meat joy

she was sorting her brothers socks and
folding underwear patterned with horses and rockets
when her mother appeared in the doorway and said 
touch my breast
and then got sick and better and pregnant 
with more boy and more laundry 

she never got over the lump 
her pregnancies were tumors
so she went on the road
to Pennsylvania and then Cuba 
where there would be no anesthesia
excited by what her body could do
she became flesh and a hot knife
and threw a party after each one

motive

friend, how did you wind up 
at the end of a barrel?

I was a young man 
out on a run
I was telling stories
in my mother tongue

at work
oh, at school 

what happened 
to make you

the form of betrayal
we are shot through 


friend, what were you thinking 
when you pressed the trigger?

look at all they get away with

my disease of despair

red ants on fire 
boomerang
roosters coming home

friend, what makes you 
so easy to shoot?


432 Park Avenue

the vultures 
are kept up
all night 
by the howl 
of the wind 
by the creak 
& the groan 
of the tower 
as it sways
with the weight 
of their exploits
garbage drops
a thousand feet
in a glass elevator
a maid mops up
a weird flood
trapped in a cloud
with a view
so very far 
above the park
she cannot see it 

Gloria remix

young man 
on the edge of the floor 
at studio 54
where the girls dance in sea foam
synthetic silks
circled by men in iridescent suits 

no need to feel down
a baby in the round
the building of a tower
tenants swimming in cold water

the voices in his head
recall a time of expensive hamburgers
opulence and AIDS 
just before
teenage boys
dissolve into the ink
of The Daily News

young man
cemented in 1982
gloria
is just a girl and
she says
everybody wants you
hangin' on a line


Ashli Babbitt

Ashli Babbitt climbs
a suicide
extinguisher

frienemy
ripples
the surface of a year

Ashli Babbitt drives
shouldering
stories in her sack

freedom
persecution
the border is a mess

Ashli Babbitt dives
backwards
reality is a lie

Dark to light! 
God knows, god sees 
and he is incoming! 



Your First Lady

my heart goes out
looking
found a passion
salacious gossip
honor and accusations
against me
the promise of our future
make no mistake
you are the backbone 
let us remember
you are the people 
who turn to violence
make the United States of America 
what it is




I turned on today

Chickens, with their heads cut off. 

boxes 

chorus: Fight! Fight! Fight!

guts guts guts

He fights, and I’ll tell you. 
He has the absolute right to do it. 

They want it back. 

the happiest people
extraordinary love, amazing movement 

Chorus: Love! Love! Love!

Flip those cameras and look behind you. 

monuments
gathered together 
out there fighting the House. 

You’re the real people. 

America last. 

Unbelievable, what we go through. 

primary hell 
China virus and scam 
brazen and outrageous 
never been anything like this.
evening or early in the morning
boom, these explosions
                                                   of bullshit, all of a sudden. 

Who was the victor? 
He got slaughtered probably, maybe it was okay. 

dirty business 
let everyone flow in flow in

Our brightest days are before us, our greatest achievements still wait. 
Something’s wrong here. Something’s really wrong. 

So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. 

my state has been a problem

I've tried to be helpful.
A uniquely bad idea.

The rest is history.
If you are looking for guidance
this is not the one to pick!

The mob has done something 
nobody else can do.

Hold the country hostage
to end Reconstruction.

Just hang in there,
you are going to do the right thing.

1876.

I hate it being this way.
Oh my god I hate it!

Count. Me. Out.
Enough is Enough.

People are dying.

This is not the one to pick.

The vote shall be counted.
It means what it says.

I wanna die but no time soon.

I know how you feel

I know your pain
I know your hurt

It was stolen from us

You have to go home now
We have to have peace
We have to have law

order

time

a thing happened
have to have
anybody hurt

see what happens
they could take it away

so bad 

the way others
are so bad and so evil

I know your hurt
I know your pain
I know your hurt

go home

great people