the Hellhound and the Platypus

The hellhound and the platypus.
and the dog bound up in complex
tux with a velvety cumberbund, descends
escalator and explains in niceties
the points of class to platypus.

Beach Vacation

It seemed like some sands
clinging—

and a flash;
what the tan looks like bespeckled

—it seemed like the brushing
away with the back of the hands

is still after.

the Pumpkin Girl

Rancor thee
who could
take; and then again equally
leave all of this. A pumpkin-
smelling teen girl, long jersey skirt
quietly dark cotton swishing
this way and that on an afternoon
that's too hot for it. Could've had
a binder arm-clasped to the chest
looking this way and that furtively,
looking at me.

Over the heart
how when absent is hard to
see anyone. How when her—
when the beers come, one
after the other, after the other;
some time later—the world is
reduced to just bubble and hop,
and no man who reaped them,
or other friend who's drunkening.

Rancor, we. Bowl of potato salad
that one leaves, one takes home.

On the Road

Each of them on a ledge
be backed up, edge to edge

and the elbows
held into the chests

and slowly the breathing
and the bellows of their lungs

quiver. And I too, quiver
in breathing


Following the road goes
wherever the road does

and easing around that corner
together I would beseech her

and think of bellowing but
would not bellow, for know what

doesn't bend, neither grows; so—
So.