Pages

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Carpe Diem, Catch and Release


Carpe diem,
and then
let it go.
Often I’ll replay
the most recent interaction
I had with anyone
and judge it
like a glass of wine.
Sometimes I’m satisfied
with its perfection, it’s profundity,
but often I wish
it had gone better.
This dissatisfaction
keeps me alive,
digging deeper into this
mucky human soil
to find hidden treasures
and cherish them,
but not
to possess them,
which is,
of course,
the whole point
of the lesson.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

A Predictable Terror

It works a predictable terror
every time I see it
and I know all the behind the scenes
of how George Romero made it

how they couldn’t afford
real paid actors
or even color film stock

and it’s in the public domain
and you can download free copies
from archive.com

but something about those zombies
plodding forward
relentless
unassailable
irrational
inevitable
busting through that the walls
and doors of that rickety old house

headed for the cellar
that doomed cul-de-sac,
where everyone is hiding…

I never watch it
with all the lights
turned
off.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Grandpa Dracula


He used to be sexy
with his slim figure and
sharpened fangs.

His cool demeanor
and sartorial elegance
mesmerized women
into breathlessly
offering up their necks
as prelude to
their pulsating
sweet
essence.

Flowers with
thick eyelashes
shiny red lips
and pendulous curves
would avoid his gaze
for fear they’d be tempted
past the point
of redemption.

But now,
he’s Grandpa Dracula,
fat, toothless
and domesticated.

They look
straight into his eyes,
and chat with him easily,
and it is
worse
than being invisible:

he is deemed
cute and harmless.

The eternal life
he coveted,
remains forever elusive,
as he replays his memories,
which mock him
like an endless stream
of Viagra commercials.

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Between Teal and the Blues


The name
Sensory Processing Disorder
doesn’t do justice
to the confusion
disorganization and
chaos inside her.

Her problems are so subtle
that describing them
sounds like I am grasping at
a ghost,
a fantasy diagnosis
that doesn’t really exist.

I’m sure some see her
as a demon
as a freak
as a misfit.

If she could perceive
the world clearly
then she would see
there is more to the world
than rules and unsolvable puzzles,
and
if the world could
perceive her clearly
then they would see
there is more to her
than anger and misery.

How do you describe
to a colorblind person
the difference in hue
between teal and the blues?

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

October in Southern California

In So Cal it’s always summer
until the second weekend in October
when everyone stops wearing cutoffs
and the beaches get emptier.

The same violent Santa Ana winds
that sweep brushfires through
the canyons
also blows the summer smog away.

The leaves find their way
off the branch
exploding in vibrant splashes
of orange, umber and ochre.

Walgreens becomes schizophrenic
as nativity scenes bump up against
displays of Zombie makeup
and costumes.

Everything slows down,
it gets darker faster
and the kids come inside earlier.

The night air
brisk and frisky
brings forth sweaters and jackets
and memories of new love,
smelling her perfume
in the early evening sky,

and we still sleep
with the windows open
but now it’s cold enough to
curl up together,

lost in the warm
narcotic sweetness.