this many days

thinks the drugs

is for the doctors.
and the dreams are for the teeming
the teams for sports and reams of courtroom papers
the gone ingrain sings long in training
a slim machine is freezing rain
and now i've got such
such a carefilled
brain it's almost broken each railroad tie
one neck one sends to the tracks
one brother never comes back
before the beating.

this code is doltish
and a coat i wear
to keep my skin suit
from coming up for air.

and the dry cleaners sing obla-living-on-a-de-da-prayer
just like new jersey's always sworn to go on
long past the thrill.

A Pair of Teeth & WIDE NIGHT

If anyone who reads this is in DC during the upcoming AWP, Flying Guillotine Press authors will be reading at two offsite readings later in the week. Matt Sadler will read at Iota Club and Cafe in Arlington on Thursday night. And on Friday Sasha Steensen and Mark Horosky will be reading at Wonderland Ballroom in Columbia Heights.

Both nights are full of other great readers and the night at Iota will have two bands at the end of the night. Come out and hear some good words, have a few drinks, hang out with small press folk. Punch a duck. Sing to the frogs, whatever.

A Pair of Teeth (Aperatif) Iota Club and Cafe 2832 Wilson Blvd. Arlington VA 22201 7:30-2AM
WIDE NIGHT Wonderland Ballroom 1101 Kenyon St. NW Washington DC 20010 6:30-9:30PM

some say

the ice cream attacked me
while you sat idly by

dim bulbs itching into the early morning
and the ice on the ground is the same
as the ice in your freezer

think what swears for the working man
and all the fortunate imposters
whose wounds heal beautifully
because they're putty
and very pretty beneath all that foundation

some say it's easy to bend your climate
or take another year to flop
it's a guess you make with numbers
a very important guess

Everybody knows this is nowhere

and for a song that short, yes
like a founding match and its lick of fire--how to turn one simple thing into another.
i watch the television with an ease that's hard to refund
i clap when all the gameshows growl
and when i'm painting my crows back into the sky
the sattelites go bling-bling, blind

remember the neutron dance? remember the pointer sisters?
i've got a snowstorm in mind and a white datsun pickup
there's a new neighbor joining the next accident
there's a flap of skin to drape over each eye
and the 1980s came down like a stray dog, hungry and matted

my curse and cure is almost memory.

Gimme some december

Seems many of the folks are ready for the turn of year and I'm one of them. Lots of good has happened in this past year and a fair share of heavymaking. Here's to hoping the baby year
brings good lighting and a bevy of notations in the positive quadrant...

set the cruise control