The Magnificent Magician

Don’t call me by my name—

Call me The Magnificent

Magician Of First Impressions,

where all the world’s a stage

and every player has his part,

where women played by men

no nothing of the difference,

where fragile lines seem effortless

written by the long hand of night,

where smoke is thick and endless

in the mirrors of wasted time.

Call me the Magnificent

Magician Of False Positives,

where anything seems possible

until commitment to the narrative,

where hope is built on trust

and not the other way around,

where kindness is a give and

not taken as an afterthought,

where love is solitaire

and not a solitary place to die—

Call me The Magnificent

Magician if you must,

where pain relies on burden

a burden I can trust,

and ABRACADABRA heals

this feeling of disgust.

The Crap I Write

I finish the crap I write

over coffee I can’t afford

in the mornings on

my days off from work

and I call it poetry.

Before the ice waters down

my Ethiopian cure

I can usually turn 3 or 4

workable pieces I find alright.

Nothing’s ever perfect and

I don’t strive for perfection anymore.

I just do as I do and that seems

good enough for now, besides

nobody reads poetry anymore unless

you’re dead or one of those Slam poets,

but that’s a pack I’d never run with—

the dead are fine but the Slam, no thank you—

since I’m no actor I haven’t the stomach.

I just know how I feel and put it down

whether or not it kills—HA!

If anybody actually cared what I had to say

I’d still be broke. I’d still be here,

no longer curious but still sincere,

breaking 8 balls and biting glass for reasons

only I can understand.

Walking home I no longer debate, I just

spit laughing blood and repeat,

waiting to be called back and told what to do.

Tongues

I’ve tasted many tongues,

but saved the slammed doors

and holes in sheet rock for

the one’s I’d somehow outgrown,

knowing them sincere like

an afternoon alone or

tastebuds in the morning sun—

after enough drinks to make me social,

after enough drinks to make me honest,

after enough drinks to make me pure—

unwilling to apologize for the bad taste

tongue tied like a little kid hoping

to be lost in the shuffle and left alone,

where features seize to be and

voices make no sound where

nobody feels and nobody hurts.

Untitled poems

The title comes after the point.

Whether proven or not

the title comes.

Untitled poems

are for better men than I.

Better men

who know what they’re doing.

And better women

who have something to say.

Mary’s Kid

There’s one thing I know for certain

And it’s the same thing I’ll never admit

Because Hell knows that even if I did

Not even Heaven could save Mary’s kid

Southbound towards Tijuana

The way it was and

the way I saw it well

neither really aligned,

which is why I guess

perhaps, I suppose

I’ve made it this far driving

Southbound towards Tijuana

watching my dreams fade

in the rear view mirror

knowing now the utopia I sought

was never bound to be orthodox

or American, or not but

foreign enough to appear genuine,

parked by the halogen glow

of another lone motel, stale air

and stained sheets of a

dystopian relevance

that makes this all seem o.k.

Wrench in the works

It’s funny really

how I’d been thinking

the exact same thing.

And how everything’s different.

And how nothing’s changed.

And how things are fine enough

without throwing a wrench in the works.

Nowhere

We’re all just kind of nowhere, aren’t we?

When we convince ourselves we’re not,

that we’re somewhere worth being?

Then like flypaper pulled apart

time disconnects from space

and we’re left stuck

sticking to the things we swore we’d part.

And just like that

we’re nowhere again,

left waiting to forget how good it felt

to be somewhere.

Enough.

We go to those we trust

Because even if they hurt us

The least we know’s they care

And knowing that much

Sometimes is enough.

The Other

For every peace I’ve lost

I picked up another

And another, then another

Till I could hardly tell

The difference between

Myself, them—or the other.