National Velvet

three a.m. reflects
how beauty numbs

the legend wilts

we all reflect

how beauty cures 
an indelicate tamarind

though everyone is beautiful

celluloid projects

the mysteries of light

bewildering utility

our eyes project

the lure of silly radiation

we are undone with generous speed

though everyone is beautiful

meth freaks skin Bambi in the driveway

meth freaks skin Bambi in the driveway

A roto-tiller grinds up the backyard.

Blackberry brambles shriek against the blades.

His home-pricked tattoo smeared across limp muscle,

my neighbor unloads eight rounds at the blue

metal halide streetlamp,

bringing it down in convulsive showers of gas and glass

 to lighten the atmosphere of his fresh-plowed garden.

A city truck drove up to replace it two weeks later,

so he shot it out again.

We found a genuine cherry

laminate television console

on the corner of Alemany & Sickles,

smashed in the screen with a roller skate

and planted hydrangeas inside.

Angela set the controls for the next lunar eclipse.

The Perseids arrive as venison dries in the garage

and all the spoons start to curl in the kitchen drawer.

A tribute to Nina Hagen - five short poems

banshee arias

in a kreuzberg squat

warping vinyl

spun on

stolen electricity

rangehen

warm wax

spilling candlelight

on stale crackers

a safe distance

from the fire of her

generous ferocity

the sparkle of her snarl

reminds me of my own

mad crush