Temple to Alameda

4

"Golf ball of my life," flying over the ra
Zor wire, hitting, street and walls hard ri
Chochet, concrete noises ec
Hoing, "The... golf ball of my life, I had to
Leave my wife," singing slowly, deli
Berately, then throat clearing and
Phlegm flies, hitting the wall just a
Bove the letter 'B,' it's continuous, every
10 seconds or less - creating a
Waterfall, a complete Japan
Ese garden, streams and rocks cut to
Exact proportions... standing then walking
Left eye-swollen shut, "When did we be
Gin thinking in this critical
Way?" The sound, golf ball against a
Hard surface. "Politically accept
Able vocab(words)ulary, de
Viant, subordinately."
The golf ball rolls and stops, "A signifier,
A violent law." Step, slide foot, step, slide
Foot in shoes, Adidas, too small, white
And worn. "Golf ball of my life, I'm
Singing about you, yeah... about you and when
We were together."

Temple to Alameda

3

A soccer ball flies over the razor
Wire fence, bounces down Alameda.
Wheelchair man pushes off over,
Eyes glued to the ball, wheeling slowly, a
Methodical approach. "A search for closed 
Form," the ball must reach the net or death
Will come slowly through an autumn
That colors red the eastern trees, colors the
West yellows, ochre, browns. Legs pop out of
The ball and run, gotta get back to Al
Ameda. Singing, "A process a
Product, let symbolize immanence, oh Charles,"
The ball is a valued object, in
A field where tall weeds and dirty clothes
Fill the environment and the
Shopping cart carries groceries - "you are the..."

Temple to Alameda

2

A basketball flies over the ra
Zor wire fence into the weeds on
Temple, nearly noon, the clouds fly by a
A 747 from Taiwan, turning west
Into LAX; share the hands, crack the neck.
Shuffling along focused eyes
Out of focus, towards Alameda
Arms reach out of the basketball and wave,
"Howdy, hey take me home, bounce me, please."
Rocking back n forth trying to
Roll out of the high grass; stops and looks at
The ball, "I'm ready for a chance, a chance
To get some shoes and kleenex." If I
Jump in the river, on my own
And acting as if, if I do it. And
Perform and die: 'Too much water hast thou...'
The basketball is smiling happy
Cat, on Alameda. A man
In a wheelchair and writing table stand
Watching work across the street 
From a Clark construction site

Temple to Alameda

1

A tennis ball flies over the razor
Wired fence, bouncing into the street, once, twice
Again and rests against a piece of wood. Two eyes
Pop open, glazed green/hazel fixed on 
Smooth/rough fabric; superficial layers
Covering a hundred years of unmoved earth.
Begin by stuttering or babbling. And reach
Into a front pocket for a dollar. The
Fluorescent orange ball asks, "Is this the
Weight of enlightenment poetry posted late in
The 20th century?" Compression, a search for a
Literary solution, pissing behind the
Bushes facing away. "Take this dollar,
Buy a donut." The two eyes close: a vision
Of shallow brown water, mixed with white
Clothes and a blue boat. Where is it, the brown coat?
Is this the movie that stopped short for
A moment of love? One person and a mirror
Or no one reaching out from a bench, too tired
To ask, "By the way, did you know they pulled her from the water?"

Handkerchief Woman

3

Mambo and the hip hop kaw; how does he do it? Cap'n Kirk rolls
His eyes to the side of his head and his tongue reaches out from his neck
And touches Spock's ear, "Is that right?" Is that all right, is that
All Brokaw right? One alarm goes off single beat - against triplets
And 5 against 7.

Asleep behind the , "Mercy on us! Are you one of the deadly?"
Cap'n Kirk raises his head and opens an eye onto Los Angeles
Ave., awake but not wanting to be awake, alone and glad,
Watching workers and bus catchers and others moving, the eyes
Are gone and in the street is an empty half gallon water bottle

And pieces of newspaper being blown around by passing cars
And buses and Spock says, "Cap'n your ear is gone; your
Nose is shaved down," blinking again, "What are the possibilities
That we won't make it out alive?" Cap'n Kirk gets up and sings
"Purple mountain majesties, growing with infirmity," shake the

Ficus for someone else to come down, "I, deadly?"
"You're the same as a crazy person and trouble yourself or your foot
With who the last rider to get on the bus is," skip around
The issues, the anger, the fear, skip, skip, skip to the original
Sin, deed as dead, entirely caught and surprised by the officers

Ticketing for jaywalking, "Is this your usual spot?" Do you feel
Aegisthus' contrition? Don't ask Sartre ask Zeus. Get up and go back
To the parking lot behind the Chicano historical museum, "Old bank
Of America, 'Sing it's praises'," the blood on the sidewalk, the yellow jackets 
Swarming over containers (Styrofoam), another hot day high humidity.

No one walking at the moment - helicopter flying overhead and human
Bodies crawling out of cardboard boxes while a masked man blows the
Leaves into the street (no leaves; just car lot dirt and diesel dust)
That's diesel drop, spots, and dry particulate.

