Teahouse of the Almighty Book

Emmett was all pelvis, theatrics
in lieu of heft and measure.
I threw Rich out of bed
and made him dance naked
in the hall. His spurt was ludicrous.
A.J.'s cocked to the left,
dots of Hai Karate flowering
his tests. And the bubbled one
with gut smothering the stub.
Florid dramas of the teeny weenie,
the entertainments of strut,
snug synthetic fibers, blustery spiels.
And now this little yellow pill
that grows even history huge.
And easily. Yes, and damn.
- walloping! magnifying of a guy's anatomy easily, subject line for a junk e-mail touting a "penile enhancer", pg. 9
* * *

Flustered, without license or sanction, the women
clawed at whispered cotton and lopsided seam,
pushed irritants to their ankles, and stood upright
for whole seconds, just long enough for nipples
to pimple in soft wind. Behind them, a home that
once held his pens, his grimace acknowledging
a tumble phrase, earthquake that grew pliant
in him, and now twenty-eight quick asses framed
in the window. Much too rushed for structure, the
photographer did what he could to stun the slow
chaos - heads were twisted, eyes in blink, pubic
hair indistinct and shadowed. As sirens wailed,
the women hurried into their clothes - blouses
with nervy stink circles, skirts accordioned in haste.
Their names were nothing and they were rootless
in their wandering away. There was no sense
to their sacrifice, until the night came and the poet's
slow remembering hands returned for their soul.
- Sacrifice, pg. 22
* * *

He says I am gumpopper,
wondrous shoulders,
evil on the days when I bleed.

I say take hold of both my hands.
He speaks cool water on me,
nudges my mood with proverb.

I watch him undress, skin
unto another skin, and I turn
away to keep from craving that.

By the time his hands
touch my shoulders,
I am almost insane

with disappearing,
and the thunder.
- Little Poetry, pg. 31
* * *

A lyric unravels,
spins on dizzied axis,
one syllable slinks
and becomes several.

A stark shaft of light
illuminates a never-over evolution.
Each exhalation
excites and concludes

with a slight upturn
of phrase that compromises
the hip, roots fat legs,
lends such southern heave to torso.

Mysteries thrive in the belly
and in the miraculous
of her throating,
send two errant verbs

round 'bout themselves
and into the keys
of her spine again.
It is not for us to know

her trilling suddenly
murderous and cringe
beautiful, inbound.
Her legs gone.

A lack of this elegance
is the end of evolution.
Consider the soundless hole.
Over.
- Elegantly Ending, for Ella Fitzgerald, pg. 40-41
* * *

My job is to draw the pictures no one can voice,
to soothe and bellow toward the numbed heart,
to breathe in your chronicles, discuss them out
in lines weak enough for you to read and swallow.
My mouth is a jumble of canine teeth, I bite only
at the official whistle. My job is sexy leads for the
bones clattering in your closet, to sing you sated
each night with a forgettable soundtrack of paper
and ink. I am neat, easily folded, a sifter of truth
born to be burned. I count your dead, fathom their
stories, bless them with long, flexible histories
and their final names. There are no soft stanzas
in this city of curb sleep and murdered children.
We need soft words for hard things, this silk
brushing the inevitability of rock. Birth truth in
this way, just once. Craft the news and overcome
all that you ever were - a reason to turn the page.
- Stop the Presses, pg. 65
* * *

many more than that many,
this hallelujah, this bruise Jesus
all over purpled ankle, more than
this scrubbed silver and next needle
this whole heart in an African hand
much more that these drum digits
this possible this wait a minute what
does this say this page 47, more than
this mad, this unlatched, this bandage
and gut swirling, what stiff number
was the blanket, scissored felt
and eye buttons, glitter elmer glued
to gone outlines, names too simple
to be so hard pronounced. more
than that, even more than conjured
million, this cock/tail, this twitch
and drool, this vomit, this legislation.
- Psyche!, pg. 76-77