Fighting Irony: category

Once Brilliant, Twice Shy Why does Anna Beth keep her socks on? Because she’s embarrassed of her body? Because she’s a teenager with circulation problems? Why does it matter that Meredith a ballerina in Cleveland a part time prostitute in Los Angeles is now a zealot mother in Flagstaff bathing her babies in Purell? Why [...]

Look Southward, Angel The art gallery’s now a weed store two doors down from another weed store My barista? Some hipster prostitute leaning over the counter in her cardigan doing her best American Apparel ad Approximating pedophilia post feminist post ironic post post office Shit. I said barista. Give me Waffle House Wanda Break out [...]

Only a Fool. Today I decided to wait for inspiration before starting Important Things deciding what freedoms to abandon in pursuit of meaning. Coffee Shop: A child devouring an iced cookie– guilt free taste of sugar in a timeless summer. The curls of the hyperactive toddler Her mother’s gray springs Only dead cells sprouting from [...]

Insomniac’s Prayer Big Man in the Sky Mother of all things Earth forgive this day’s sins the wasted breath the refusal of touch the denial of beauties; everyday and profound. New Age Source Prophet of Consciousness if you reside inside me smaller than atoms, Am I talking to myself? when I say You piece of [...]

In a Past Life I was a Country Singer I stand at the base of the stairs you up above, on the landing doing the angry finger dance winding up for the hurling coffee cup In a past life I was a country singer could make sense of the sadness with 3 simple chords Before [...]

Ice Dreams (with Recipe for Oblivion) The past is a glacier Insomnia: Global Warming There we are floating through the Gulf Stream in the backseat of that car The past is an ice cube Remembrance: the sun There you are like an insect trapped in amber waiting to be swallowed on the playground after dark [...]

“The Physical Impossibility of Wealth In The Mind Of Someone Poor.” (for Damien Hirst) I didn’t write this poem.* But it was my idea! *So what? Architects don’t build their own houses.

Fiction is the Best Way of Telling Our Truth Thinly veiled, I write of our hardships each one a tiny model sailboat hand-launched into the dyed blue seas of park lakes and reservoirs, urban engineering at its Disney best. You don’t see it do you? Even our water is fake. I didn’t want this poem [...]

What’s Gotten Into You? (Cause it Ain’t Me) You were so shy when we first met asking only for anonymity Made me want you so much more your refreshing refusal of the only worthy goals: Fame, Fortune. But you were too beautiful too perfectly proportioned Your body the Golden Mean incarnate. Sigh. Now, like all [...]

For You on Your Day(s) When was the last time I tried to write something happy? Maybe it’s because I only write in the mornings now- the nights being so crowded and loud. So it’s off to fight the good fight every morning, your California son incredulous to the ceaseless California sun. Always waiting for [...]