the hawk and the squirrel

rakish young red tail hawk
dapper and daring on a lofty branch
all piss and vinegar and ignorance
opens his raptor beak to the sky and screeches
yeah! i can do this predator shit
i'm gonna pluck my protein from the larder of the living!

like that first time
i parked the car at neptune beach
killed the motor, made the move
french kissed kathy mozena
with all the french kissingness I possessed
hormones pouring from every pore
hands fumbling at the back of her bra
swearing by the dashboard light
yeah i can do this
this is actually happening
i AM this
whatever this is
whatever this roaring
boiling blood, this
pulse of sex and survival

in the tree
rakish young red tail hawk scowls
raptor head swivels
pops and locks
pupils swell, zoom in, zoom out
teenage talons clutch and itch
for a wet dream of furry warm-blooded flesh

like that squirrel
(lock)
down there
(zoom in)
scuttling in the hedge
the hedge by the new music and arts building

first hunt, first kill
red hawk
spreads f16 wings
banks once round the campus green
circles the spires of higher learning
dives straight down to the bloodwarm gray target on the lawn

squirrel sense triggers, squirrel freezes
sprints leeward then treeward then upward
squirrel jukes and dodges
red hawk shrieks, wings flare
claws open and reaching
talons clutch a beating heart for the first time

squirrel locked helpless
hawk ascendant
squirrel frantic as oak and acorns recede
struggling twisting wriggling yearning

we're in the back seat now
kathy mozena loves me and i love her
my fingers still fumbling madly at the goddam brastrap
the prize is in my fingers
but my fingers aren't working

young red hawk screams and soars
tries to squeeze the ribcage in his claws
but his talons aren't working
young claws open in confusion
and the squirrel pops free
warm grey fur alive and
freefalling
flailing helpless
into the arms of the ample oak

another rebirth into this crazy life
wild alive free and chattering
sprinting down and round the oak trunk to the ground
safe in the shadow of music and arts

the hawk screeches above
spent by the lesson of life and death
hungry, student of instinct
wings on high
raging
avid for warm flesh
high above this institution of higher yearning

POETRY ADVERTISEMENT

tired? bored? psoriasis overtaking your eczema?
out of three cent postage stamps?

feel like you're on the ground floor of a USDA slaughterhouse?
perhaps just your usual grumpy horny miserable self?

and the job sucks even though you were fired two weeks ago?
and the toilets overflow with the failed promise of your youth?

Hmmmmmmm???

may we humbly suggest
as a balm for the udder of your discontent:

A Poem

a poem
you ask?
what good will a rhythmical composition
of elevated thoughts do?
well,

allow us to promote the salubrious effects
of iambic pentameter
the guaranteed psychic enlargement
from a plump dose of pithiness
the bottom line net gain
from a simple allusive rhyme
a bit of obtuse doggerel
a bit of undulating verbal vibration

so relax, enjoy your moccachino
and let us make the pitch
just calm down and let us
sell you

A Poem

learn the secret stroboscopic cadences
hidden in silence between stanzas
be a better lover, or at least throb eloquently
excise clunky halting coagulated clumps of speech
swirl your syntax like a connoisseur
magnify your probity
reel out rhythmic syllables of suchness

alliterate your welcome mat, hiptaphy your innerwear
all guaranteed to sliptify sensitive sensibilities
ninety-nine days same as cash
scattered haiku skull tattoos, taboos we do two - wahoo!
in the darkest recesses and folds where whole words
and lurid letters curl in cortical caves
waiting to be drilled, dug or dynamited, direct to
the conveyor belt lane of your smart heart

style comes and goes but a solid stanza is forever and a lay
verify and versify, my tongue-tied little droogies
you're the breast-shaped ladle of inspiration
or at least the manly handle of the lady ladle

so step right up and remember
two roads diverge in a wood
you can take the one less travelled
or you can take the one with a money back guarantee
either way

a rose is a rose is a rose

and I sing the body electric

if it does not fit you must acquit

and the raven still quothes

but there is always - more

Three Years of Spanish

(whisper)
welcome to the tour championship
we're here at the east lake golf club
high in the grandstand
overlooking the 17th hole
as the drama unfolds

