GRAVITRON

1989

Wildwood, New Jersey

We were crushed up 

Against the padded wall

By centrifugal force

Inside the GRAVITRON

The stoner operator

In the center

Turned up the heavy metal music

Louder

Then proceeded 

To climb up and stand

On the railing

Leaning back

Into the physicality

Of gravity

Balancing on top of the rail

With just his two feet

Spinning around

Directly in front of us

And

Then

He started banging his head

And playing metal air guitar

With the noise

Ensuring 

A ride worth the ticket price

The best on the boardwalk

Until

With the stealth of a squirrel

He climbed down 

From the mayhem

And got on the mic

Telling us over Twisted Sister

To please wait for the ride

To come to a complete stop

September 29th, 2014

The last crickets of summer

Are

Chittering

Like the

Grand Mal

Epileptic sparks

Of current

Seething 

Through

High voltage

Utility tension wires

Hunting 

For a refractor

A half a continent away

A wide Seppukku song

Stretched out

Listen

Aeolian Sonata No. 32 In All Notes (Major & Minor) K. 454 April 1784

A Jesuit Priest

And scholar

A man researched in

Geography, Astronomy, Mathematics

Language, Medicine and Music

Athanasius Kircher

A German

Invented the Aeolian Harp

In 1650

The instrument already being a Greek myth

At the time

It was a 5’ long box zither

With a dozen or so gut strings

Of different diameter

Tensioned to the same unison pitch

It became a household item

People put them in their windows

And the wind would play them

The rhythmic collapse would make 

The strings choir

A string

One Two-Hundredth of a foot

In diameter

Could sound the note ‘A’

From a woman’s mid-voice range

A strange melange of sound

Floated above

Fundamental unison drone

Nature’s dissonant overtones

Carried by the wind 

For 182 years

Over olive trees

And lemon groves

Across Mediterannean

Sea shells

The stormy Atlantic Ocean

Slowly ebbing

Into 1966

To the sands of 

Coney Island

Mixing with the smells of

Pretzels
Hot dogs

And New York City pizza

Bubbling with the 

Heroin in a spoon

The Reprodhone chords leading into

The Velvet Underground’s

‘Waiting For The Man’

I’m sure 

By god

That’s how

Lou Reed

Came up with that song

Dos Hermanas Cubanos (Two Cuban Sisters)

When I hear 

Two prepossessing

Petite

Dark

Cuban sisters

Playing intimate

Fervent music together

As their papa

Taught them

In their house

When they were 

Growing up

One sister playing the ten strings

Of the Quattro

The other sister playing

Hand percussion 

And singing

Tenderly

About love and loss

And another son

About the importance

Of not taking your goat for granted

To hear the older 

Sister talk 

Amusedly

In between songs

About the other

Falling asleep

Under the piano

While their 

Now deceased father played guajiras

Well into the night

Wetly lipping

A Romeo Y Julietta

Was enough to 

Make me fall in love

With both of them

And their hot sun

Sugar cane music

The Doe

It was fall

And the setting sun

Was flared

Blindingly

On the two-lane

In front of me

The doe jumped out

In front of the car

Before me

She hit it 

Dead on

The doe blew to the left side

Of the road

I saw it

She didn’t

I got out

She got out

I could tell the doe 

Wasn’t long to this world

It was suffering

If we waited for the cops

They would’ve just shot it anyway

I listened to this bitch

On her cell phone

Calling cops

Insurance

Husband

While I stood over

This poor animal shaking

I had sandals

On

Which I couldn’t do much with

I looked around

And found the 

Biggest rock 

That I could find

Said a prayer

And brought it down

On the animals head

Twice

To put it out of it’s pain

All the while

I had to listen 

To her conversation

About the damage

Done to her vehicle

Never once

Coming over

To witness a bloody funeral.

Monument

To carve a stone

100 feet tall

With iron and steel tools

And my bare hands

Without scaffolding

Without any previous training

Without any foreshadowed 

Thought to do so

That is my life

I fear the granite to topple and fracture

At any given moment

For me the idea

Is there

Blueprints in my mind

The mistakes

The bleeding hands

The critique

All mean not-so-much to me

I’m getting older

And the fright of falling 

Off a 100 foot ladder

Looms

The task at hand

Seems more dangerous 

Than 20 years ago

I lie awake at night

Considering 

My next few tactics

Which makes it no less

Easier

The monument is still there

Waiting for 

My next wrath of chisel

Still 100 feet tall

No less intimidating

Funeral In Ciudad Imprudente (Reckless Town)

The pallbearers are always

Henchmen.

Gangmembers.

Bandeleros malos

Long-suffering, proud and ungodly.

Only worrying about the desert dust 

On their pantalones

And deadly spiders 

Crawling up their legs

While they’re

Walking the box.

They’re poetic and tough

When they mumble

Through cigar painted teeth

Patrón heavy on the exhale

Denunciating the fallen

In the acrid heat.

If the deceased

Were familia

A tear might fall slowly

From their eye

Merging 

With the several other tears

That are tattooed

In black ink

On their cheeks.

They wear their guns

At their sides

In leather shoulder holsters

Hand-tooled

In elaborate painstaking detail

Of past crimes

History

And accomplishments.

They are paid well

And dress it...

Wearing designer label clothes

Foreign to those

In this small town.

The matones

Preferring a crisp, sleek

Modern look

Being careful

Not to spend less

Than $600 for a pair of shoes.

The guns go off

At some point.

Custom

Diamond encrusted

Gold and silver plated

Assault weapons

Pistols

And Glocks

Pointed to the sky.

Simultaneously

Going off with bricks of Black Cat firecrackers

And Chinese black-market finale explosion blocks.

The exhausting air

Is engulfed with the smell

Of gunpowder

For an hour afterward.

It is followed by a plentiful picnic.

The children play

Amidst

The PA of the mariachi band

On hire

And at sundown

The casket

Is put to rest.

Alimony

There was Baltimore>New York>DC

>Lambertville>Puerto Rico

>All points inbetween

>Tunisia

Parasitic whore

Please amputate 

Without anesthesia

Get the rough ground pick axe

And shorn shovel

Dig deep within my veins

Against all local codes

And zoning laws

Demolition wrecking crew

With

Absolutely no morals

Permanent relocation

Unreversible dislocation

Come for it

While 

I’m in a restless 

Bloody

Bare fisted sleep

Cut it off

Like the cancer it is

With one of the dullest

Kitchen knives

I really don’t care how much it hurts

Pull my broken teeth

If you should

Any act more relentless

Than this persevering thorn

Would make better

Than a pennieless 

Retirement

Or an unmarked grave

Drinking And Whoring With Hubert Selby Jr

it had been a long night of drinking

we had done the run

of bars and taverns

and ended up

back at

his flat 

floor covered 

in mouse turds

we ended up 

there

all soft and wobbly

with a pair of hookers

on his stale bed

and a bottle of four roses

poured into

two dirty glasses

shared between us

like the two women

who got fiery and noisey

and gave us a good time

it was in low light

and through bleary eyes

that cubby

looked at me

his face falling

to the lovely right cheek

of the woman’s ass

beneath him

and slurred

in this mangled shitty world

sometimes 

even for a moment

things can be alright

i nodded in agreement

reeking of woman

and content

tomorrow was going to be hell all over again