Twenty Bill

Feel like a twenty bill
Stony drunk and built to spill
Out on the roadway
Like i feel

Got a few of bucks for gas
Spent the rest on rest
and Roll it up to
Keep it real

Stowed away on slow ships
Left behind on roadtrips
Trains lost somewhere
Seeking a meal

Haggard memories of embrace
My boots in your suitcase
and Somehow is comes back
back to your smile

So paint me up in Crayola hues
Aquamarine and rusted patina blue
If i could be someone else
I’d choose
Coeur du bois or you

Luminescence

the first flicker
of luminescence
soggy matches
and pouting lips

watched you wait
like my best friend
from third grade classroom
swingset memory

lakefront fireflies
proving too quick for jars
rocky beach and the
proverbial stars

you called me out
to a distant place
i couldn’t even recognize
that it’s my backyard

Sidewalk

libra vox bravada
close in seeking treasure
the news box on pender proclaims
“zoo faces charges of cruelty to hippo”
just not something you read everyday

the buses bring touists,
flower hats blocking sidewalks
commuters struggle by
couching earnest glares

resisting urge to interfere
instruct
counsel
the nervous pleated pants, clip-on tie namebadge

busy time afoot
stained tile wallks
manage reflect sideways
amidst the grime

17th to 41st & Oak
a single coin is often,
indeed standardly,
exchanged for variations of
sustenence &/or convenience

The Ferry Changes Tack

The ferry changes tack
to let the seaplanes land
tilts gamely from
the wake left behind

dragonflys were
the first to migrate
flying miles in just a day
discovered by someone younger
studying ambered fossil chunks
and specific DNA

cruisers berthed in harbour
barges haul the ore
trains railing sulphur,
prairie wheat and coal

ships robust laden
steaming to a horn
lonely crewman leans past jericho
leaving gastown cobbles behind

Edwin Embarks

Edwin wake up!
His father shook the boy
the journey begins this moment
before us long roads
and open seas

but poppa i’m tired he cried
and missing ma so much
do we have to go now
tell me why we must

Yes child
i believe you
hard and drawn
cobble paths and study oars
lead to distant shores and homes

but we’ll leave our home
and the greenest shore
grey rocky bluffs
that we’ll see no more

myths we follow
to a westfaced coast
somewhere vacant
with peaceful straits

stony walls
upturned hulls
protect us now
from the wolves

edwin let’s tread
come boy you’re strong
adventure awaits us
lit by late summer sun

Dramatic times, drastic crimes

Dramatic times
drastic crimes
commited every hour

killing words
from overlords
hoarding stolen power

Except for us
it’s all a bust
why bother even trying

i’ll tell you why
if i can figure
which are the lies
and when i’m fibbing

it’s something ’bout
knowing the way to lead
and kickin’ the reasons spinning

ride along and smile twice
and i’ll always see you later
if you need a chance
remember to to ask
me when i get a clue

Sweetzer Road

Sweetzer Rd is
admittedly devoid
just wandering cows
and rattlesnakes

when you stop here
in roadside shade
there’s no chance
that you’ll miss the town

Origins of Tapioca

Pondering the origins of tapioca
is it a gelatin or does it come from
uhhh a tree or something?

“It’s gelatin,” she says
so they can make it any size they want.

I am a bit confused
but I nod along
don’t have a guess
so either way
i’m wrong

Juniper Road

Juniper road
Umitilla highlands
the pass heads straight down
to the straight road
into Pendleton

High as radio waves
past towers, o’er canals
Burley in the distance
moon just shy of half
just enough though
to light the stars

Pondering the Question of Advice

He pondered the question
for over a day
he could have died without answering

finally, calling me close, hoarsely

“make a hundred million then cut and run”

The Smallest Town

the smallest town possible
Sublett Idaho
(or Utah?)
no matter
i’ve been there twice

Sunken Awake

Ashen sunken
eyes awake slowly
from morphine haze
“it relieves the anxiety to breath”

from time to time
he screams “i can’t breathe”
and i say “you’re breathing now”

he remembers his father, “a financial genius” he says
he is the kindly man with the pipe in the painting
“it hangs above my bed”
each word slow
he was always good to me and he is calling me home

come wuickly he said
i won’t last long
don’t leave yet
you’ll have to wait

he said,
i am just too tired
i am just too tired
i am ready to go
i am scared

head drops
struggles to move
i am ready to go

Ranch Exit

V1
Ranch exit Oh de Oh
O’er the pass we gonna roll
‘nigh services up ahead
just us and trucks
rounding the bend

C
Dropping in and shiftng down
half past Snoville by 10 oh 5
would stop for pie
if the town were open
but shuttered down
so we keep on rolling

V2
Ranch Exit Hi di hoh
mother trucker swerving solo
slow on down ya great big loader
bail out lane is
right there for ya

V3
Ranch Exit Low de doh
diggin the starshine show
riding green and rolling low
past the flying J
dark in idaho

B
Ursa Major pointing us ahead
wellsville rising far behind
as we are northward bound
idaho’s road are bumpy
utah beer is swill
oregon holds the gas pump and
washington is greener still

Columbia Daunted but Still Roils

One way these track run
into the elevator
and onto Mt Hood

Turning east
stopped by wooden fence
dam the beyond
columbia daunted
but stil roils

stunted but strong
regressed to measure and
potential
water spreads
thinner than gold
every fiefdom wants a piece so they
bridge it
dam and tame it

rocks and monuments
observe the folly
silt builds up behind
water cool ahead
moving beyond memories
of drowned villages and
uncovered artifacts
entombed, enshrined
only the tugboats
come close

barge drifting
silos wait
trains slip past
and columbia rolls

I’ve held the Globe

I’ve held the globe
thread for vapor trails
of journeys
each color a route
pinned from Greece to Kenya
or St John’s Bay
is that Israel or Syria?

A blue loop with stops at
20 pins circumnavigates
a memory of connections
meals with colleagues
strangers and stewardesses

Red thread of elongated triangles
crosses over itself
making obtuse angles o’er Pacific
Tinain, Hawaii, Japan, Guam
a green line returns to Perth

Pins cover provinces and states
organized pushed with vigor and precision
Prague before velvet divorce
Cuba pre-Castro

Misnamed Indies several times
around Belize, Venezuala, Colombia, Paraguay
Paraguay why?
Was it a holiday steamer
or a recruiting mission?

Heavy machinery to militants, airplanes to diplomats or typewriters to rogues
a letter carried from a mexican ambassador from a round of golf decades before -
carried not as a prize but a pocket card, not an ace but a jack at least,
“This is to introduce my friend, please provide any due consideration.”

Outside the machines dig holes for bricks
disguising the drip and hum of appratus
chest heaves so shallow,
mouth gapes, head askew,
hands, arms, fingers flush with fluid
ruddy, worn and odd
a man who worked with head and heart,
but little by his hands