There’s a rat in my kitchen, what am I gonna do
Sly & Robbie
Hark, hark, the dogs do bark
Desperate Tony’s come to town
*
At the edge
where disbelief wells up
where blocks of warehouses mutate
into identical stucco boxes—Palm Court
nailed to a blank face
the methman cometh
when the hurly-burly starts off Victory
nobody waiting for the midnight hour
the dark not juvenile
the methman cometh
like a rat without a tail
a whistling flail
a monster in a mansuit, tools in his pocket
the methman cometh
takes the stairs two at a time
pounding the door
and the threshing begins
*
and I am the wheat, cold and naked but not innocent
*
RATS IN THE KITCHEN SURE ARE MEAN
*
Wish I may, wish I might
Crawl inside this plant tonight
creation empty but for me an’ a
dying philodendron still breathing
mossy breath cool on my bruise-eye
exhaling damp languor dark
droplets green smell of rain
close your eyes, girl, close your eyes
Wish List
a. to hide a hundred years inside this sugar shack
b. chlorophyll transmigration
c. verde, que te quiero…
*
Naked as we are all naked before a gun
*
In the end Tony’s the only one who can still run,
holding his head a globe of red
and his teeth salted the blacktop
and the chain link trembled
and the trash bins gaped—
clutching a dozen roses he ran
his bouquets becoming fountains
his fountains, rivers
I cried a river 4 U
Chloroform moon wades a culvert
(He thought it would be fun,thought Kubla Khan decreed it special for him and his girl,his own pleasure dome where Meth,the sacred river,ran through caverns measureless to man)
RATS IN THE KITCHEN
*
A vowel rises like a fat crow
tea-kettle of tar
noir wings flapping O
O, utmost sound
in the beginning is O before
words escape
words vault for the walls
tumble to the carpet
green shag floor of hell
I am the wheat, cold and naked
he’s killing me KILLING ME
fellow inmates listening
through walls paper thin
water grieving over rubble, water grieving in the reeds
*
Box of bristle
chipped tin box where he keeps a grimace
mega-what chemical impulse
magicks a gun into his yes hand Take off your clothes Ladonna’s gonna watch
all of us holding our gaze very careful
nobody knows for sure who’s born to die
in the middle of LA tonight
and I am the wheat, cold and naked but not innocent
my skin seared and paper thin slowgrind on scared skin
ashes, ashes, we all fall down
SURE ARE MEAN
*
I know the rats are involved in what I know
fellow inmates, we are pent
we are furrowed, scythed, flailed we are spent
my fellow inmates we are winnowed we are threshed
we are the wheat
the rats are involved
*
do- si-do of throwing blows
chock a block
until the whole thing moves like a swarm of bees
down the stairs onto the street
where Tony gets his tire iron nothing reasonable about Tony
no limits to force a tire iron in his hand is carnival
the wildest ride pure sunshine
*
green algae-bloom moon splashes through the LA River
you say you’re lonely you cry the whole night through
close your eyes, girl
it’s over
I’m over it
So Los Angeles, come on
and cry me a concrete spillway
cuz I cried
a grimy river
over
you