wedding song (for Elke & Clint, their union)

I dreamt I saw al ginsberg
he was climbing down that tree you know the tree
climbing down the tree
naked as a baby
beckoning to me
billy babe says he
please pass these words
pass these words on for me:
kindness is the poem
can you finish it
what kind are you
all one of a kind
kindness provokes
kindness spills over
kindness returns plenty
kind and kinder
unkindness echoes
boomboomerangs
kindness is a few words
before kiss
in the dictionary
read slowly
if you don't get the kiss
before you finish 

zonko

Mayqueen's Dead, Long Live The Mayqueen

a kid's king no kidding he stood where no one stood
where no one should
he stood the taste of time
he understood
he didn't want to understand
he wanted to overstand
like his prosecutors overstood
pissing off the smartypants
and the too cute by half
the disingenuous the conniving
the craven and corrupt

zonko

MAMA

thanks for the swallowtail,
thanks for the smell of the species iris
thanks for the lilac's attack
thanks for the ears
that hear the heron's hoarse compleynt,
the raptors' whistles the loons' hilarity,
thanks for the lips whispering thanks for the tongue
thanks for the kicks thanks for the kisser
and thanks for the nose that brings me back
to the herb and the rose thanks for the womb
thanks for the fingers thanks for the toes
thanks for the coming and going
thanks for teeth chatterin ice cool life

Zonko

Alpha Byte

bark
bang
banned
bard


can't
call
cancun
cancelled
canzone


dig
para
digm


each
easy
entr
existence


friend
frequently
fried
friend


growl
grown now
grunting
guesses


honest
honey
hump
hunger


if
id
is
in
it
idiot


jack
jolts
juicey
luce


kake
kiss
kommen
komrade


late
lift
light
list

zonko (sometime, 1987-1990)

Nobody called.
I'm sorry.
The phone was busy all day.

 zonko (same)

sit still 
and watch yourself
walk away

zonko (same)

The Midget

was a restaurant
Borges went to get a hamburger
he couldn't even see
his picture being taken

zonko (same)

The Void

precedes me
exceeds me
succeeds me
this is it
parinoia
paves the pathway
towards satori.


the master replies,
if you are thinking of
"towards satori"
it is not satori
you are thinking about.
satori is here.
can you go towards here?
start walking!

zonko (same journal)

The Fourth Eye (for J. Pethick)

No two ways about it.
Seventy one views
of the same tree
hang somewhere behind
the transparent plastic
tacked above the window
seeing is believing- seventy one views
the mountains float
upside down on the water
or pendicolar to
the mountain
ninety degrees
blue sky and clouds
mountains
and water
outlining infinity

zonko (same)

I'd better drop dead is what she said.
After I'd already said, You better get off it.
So it was goodbye my trump and bitter pill,
B.B. King's "The thrill is gone" ironically
echoing from the plastic speaker of the transistar
I'd turned on to help me survive the packing
which was over so fast that I thought for a minute
this must be a dream.


Climbing into the taxi two hands full of suitcase, typewriter in my teeth,
I thought of her beautiful body and held back the tears, just.
I thought of the snarl in her final fury and shook my head.
I didn't have the foggiest where I was going.
What planet was I contemplating.


Louise was the kind of woman you wanted to meet when
you had two weeks and a fireplace and a
clear willingness to wear out your face smiling.
I'm not quite sure what it was about me that had
landed me the part of the juggler early on, but there I was,
as usual, getting out of the cab, teeth full of typewriter,
hands full of luggage and head full of mean thoughts about
the woman who'd fingered me out the door as the last act
of an eight year minor tragicomedy.
And there she was behind her big red eyes in the rain
in front of the Sylvia Hotel, titling her head slightly and saying,
maybe you know.
Ther was no time to say, maybe I'd like to because of the acrobatics required to drop my bag and catch my typewriter right at my shoetops
after my teeth forgot what they were supposed to be doing.

zonko (same journal)

Demon Eyes

Gadzooks!
Goo glued
these eyeballs
to your flying smile

zonko (same same)

Realize

this is not me.
I have lifted
this image of me
from the garbage
and uncrumpled it
reclaiming your me

zonko (from same journal)

forkless

a knife-like life
a fork-like talk
a spoon-like croon
a plate-like fate
a bowl-like goal
a cup jump up
a glass class grasp

zonko (from a old journal, never before published)

You Friends

you can't make your friends behave as you want
you wouldn't make your friends behave as you want
if you could they wouldn't be your friends
if you would you wouldn't be their friends


your friends can't behave as they want
your friends can't make you behave as they want
if they could they wouldn't be your friend
if they would you wouldn't be their friends
you wouldn't know them

zonko (sometime in december 2008)

cereus (for pam)

                                                                blooms

                                                              one sunset

                                                            five years later

                                                                 delicate

s

t

e

m

                                                          gravity defying

                                                            blossom

                                                          as big and

                                                         as quick as

                                                          a bruise

 zonko

ThistleGetYou? (for Cezanne & Linda Jane)

Hearty beasts, thisles,
with the will of iron,
as if they'd spent centuries
shrunken into their microenvelopes
crossing whole solar systems


intent on that lonnnng 
drink of dirt they'll have
soon as they get to your garden
their cohorts thinking similarly
on the same solar winds.
biodefenders?
come from alpha centauri?
to root, acclimatize,
return to their mature stature
(near the size of homo sapiens!);
keeping vigil
to defend the endangered potatoes,
tortured, maimed and boiled potatoes
to extract blood sacrifice,
interstellar justice
for the voracious tubervores


awaiting the blood of the gardener
anticipating
the throbbing heartbeat of the potato eater
sure to be there by twilight

zonko

Death's Door Is Wide

 

maybe they'll kill you
two or three times
stab you, drown you,
run you over
and give you a job
before you make it
to death's dirtcovered
dooooorrrrrwwwway


zen what?
zen you is delicious!
at long last you made it!
you're on the menu
for the worms

zonko

untruth untongued . have tungue will babble . peerless teutongued . tonglued up in goo

it took me a week more to move out than i wanted it to but moving must have been what zeno was up to when he couldn't get those arrows to reach the target i'd still be packing if it wasn't for my little boy, Matt came, he packed, he loaded with a bit of help from Cornelius and today finally i've got the plywood for my bed and the rug and my bagel tray (which doesn't fit in

this oven, darn darn) Dave drove me home i labeled soap for Colleen this afternoon after cleaning up at ford cove and visiting the recycling depot i don't envision myself here for long, i'll probably housesit for mary and gordon until christmas, then maybe i'll be moving into the judge's place loren, i like her,

i'm not sure if i'd have to live the interrupted life (out in

summer?) but that might be incentive to travel, orvieto

here i come.  or if

i could just drop dead in time for summer, do you think life gets easier when you're dead? do you think the dead are spared gravity or quadrupled gravity?

(from a letter from) zonko