(from the grandstand)
Wahoo!! Go Tiger!!

he is yelling it like it is
for him
and for the girl sitting next to him
and for everyone in a two block radius
whether we like it or not
the hot sun and the cold frothy booze
speak through him
like some ancient greek beer oracle
please zeus, tell us he's not like this all the time
tell us its a temporary lapse
but no, it continues nonstop
artless balderdash
decibels spewing higher
than a Phil Mickelson flop shot

I love Woody!

he's blabbering about Woody Austin now
blurting blustering and blabbing
Christ.

Woody is great
good guy
Calc too,
Calc is great, yeah
the best
a little hefty, but he can play
yeah

the crowd is hushed and glaring, but
the guy won't shut the fuck up

look at Garcia
wearing that orange shirt
orange and white
orange and white, yeah, go clemson, right?
the girls love him
don't you love him?
he's pretty buff
he's a stud,
but he's wearing
an orange shirt
and white pants, yeah
see through white pants
what do you think?

I think you should shutthefuckup

you think he's a stud?
ooh, he's a stud,
ouch, missed the putt
he's a stud but...
he's no tiger woods

and you're no bryant gumbel

hey, look coming over the hill
it's that young guy from colombia
you like him? he's a stud
his name is Veeyaygus

it's Villegas

i mean Veeheyjus

it's Villegas

or Veelayus

it's Villegas

Veegeesus?

it's Villegas

Veehoojitz?

Villegas!

shit i took three years
of high school spanish
it's that double "L" thing, y'know?
I remember my teacher was so hot
is it veelyayjus?
anyone around here from Spain?

it's Villegas, now shut up

meniscus, meniscustan

dozing deep in a strange bright room
laying on a metal antiseptic bed
an hour passed like a brick in the head
my knee gets mugged on the sly
somebody stole my meniscus
the crucial buffer tween femur and tibia
someone snuck in behind my patella and absconded with
meniscus, my meniscus

I wake still woozy from the scalpeled theft
of consciousness and connective tissue
what sorry society would foster
such blatant de-ligamentation?
i've been pilfered and am at a loss
where art thou, my meniscus?

my gauzy anesthetic armadillo planet mind
snakes down shiny hospital corridors
my body rustling in a paper gown
casually open in the back
a little on the sexy side, n'est ce pas?
I don't see my meniscus
but I do see a womaniscus, oh yes
floating sultry, sexy, serenely
always one gurney ahead
perchance I dream
perchance something more sinister is afoot

what if I don't wake up
what if this is forever
what if . . .
they didn't just take my meniscus
in that weird bright room
what if they lifted me out of my body entirely
injected me into another body entirely
yeah, I could live with that

the person whose body I now inhabit
features double jointed knees
a world-class trouble-free slippery translucent meniscus
one more lozenge of percoset is indicated
to complete the transfer

I am rotating far above the earth
i'm very large or perhaps everything else shrank drastically
floating above my own salty peninsula
and by clever rapid sideways glances
i zip back in time
until i hover above myself in a brilliant white room
draped in a crinkly paper gown
on a clean metal table
- born again -

I am now the tennis ace from CIA bureau, Meniscustan
tuning up for a grand slam smash
the doctor flashes a large bag of radioactive government money
a rat skitters across my open belly and leers at me
i smell everything that could possibly be smelled
and I know exactly what to do

with my good knee i crack the bad surgeon's clavicle
grab the large bag of government money
make a mad hopping dash for the escort services
on the banks of the prone river
that separates meniscustan from godamsterdamn
an old wooden rival from madhatterstan
emerges sludge-draped
glaring from a green algae-choked canal
with my bad knee I smack him upside the head
and hot foot it outta there
beelining for the Independent Republic of Freaking Meniscustan
boiling for freedom and a cushy catered corner to be born again - again