xx century genes

                   bereshit

let’s talk a bit about how we got here 
and how things got this way alright i could 
tell you off the grid but for now it suffices 
to say that some studious people are working

on the fudge to make sense anyways 
it was titled at the septuagint because 
it engages the origin of the world 
ourselves and apropos of the chosen 
people it finds us at the edge when teenage 
wasteland was more like an abyss between 
the orderly forces and heaven (easily 
reached with a rocket in my pocket sung

in low key while holding our breath) so darkness 
was dispersed by a mighty word blowing 
a mighty wind over the silly establishment 
whither the kennedy boys fuck marilyn

in tandem malcolm the man is murdered 
in church by his counsel queer poets declare 
the exact change in their pockets to show 
the power of words awesome in making 
the world virgin again with six tales of might

that tell earth has made good in the milky way...
is it soup yet asked one russian envoy 
as his boss banged his left shoe on the table 
and called for potatoes thus everyone 
could become an international henchman 
as genocide had become of age...turks 
did armenians british did tasmanians 
belgians did congolese and so forth 
climax was reached on the sixth day
the seventh was declared sacred to rest 
but no one paid no mind it's good said man

louie at bat

                   louie at bat

awaken as dawn was breaking out of a dream

where a voice kept calling out his name saying

loud and mean -enough of this nonsense take

the sardines...leave- i squinted briskly and saw

berry and lily curled asleep in a burlap

heap while i ridded myself of that faded red

cloth i found yesterday on the green of the park

i had it wrapped loose and snazzy 'round

my neck for no other reason than covering

every bit of myself and hide away all flesh...

now having done so with a strata of fresh

assorted emotions sweat and coated fearless

i did a phenomenal maneuver just to get

on my feet and out of freeman alley unto

rivington and across that little park toward

forsyth street where louie would be invisible

only to come out of the woodwork at the sight

of one prospective customer or sucker...

was i one such sucker...after all louie had lured

me from upstate with the promise of primo stuff

easy tricks and the days had gone in a daze

of dilaudas tuinals and new wave music making

the scene streets burning midsummer eves

until louie got hot on a whim he cut us loose
and went wild on a swing hitting for the cycle