Just Desserts

Tarpeia laden
_____platinum-crowned
bejewelled to stooping
_____down, past lupine
eyes, blue and shot through
_____with gray.
In blackness a sound
_____she made
scorched the olive branch
_____clean of peaceful
associations.
_____Fruit and leaf
dropped
_____as roots grieved
myths men ate.

2013

Ochre rail, paint flaking off
red brick_____horsefly
_____hovers
__________thick buzz.
Summer dust
__________still air:
_____the Chinese character
for snake
_____hung there
__________a moment
above the rose,
_____aphid-eaten.
The ideogram disintegrates
__________then rises,
winding up
_____past a copper pipe.

Lobotomy

From behind
_____not the sound
__________of a woman's voice
as he had thought
_____but a kind-looking
__________black man
old and muttering
_____as a red van
__________motors by.

The doctor told
_____his mother
__________what must be done.
He wonders again why --
_____who will he be
__________after?  Will he still
be capable
_____of wonder?
__________Will he be less?

Under the glass
_____were jars --
__________canopic
labelled and full
_____of pharoah parts --
__________all but the brain,
which he'd been taught
_____the Egyptians
__________thought superfluous.

Will she love him more
_____then, when like
__________the blue bowl
on his window sill
_____his head is filled
__________only half
with marbles?  He earned
_____them by cutting grass.
__________Not now; be quiet and still.

Cuz

Cicadas hum,
starlings sing.
_____June heat
__________dry
as the deer skull
peering from beside
_____that rust-mottled truck.
Mid-60s Ford on blocks.
_____Martin kicks stones
__________down the road.
Rancheria dust
__________grass gold.
Grandma alone knows
_____what the old things mean
and why his white father
had to run 40 miles
_____just to go to jail.
Slam the screen door,
_____flip through the mail.
Martin slides the pink slip
_____across the formica
__________table.
_____The principal's
signature signed black.
Dessicated wasps on their backs
_____by the window
behind the dish rack.

View of a Koi Pond

Scarlet peeks out, left breast.
Silk, faintly iridescent.

Susurration: cloth crosses cloth.
Woodsmoke, citrus, musk,

a man's sweat.  Calloused hands
drawn over stone.  Mirrored below,

in the pool, a face.  That face
has never been young nor a fool's.

It's known sin.  Lines years of smiles
carved therein terminate in hooks

at a mouth, thin-lipped.
Two wives in a row, a child.

Nine leaves float, encircle his head:
halo -- autumn crowns him red.

Sawdust

Umbra
_____breathe damp
mulch__________rank
green__________black.

Sequoia_____sundial
_____shadow glides
round clearing, long
__________then short.

Over sorrel, grass.

It stalks night.
Day__________drained:
pint glass a massive hand, scarred,
slams_____back_____down

on the bar.

__________Lumberjack
slumber under stars.
They illuminate nothing.
_____Moonless sky.

Crickets.  Stillness.  A lie:
__________eyes gleam
_______________open
__________upturned.

Exhale.  Droplets --
_____gems_____fern.

Grandmother

Black lacquer box
pink Coty compact
agate_____earring
locket she bought
5 and dime.

She and Aunt Pearl
photographed
_____side by side
black and white_____1955.

Walk through Selma
1965_____contentious
woman_____a look
of the Cherokee
_____about her.

Fur coat, glowworm club.

Did the jazz,
Jelly-Roll Morton
get you off your ass?

Communists, Black Panther kids.

__________Lid
emblazoned with toy
pagoda in gold
willow_____tree
__________river.

She was a giver
of lip, shit-kicker.

Stars never aligned
nor did they fall.

Fire Ants

__________Line

mandible to leg

red_____eggs

underground

__________winding

around_____oak

_____leaf

shifts_____rustles

_____out.

Cow trots over

arroyo

__________dust

hovers above.

__________Vaquero

strum_____sing

bring her back

to swing her skirt

__________hem

_____by the fire.

Hiss_____spark

fly up to the dark

__________sky.

Tea and Cake

The King of the World

came to play

and found the cake

his mama had made.

It had buttercream icing,

candies on top.

He knew he shouldn't

but he just couldn't stop.

"Oh heavens now whatever will I do?

Mama and friends I've given a clue.

Someone ruined the cake for tea!

Now Mama might turn in anger and eat me!"

Ocean Beach Doggerel

He slams the gate

The red steel gate.

The house is on 48th.

He walks to the beach.

There crows meet

on a whale beached

sometime in the morning.

A fire to the North:

USF stoners cheat

with girls hailing from State.

He walks the other way,

doesn't stop 'til day

breaks.  Not one look back.

He's alone along the wrack.

He's an hour from turning 40.

He was born quarter after three.

Russian Roulette

Eye gleam

blue light

mouth set

_____curled with pride

mystique

shared, shined

fuerza

_____boots starkly lined.

Mirror black

_____oiled stack

__________march to the rack

_____chamber

a round in His honor.

Common folk

avert their gaze,

hope to hide

under cloaks, lies.

 Sirens wail

_____old mourners

__________eyes dry.