The Blackwood Press DUB 'log

my neck is tense
contained by the car unrelenting
the jerky sticks in my teeth
and the windows rolled down masks
the music
just then a bird met its demise
hit the windshield, sad
but at least it hit in a way so
I don’t have to clean the glass

there is something about
arid lands
like a certain clarity from
lack of moisture in the air
100 miles seems a stones throw
water used to travel here
I see remnants of snake switchbacks
dry beds of meandering paths
If one should follow
where might it lead

to a source?

if stranded, would I die
it makes me wonder
about the homesteaders
not natives, nomadic with
a rich history of tribed families,
immigrants just had themselves
and their own ignorance
to depend, to fend against the bleak
awareness

living alone here where it barely rains
where it’s 90°+ most of the summer
and well below 0° in the winter
and naught to block
the incessant wind whipping
through the night and day
drawing attention to how far they’ve come

whistling
always whistling
I wonder if it drove some of them mad
or if it provided conversation intermittent with silence?

way too hot
sweltering across the grasslands
passing an endless sea of brown and green
yellow of eddies and patches of black
angus

in the distance are monolithic islands of
solitary trees
and on the horizon is 359° of empty sky
one degree sits the badlands stiletto’ed

the burning coal vein sent plumes of black
fifty miles back a mile high

I left to feel the touch of my own skin
now gone by not sitting alone

if there were clouds
I’d see your frame
shapes I helped to construct
and as I look at broken fences and rolls of hay
the sun sucks my sweat
swallowed by the earth

plodding along I can’t help feeling
swallowed by you

I want to have a private email account,
I don’t think we should know each others passwords
why?
because I don’t think I can help myself
like Sharon?
no, I just felt like a schmuck
what do you mean?
You know that girl that kept emailing you
I checked your email
what about the idea of trust?
like I blew it ?
no, like I have nothing to hide from you
so I don’t need to keep you from it
I mean if I am going to be completely honest with you
right?
ya, but I ended up feeling worse for doing it,
I felt like a stalker
I think you’re a little sensitive about it
you had a weak moment
its not like you’ve stalked anyone before

Right?
right.
did you at least get some peace of mind?
ya but,
I see no reason not to give you my password

“You can squeeze my lemons
until the juice runs down my leg.”
Robert
Johnson

water water
water sweat
water drink
little water desert leaks
as water needles keep

Got pulled over already!
62 in a 55
lonely State-ee
wanted a friend
conversation and a warning

Now my nose is starting to bleed
again

The red opening into the hills
as we crossed the border
was in stark contrast to the browns
coming out of South Dakota
now we could see contours gently rolling
and in the distance comes steps of plateaus
soon we will be closer to the sun
pushing the blanketed heat into the 100’s
rocks above ground and trees are now
prevalent, no more solitary leaved trunks
but rows of blue needled trees dotting the buttes

high so high
as you type on corona lightly
feeling the talk in the silence
play across my shoulders
down my lower back
Wait!
they have been gone
but ten minutes too long
and I have yet not to sit
just like your name
I had a Joe-lt at the door
my subconscious went walking
heel to toe on your shores
watched out for jellies
watched out for sharks
watched out for the way
and still got lost

now I lament
as I stabbed my index digit tip
clearing the rez from my pinch
I’ve snapped the beans
already shucked the corn
now just stole a nip of wine
sitting by the typewriter side
in air conditioned coolness
the dry air evaporates
the moisture on my skin
taste the earth
and taste the fruit
tickles my palate
as it washes down
the Dakota Line

I am a veteran of your foreign war
just like money or settles to score
I implore to let go of two more
so I can or may, give back to the poor
fighting over maps and directions
she flogs my wisdom and looking/finding skills
by pinching my thigh with blinding reflection
she’s a fruit in big bird shoes
quoting primal attraction to same sex Jews

like an endless supply of sperm
Elmo may learn that external genitalia
is something not to seek
or just something to learn
especially within tenets set
through heads of Lutheran Schools

finding much more than
looks under dresses for risqué peeks
burning fever bush looks like Oscar the Grouch
in the trash she learns of all the she needs
those infertile and fat pouches
bleeding hearts growing downtown
soft like sodden ground

This side of the moment or mountain
Names for a baby, bottle nipple high
Near a dead animal dumb and counting
A deseminule lie re-lived like a dead fly

a sticky day, long roads ahead
x-ray glasses and pink briefs listening
virtual gardens, glorified yuppies in beds
dew drops and gum balls
tacky lips glistening

In Eastern union, camel smoke
national 4×4 scooter race awoke singing
Maryland blues by a greenish toke
high steep energy like Mt. Rose face

Yorkshire four wheel truck salvage
mixed in Lewinsky stink
wax lipped kissed package
in a white powder lick

In Rutter’s, the butter’s by far convenient
the best 24hr. deli, my belly
fairy full of Rainier cherries

knees bruised blue yellow
too much work for me too
a lubrication fool, pitted stomach
½ a joke drunk through nostril shoes

quell my fears of grandparent views
like big apple bagels too many to choose
for what should hold close
to my skin on Freeland St.
Clues?

like a metal horse cock
riding in the free wind
odd like my red colored sock
rocks like wooly sheep locks

trip traveled 3 blocks
in this shitty free red box
on we go west direct a long walk
across specific country spots