
Tough love is a two way street
Gotta find a smile wherever you don't it
Tough love is a two way street
Hoping for your touch
is what keeps me going
Tough love is a two way street
I roam
Tough love, babe
Tough love tough love
tough love is the two-way street
we all, but just a few, roam
