Ode to Place

The ridiculous perspective points,
a hypermelodrama wrapped up in a combination
of manufactured theatrics
and the exercise of contradiction:
an asthma puffer and a packet of smokes.
Turn up the afternoon like a volume knob
and sentiment is still something to get excited about
provided it doesn’t remind you of itself,
each life fresher than the next
the moments you turn over in your hands
like freshly cut jewels still giggling in imperfection.
The holy ghost in the red flicker of an altar side candle
works in concert with the electricity
still functioning when the grid goes down
and objectivity gives up the ghost.
There are places we go to on sacred sights
where the world seems more real than real.

Sonnet 1000002

outta style: the late model comedies jive
and it’s a limpid fandango on the patio marble
that makes you respect last centuries fiascos
as though they were the things we did then
and wisely, like clayton’s, would never do again.

imminent & terrifying, no less than paralysing.
even the ancients would be mute. but the river
rises like imminent foreclosure, the debt wont disappear
and instead you feel it come on like the flu
but quicker & burning in the cavity of your chest.

like pissing up a rope or watching crops die,
it feels inevitable and inexplicable at the same time.