ALL THIS USELESS POETRY: (Or, someday all this will be picturesque stanzas.) A lot of poems from various years, 2001-present. No speakers are me or anyone else I know; all restrictions apply; void where prohibited; close cover before striking.

The World Tonight

He’s been a shouting head for years before,

But never so reluctant on display.

Four men sip coffee; they debate the war:

The hawks and doves each know what each will say,

Save one, his certainties become dismay.

“What’s your advice?” He makes his pen an awl

To gouge the table–“Stop, repent, and pray.

Confess.” Quick then, the moderator’s drawl–

“Good night, that’s all the time we have, that’s all.”

Army of One

His hand rests on the throttle’s leather skin,

His fingers trace the puckers at the seams.

His thoughts are smoldering the past within:

The towers fall again each time he dreams;

Their smoke pours down a street awash with screams.

The targets cross his view, he’s aimed, he’s fired.

The black smoke sinks. He thinks of his old schemes,

Old hopes, and thinks, of all he once desired,

How little he will miss the night his life’s required.

Insomnia

Coffee after midnight

awake awash in lust

a solarized slant mind

desire coiled in must

Coronas after midnight

one two three six ten!

suck tomorrow’s loose tooth

& sis boom bah again

Working after midnight

sleepless timeless caught

against the living rhythm

so laugh–“you broke, you bought.”

And a riddle:

What all men desire:

to be arrested before the act.

But the sun will burn this future into past.

(a frozen waterfall)