in a muted green guest room
sometimes is better
than always

Sunday morning:
mahalo
for fearless geckos

cat eats fly,
you smile
silly

the drive back
is mostly quiet,
mostly still

high-strung children
looking for trouble
on tenement rooftops

caps in the air
today’s the first day
of someone’s afterlife

California poppies
blooming in September,
fireballs of mockery

your clueless stare
– taste of nirvana
and cherry Coke

soaking wet
I wave at the Golden Gate
– these shrooms are bluffing

my little brother
threw rocks at cars
that weren’t there

silly drunk
in cherry blossoms,
lovely as always

in Tahoe,
there’s still hope
for quixotic dreams

bare bodies
on a mattress of stones
happy-go-lucky

on the water’s edge,
we give in
to summer blues

come on in—
read to me
it’s warm outside

he called her love
but wouldn’t call her
on the phone

sipping gin and tonic
I beg Jen
not to dump Ben

springtime in Washington,
drunkenness breeds wisdom
in sparkling tubs

drive home
to a light on,
in brisk Eureka

nightfall,
a girl spins a bottle
with crossed fingers

the best views of America,
in beds
of pickup trucks

star light star bright
why’d you disappear
in graceless whirls?

through sprinklers
we ran
barefoot, moonlit

mister Sheen’s streaking
on a cocaine binge
oh, Hollywood summers

hysterical laughter
rational despair
love-making in deepest blues