gift/

frost-rotten apple
on the mailbox
halloween treats from
bewhiskered friends

torment tides/

fingers broken
stiff and taut
scrabble limestone
reaching for
already yesterday
liminal lacunae 
slender slip through
betwixt and 'tween
a rose garden
of thorn

painted hearts/

statues in the
winter garden
crying stone tears
the memory
of the summerlands
painted on their hearts

jadis/

she shook her fist,
strapped in place,
at the armies marching
past her bed
towards battles
in broken narnia

another journey/

silent, snowfall hush
frost breathing starless slumber
a train's lonesome howl

outcast/

machine-gunned four-inch nails
rusted in his head
white-worm pocket-prize
meat fungal meat
slender, pale and mean
tunnel-vision fleshfood
backward glance into
the mirror of time

beyond palings sent
wasteland-ward
the loser amidst fools
sacrificed to the machine
piggy piggy pig

lowry/

rebel kiss on the wing
lips sing willowisp sting
they've lost us
never to be found
hiding
in brazil

f*cking snow/

i shake my fist
at the sky --
the cantankerous curmudgeon

"it's too early
for snow, dammit"
the sky laughs at
my impotent tirade
raven joins in

tattoo/

the october country 
is where
all the sad
middle-aged men go --
wondering just
which journey brought
them to this place
where a teardrop
seems frozen, tattooed
in the corner of
their eye

backyard/

ruddy maple leaves
perfume the air with autumn --
chipmunks curse and swear