A Box Of (a Lack

1/ 

 

a box of  (a lack 

of struts gone horizontal

as worsted silence unrelenting 

lapsed (so 

gild a Lilliput roundly grandly 

as a silken episode (an aptitude

raunches you to tamas 

tendencies (inexquisite

pearl-free unlit noise

as poison the un-

plenary trees (don't 

hesitate to reprogram 

by granule when neglecting to 

-produce the useful 

ductile nebula (who's 

watching (who's classifying 

the shoals ideal 

for fish and scaredy

cats (lack of 

navigariat urges urgently 

(unguently swerving now 

to the left-

over right to pluribus 

(don't we know 

our p/lace and do you 

(undo) (undue) face first 

descent no longer decent 

pebbles flipped into this 

sea-

son 

 

 2/

 

stepson gotta be brave buck-

o shot (chap the chaperone

polyglot your way forth

and minus the blandish 

glut of shucked jive con-

niving plexy forecast  

roundly aghast decoupled

yet coupling sour 

at the hour of depth per-

snickety pounce flounce

remoulade by the ounce

(don't shaft me 

despite (spite (the spit-

fire inclination to rule me

out (clamped pie-

(w)hole in fluent parlese 

(yeah, I made it

up don't repudiate

what you muck

be your own bet-

ter decimal of lollipup 

you minglive shadow

of your form-

er (s)elf strewn a-

cross the next b-

loom not yet

3/

 

