Green Light Green

it’s so great i made the green light
or at least the last part of the yellow
thick jazzy molasses horsepower joy washes over me
its so great
the motor hums freely
as my very excellent coach
just tenderly tuned, sweetly serviced
rises once on the gentle camber
of the intersection, under the light
and falls once as I accelerate smoothly onward
hoping that this limitless green light world
and all this joy
all this thick jazzy molasses horsepower
will get me through
the next green light

without slowing down
man, metal, oxygen, photosynthesis
my bank balance, my mood
the blazing golden sun
pouring down thru the windshield
a distant switch
in the centralized traffic control computer
all working together in perfect green agreement

The Staging Area

what's missing in your life
- if I may be so bold -
is a good and proper staging area
don't just take clothes out of the dryer
fold 'em and put 'em away in their proper place
that's for losers
they belong in a good and proper staging area
an interim area, so to speak, where they lay
undefined and free for a while
waiting for a drawer or closet or body part
sometimes the wait is very long

we, and I mean the royal we, wouldn't be where we are today
without a staging area
to buffer the friction between
a machine and a closet
between the known and the unknown
earth and sky
action and inaction
and those places in between
like inertia, nebraska
languor, maine
torpor, ohio
keg, georgia
now and yet to be
we and they
and apathy, texas

cushion yourself, my good man
with a good and proper staging area
it will temper your quills
resonate your sexability
magnify the unknown
and hip-ta-phi your Christmas music

this free advice, this poem
is offered to you
from the depths of the staging area
don't file it away just yet
just let it hang loose for a while
still warm from the tumble dry