Poems and Fragments

My Oster blender’s groovy, it’s the bestest blender yet. It isn’t quite as noisy as a big ol’ jumbo-jet. I use my blender often and it grinds things up just great. It gives my neighbors something else beside my dog to hate. It looks so nice and sturdy with its base of stainless steel. What’s this? –... Sign in to see full entry.

The Dog in My Dream The dog in my dream is blue. It’s a different blue from the edge of the sea in which he is walking. The sea is more green. It flattens the hair on his legs, while the rest of his hair remains dry and full. He walks, putting his head down to the foam-streaked sand when the waves... Sign in to see full entry.

Jealous of the Moon Walking, walking. Where are you going? It’s cold tonight. The lunar disk is a brittle silver gleam, a chilled echo of the brazen sun, wrapped in brown smoky rags of cloud. She glides beside you as you move down the road. The black and grasping trees cannot arrest her motion. You... Sign in to see full entry.

Dogs and Cigarettes My rooming house is called The Pink Palace. Like most palaces it has its intrigues. Some of the tenants have little to do with the others, but most of us know each other pretty well. We have squabbles and gossip and all the other petty ills of larger society. I am the manager of... Sign in to see full entry.

Tales of Woe & Delight from an Ancient Grom. I have a skateboard, my first. It’s a very nice skateboard, but it scares me, And I haven’t even got the wheels on it yet... It’s a longboard with a very nice graphic incorporating some lurid Catholic iconography and that magic word, “Dogtown.” (This... Sign in to see full entry.

Home to Hawai’i There is a smothering weight pressing down on me. The weight of my flesh, my years, my sorrows. The weight of California, of a loveless life. It covers me so completely that I seem to exist in darkness. The sun has burnt out, gone cold, denying even the moon its pale light. I can... Sign in to see full entry.

Yesterday I walked down to the Santa Fe market. I went to pick up a half-gallon of milk. My greyhound did not accompany me, as she considered the weather unsuitable for a dog with her sensitive nature. As I approached the door of the shop I was startled by a sudden outburst of vicious barking and... Sign in to see full entry.

BIRDWATCHERS SOME MINERS WHO FOUND THEIR WORK SCARY PUT THEIR TRUST IN A TINY CANARY. THEY BELIEVED IN THE WORD OF A WEE, YELLOW BIRD, TO DECLARE THE SHAFT TOXIC OR AIRY. BEQUEST A YOUNG MAN ONCE BEGAN A PALAVER WITH A FRIEND WHO’D BECOME A CADAVER. SAID THE FIRST, ALL MY LIFE I’VE ADMIRED YOUR... Sign in to see full entry.

Parakeet Pizza I once worked at a pizza parlor next door to a cowboy bar. Every Wednesday, a man would come over from the bar to order a large jalapeno pizza -- and to ogle the breasts of one of the waitresses. Every time this guy came in, he would say in a loud voice, "I'd like a large parakeet... Sign in to see full entry.

Requiem I knew a man once, gay, insouciant, a cavalier. But he left, or became something else. Stashed his gaudy pyrate’s costume in a storage unit. Paid someone else to keep it. Wouldn’t even put his name on the place where it lay. An angry young man grown old. Constant simmering resentment gave... Sign in to see full entry.