Not much yet, just heated
the wet resin--poor man's hash--
scraped out of the charred
Fallopian tube,
damp moss in the uterine bowl.
Clogged screen
sizzles as the chamber fills w/ clear smoke.
SECOND HIT
The Royal Mint
on every birthday
of
Her Highness
strikes a new likeness
based on a portrait
still drying by the time
the die is struck
On the 75th Her Majesty is seen
trying to catch a
bus
counting a robeful of change
her upturned palm
showing
how she aged
Old coins w/ her youngest faces
worn smooth passed
through
her subjects' hands
the wrinkles of the newest issue
sharp enough
to catch a nail
THIRD HIT
Dangling upside down in my mother's
dreams
Like a reflection cradled in a spoon
I promise
her an open hand
And all the
water it can hold
FOURTH HIT
Whales beach themselves
Because they once had legs
--Aleut Folk Chant
suicide man on a ledge
loses his hat to the wind
and
for an instant
cares
suicide man never stood here before
wonders is it any different
than a curb
or surfboard
looks down past wingtips
(pigeontoed)
crowd forms a neat round hole
shoreline of a pond without reflection
flat as the
back of a mirror
he is the stone
his
hat blows into the hands
of a
homeless man who will not have it
each upturned face a birdbath
patient with melting snow
he sees himself a coin on edge
next to flowerpot on windowsill
a wish waiting to spend itself
forgotten in black depths
FIFTH HIT
Time lapsed photography will show
a corpse twitching like a restless sleeper
fidgeting through
best-forgotten dreams
Time lapsed photography will show
the skin swelling like an ocean
for all the life
thriving beneath
Time lapsed photography will show
a generation of birds hatched, reared, and flown
from the nest built
among his ribs
Time lapsed photography will show
the slow progress of staying in place
tree limbs swaying
on windless days
SIXTH HIT
What's left last
at a cremation?
I asked
the radio call-in undertaker
who said
it's a common mistake
of those new to the
trade
when the smoke seems to stop
to smother the
flame
but when they pull out the tray
a charred heart
remains