rizz boggles

bobbles baubles

in the mire 

dire circumstantial

evi-daptive

shaken babelet

shrivels its squire

mole unwhole

some summit

spat from weak

face to trace

bi-handed gerry

mandering meander

plaguing the stage four

 blink of an eye 

sought

overwrought 

carcass left

out in direct

sunlight un-

seen by scrawl 

4/

remember not to 

seek perm-

author-

ization (shun authority

shun spun fables

(resist for survival

gaming shames the free

into unfreedom

freezing when already

frigid so all parts

stay stuck (shuck any-

body's view of em-

bodi

me(a)nt to tempt you 

into obsequious 

squeaky-safe-clean

(lean elsewise

if wise is what

you speak (okay

seek (but not hard

(the bard stays

within you (not

ramdomly (prayer

seems a fluke

a ukelele among

prissy stringed 

believers trying

not to try too 

hard

5/

shift your ten HUTT

from her shift 

and scantily c-

lad boy frame

to tizzy up the whatnot

and cease Midwesterning

the sky scraped sky

escarpments try not to

render unto Ebenezer

the sneeze weak-kneed

for your part the curio

of art carted across

the lake front dry

to the untutored eye

look at these 

straight lines

ready to fit in

some kind of 

hand-crafted box

phlox that frag

rant intox-

6/

cuspidor not to be

shared forensically or

otherwise itself 

definite article destination

if not destiny no one

prances here likewise

likenesses merely

smear original 

sin and thinking sine

qua non ergo 

sharpshot vascular 

placids crimsoned 

north of here

botch the cranial 

entrails of the potshot

clemency unearned

as runes flicked onto

the baseless counter-

topless foraging

clinging to testaments

enacting the past

frappe as silo thatched

mercedes the person

not the vehicle

polish-wiped swiped

welterweight among

the drip-tease sleight

of craft shining 

its perpendicular dream

pasted onto reams

7/

way of love equal to

belief in and vocalizing

what rests and spritzes

in the heart landless

handled gently that sweet

crop flower scent 

of the lumens being

weeds or flowers 

some destined for the vase

others en route to the plate

hammer-less fate just

risen bread speed read

cheese communion square

imperfectly peeled from

rectangular squares pre-

served in plastic so pure

there is only elbow 

room and grease to keep

love in line with desire

one or two

mornings one or 

two lives in one

living as forecast

unheard experienced

then to the beautiful

woods the cabin logs

intuitively p(l)aced

built up as if

the psyche window

shopping for and to

the very plural

depths

8/

a locket of hair

mid-air the rain

tap soaks a window

also and the head

lines cauterize

some shrill distance

between the known

and the disowned

so ownership rankled

with defiant logic

plummets to surface

assuredly clay

top the prior blacktop

smudged away

as logos tazed brackets

clothingly a way 

to cradle the body

as it tiptoes to age

in private silence

recalling that voice

indelible as Monday

primed with forecast

and yet looming 

over the field 

that is one life

seemingly enclosed

but not

9/

dopa-mimesis

block chains threnody

syllabically frocked 

with chock-a-block 

pearl-handled re-

volver-lution ablutional

delusion fuming once

removed from the fuhrer's

fatherhead downed

in sewer shamed un

caring even as others

revoke their oath

unnoticed chokeholding

tantamount ideaship

gloating with boat-

length scurvy patched

into the cult-

you're sure to uncloak

at the moment

of retri-

ballistic bleat-blonding

threaded hair inciting

only indifference among

the masses skipping

Masses

10/

Hypno-haptic pairing 

of the hands and mind 

Creeley's pinched packed-tight

springload suffused one-play

ripcord why not splayed 

Liberace fingering the half

touch swish of daylights 

out of the Baldwin crystal

grand grandstanding

with 80,000 Austrian crystals 

At Radio City Creeley meanwhile

stands still never the stage

swollen with glitz instead

taut bleat seedlings 

in his hand the one eye

fastened on a choir load 

of zealot wannabes as he

hitches form to contentment

upon the space of the page

between margins thin mid-

section to the left hefting

edenic firmness much loved 

by those who might

game the cyst

the systole diastole 

revoke each tendency

to be rained on

11/

and I meanwhile test the pencil

tray light seethe alone parcel

posture no dark alley

no raiment arraigned 

as allotted not want not

whatnot forming

the whole nest head up(held)

the who am blast furnace 

hoping not rajastic instead

sattvic if I can surely

not tamas (please) I gather

all of us (we are all of us)

live the three sometimes

summer brings out 

the feel of the new 

pencil the prayer of yellow

paint the smooth uncreased

surface of six

sides all our lives all I need

together in hand-

made light (found 

leaping

12/

hum veering in her

home I only listen

and Petra dallies

in the hallway drawing me in

I am all in one piece

at peace in the home

of my dearest friend

from school where 

we learned parables 

and history and I 

excavated the annals 

of musical speech 

then before I could utter

melody outside 

the confines of the treble

clef on stage or in

the practice room 

with breath and those

music stands as masculine

as the steam engine

my grandfather left planted

in the yard and fired

up annually on the Fourth

his birthday potato salad

on tables cole staw 

root beer for us the works

I can still smell the crops

I could not name 

lacing over the scene

of people coming from

everywhere to see people

from everywhere and him

the center of att-

13/

every box is a box of

biography found sparks

astride incompetence

whose viewing startles

once and for alogoaning

tripwires all over the 

placid would-be serotonin

plumped up right 

in the storehome in

validating quiescent plump

sugar paws give us 

a lump a lumpen

quash (are you plethorally

kidding (queast makes me

brushbound skittery 

leave it (to me) I'm sequined

surely vivid beneath 

this handful of crumbs 

you've tossed my way 

call me not very

interested de

spite

 

14/ 

I promise you I premise

she tires me entirely

I cannot listen I do not

listen I view from this

crisp of distance her

gaggle of "lef-tenants"

jiggling the change

in their pockets 

taking too

seriously what she 

espouses I'm tired of

already it's not un-

like the emperor etc.

who cares who's interested

who has relinquished her

selfhood (wait capital S

in favor of this particle

of horse without

horse sense she might be

called hortense nobody's 

named that now so bric-a-brac

a cluster of syllables

let stand it's only june

a name that curiously

rhymes with pain

15/

I think what

I am 

taught

to think dream

what I imagine

cough up blood

when needed 

spill

(the)

beans to myself

crapshoot plenary

indulgence whisper to

the priest (the case of

the missing

I remain

heard by 

the others in 

hock

16/

her spear-

mint personality

primped my day

light (believe in

pencil (careful to

know im

permanence from 

perma

cult (kipper away

from and to 

infractious toodle-loo

if yet if safe if 

you (momentum 

equivalent to speed yes

or merely the wind

17/

punctuate a kiss with

closure with privacy with

retreat (simplify 

the extent of love 

cradle the enclosure

at leisure blossom 

the bless points at rest awhile 

the river (the river patched with 

light projected purified

all present (what happened 

to the in

definite article

within a moleskin notebook 

unstrung (now leaves merely

is this 

this unless 

furled a swizzle 

instrument 

un-delayed 

(wait for it

the justice the elation

the semblance 

of and often

of

18/

app on phone shows

emoji of tiny green shoes 

I watch when you are walking

then view mph as you 

begin your drive

I have driven myself

to anticipatory 

app-happy safety seams

of copasetic space between

teaches me again

what I know (I know to sleep

quietly not cough despite

the ozone I'm committed

to knowing I am un

confined you are un

confined almost the feast

of independence as if 

a satire on itself this

unhinged theft of us

(and we're still to the left 

of us viewing contamination

symbolically algae-heaped

where elegy might be

imagine a reflecting pond

scum-filled as if trans

latent odiferous evidence

of what has become 

of us

19/

test the testament if you can 

stand to listen to the brim

fingering around 

its own harmonic tingling

nowhere near mezzo

higher still than soprano

a sine like a boy soloist pre-

voice change not a whit

of vibrato no undertones

no overtones just that 

sure purely Creeley-esque

you might think if 

you took it literally 

age four and something

befell what will befall him

for the space of many wives