c i g a r e t t e n d e r n e s s

cigarettenderness

ashes scatter across yellowed carpet
cigarette blows
a hole in my mind
the street
waits for the rain to fall

like a car crash
like the definition
of thunder

ashes follow
the cigarette
down

cracks in the highway

i wake up after the day begins
early light missing my eyes
reminding me of sitting outside
a motel room
caught with the thrill of travel
against the sky
and the knowledge
of early morning drive

it’s an east coast wind
that pulls me closer
like florida heat
like carolina fireflies

leave the rain
slow pigeons and
green
head into the hills
watch the truckstops
seduce the sides
of the road

i don’t take my sunglasses off
for a week
there’s a girl
wearing a cross
hair in her eyes
she smiles at me
room number 36
and by the time i finish my drink
she’s gone
greyhound quick

i tie the dusk to my door
wondering about the rain

humid veins and girl hair in my dreams
she’s gone before
i finish my drink

birds fly across my shadow
highway stay awake

:: three (3)::

hanging flower

i can break i have
i have frozen solid
cracked open




greatful that it’s not concrete

drag you down messing up
your clothes

throw me in the ditch

your legs glow

my fingers reach out
drag you down




almost remembering what it’s like to hate

hold my hands

they’re not as steady
as i’d like
i’m shaking

my fingers
ache

fever call

fever call

breaking thru like dusty knives
breaking thru....
         
            BREAK THROUGH!

spreading open the sunlight
      sigh
sigh

        enter here
        dissasemble the air

swift shadows of luminecence
        cross split horizon
screaming with particle envy
leaving me standing
     on shaky ground

and as the highways sew the earth
     together again
my own shadow slips away
     quietly
to find its own way home

cold start summer heart

(from way back... 1994)

Cold Start Summer Heart
 

Shiftin thru 
passin lanes like a 
cut wheat avalanche

field dried 
road eyed 
and tasting bitter water 
on the underside of my tongue

nicotine urge rides along 
shotgun and waiting 
for some propane injection

an irreversible shadow crawls 
tired & twisting thru my mind

seasonal heatwave crashdown 
into th myopic frenzy of 
a 
nother 
city street

fade away 
into hot wire slipstream 
searchin fer th thirst of cracked sidewalks
under cool blue

quiet time 
snapshot 
fireweed 
rose water

catchin th free way w/ clenched teeth

searchin out th gutter sides 
cavalier impulse 
slow fade 
into underground 
band
width