The American Right

Batteries not included
In God we trusted
But where are the damn double As?
It is my right
Inalienable, yes.
Whatever the hell that means.
I am owed
I am entitled.
Batteries not included
Pursue my happiness for me
I am tired.

Mother Muse

Darkness is the mother of all muses
the fertile void where reason lives on the run
from marauding bands of imagination and desire
Without her, the stars are the sun's little bitches
their magic squelched by fire and science
Darkness fills the ink, she is the blood of ideas
carried from page to page, soul to soul
Without her, there is no illumination.

Not Tonight

Dawdling wordsmith, beset by scotch
leather and lightbulbs awaiting his gift
'Not tonight' he sighs
My verbs have been stolen by gnomes
my adjectives auctioned by pixies
and summer gnats seeking revenge
for tacking them clumsily
to the crumbling clapboard
with primer and bar-b-que sauce.

Photo of 'Friend'

You were always there
On the other end of the phone
I could hear your smile
Feel the dollar nudge
That no one ever saw.
Noxema and whiskey
Agents of memory
The football aloft between us
remains one of many
connections still there,
still missed.

Ode to My Air Compressor

You could be compared
to a storybook dragon.
Reconditioned, perhaps
But there you sit, unabashed
Unconditionally red
Master of air, the growling
Gives way to the hiss
The thin breath of vapor
Tinted to task
You change the world
before you.

Every Day

The waterfall
hasn't
a need
for epiphanies.
It is
a waterfall
every day.