joyless carnival merry-go-rounds of a troubled mind the amusement of fright and despair

when the piano notes are dancing rhythms of candle light it’s hard to hear the fire go out the room cools its quiet wakes your fear

brief landings never fool me my thoughts are made of tornadoes and I know the mind will never sit… “where the heart is” is the name of a bullshit map

no matter how damned everything is i keep a flower in my coffin to remind myself that the sun still offers me something

the lavish liberty of lust unbound in the salacity of self a lover may take too long or doesn’t take long enough a lover may manipulate you

on a good day a poem is just a death threat to e… on a bad day it is a love letter

we are all worth more than the bread crumbs they throw u… minimum wages

walking down the path that leads t… from 15th street i pass the same pothole that was t… twenty-two years ago as black and as deep as it was

dying to stay in tune they rattle eagerly to play one last song

shame of the ocean is the fish that crawled on land evolved to destroy

slippery bars make it hard to hold… captive against your will always lathered in the sweat of es… you elude any sentence

dying of cancer saying her prayers they came to bathe her she asked if would hold her Rosary… “of course”

still he saws at the legs of his Steinway old habits only die hard so he tickles the ivory cigarette hanging from his lips

misgivings of tide familiar qualm of the sea home where we are lost