Handkerchief Woman

2

Staring, breath, a wave of the hand, "Oh, thank you, bless you sir
I knew you... I think, I saw you over at the, D.A.'s,  yeah," turn
Off the lights with the left hand, a blank canvas, disappear
Into the curb; crawling along a crack outlined by a line of paper
Trash and begin to roll and touch the asphalt and begin to roll

And touch the asphalt again and touch the asphalt and get going as
Fast as possible rolling into the middle of the street and back to the
Curb weaving through traffic around trees and potholes and rocks and
Through red lights and up on the sidewalk over legs and arms and
Then touch the asphalt again and touch the asphalt burning a finger

Back on the sidewalk and into a tree trunk.  "The ficus are dropping their
Seeds, you see that?" She walks away from the water fountain after
Pouring water over her arm, the water rolled off the sweater and into the
Basin, scotchguard sweater, Gore-tex, nylon, coordinate those
Outer senses - balance them so, so the blocks in the building are not

Curving into the sky and connecting to the clouds. "Stand straight
And look at the sun, pinpoint the shadow of your head on the ground
And spread your feet until the shadow is held. Facing the concrete wall
Under the 3rd street tunnel, talking, "How does Spock do it? I mean,
Does he have ears or are they plastic noses rolled out into bagels

And flattened by Honda civics, long lines of Honda civics,
Car alarms sounding, how does Spock do it?  Driving from
One galaxy or star system or universe or whatever - driving 
Into walls and stars and bellowing, "What are you?" With
Those ears that look like my nose flattened against the

Glass of the donut shop upturned, upturned with a cracker in each
Nostril and now the concrete turns TV blue, Tom Brokaw's face
Speaking through his cheeks, playing "America the beautiful"
While the sun rises also over the Sierra's and the Brokaw’s 
Along Broadway waiver and dilate and make heat

Waves rise along car tops - take them off and look at
The gray sky, brokaw’s, brokaw’s down the street
Brokaw, kaw, kaw, you're fingered again, each of the stones
Laid against concrete are aligned to become push buttons, off,
On, vol, bass, treble, single, double, echo, reverb, twist...

Handkerchief Woman

1

Between the song of a mockingbird and Lebanese be
Ing spoken, below the buzzing of aircraft:  un
Der the orange tinted sunglasses, two eyes blink
Ed.  Split  hairs on the sidewalk;  a big smile and "father,
Son, holy ghost."  She says, "This is the place to be a person," a

Street light goes on.  Hanging from the window and making faces
At people down stairs, hyperventilating,  irri
Table,  "But none of this was mine,"  a memory:
"Adjust the right first, with the left eye closed, then the left
With both eyes open,": eventually, in due course, someday

Ultimately, a walk down Broadway will yield a new
Stereo-head phone radio: down to Seventh, in
To an alley and leaning against the wall, sing "kum
Byyyy...ya,"  my lord, don't speak, sit down, stand up, sit down, back on
Broadway and left down Fourth, "east is down" or off Broadway on va

Grant, "one squeal, two squeals," a hairbrush, a pa
Per towel: one creation becomes a walk to a dead-end, climbing the 
Walls and into someone's window to find people that are unknown
And speaking at the same time; at the same time: back out the
Window and down into the alley, facing into the street. A trash

Can rolls across the alley blocking the way and say's, "Remember the
Pebble in the BMW tire?" One wheel squeals,  "I'm the
BMW and you are the pebble, two eyes climbing up the wall,
Rolling into bricks and mortar rows again, light dark, light dark, "Who are
You?"  A pair of eyes and a head with a headache and black eyes, light, dark

Pushed into a corner between two fallen bricks and there:
Existing in a square area 2 inches by three inches - when
A person walks by - staring eyes follow and become
That painting, that mask, that outline outside the line, no
Talking, no fires, or eating; a fly lands on the page...

p & cheese

flattened hair, reaching back under the
coat to get a piece of cheese, "what will I write on, a co
py of dramalogue?"  breathing out, in, out. scrap
ing out, in, out. scratching my crotch, "don't wake up," sleeping a

alone, an ant crawls up p's thumb an stops
at the knuckle, little arms waving and searching for a
nother pair of waving arms, "don't
blink, don't. forget that each pair of shoes is an underval

ued piece of junk. the ants move up the scar a
cross the upper thumb knuckle and meets arms that are not mov
ing, longer and dead, p breathes a
gain, out, in. the ant asks, "remember, me?" the ant waves its arm.

"I'm your deactivated soul, wake up
and move over to the other side of the street," stomach ache,
two eyes open and float up a
bove the street light; ants have formed a line on spring street east of

second street and surrounding the l.a.
times building. floating up above union station and look
ing north; mount wilson lights: a fire
is burning pasadena: a single spot of diesel fu

el holds two eyes reflected around oil
ly colors, red and purple; the ants begin to move, car
rying eggs up to hill into
the metro and descend to: the eyes turn over in the oil.

p's eyes and ears 

Eyes open, a leather jacket with silver
Studs: stars a metallic noise; someting scraping. Not clear.
Hearing works better in the morning,
Hearing, a moth flies into P's nose - rubbing and poking. Sitting

Then standing. The moth is fleeing through the dark
Tunnel, up. A motor starts. And rests around the corner, wings
Lighting and periodically beat
Ing (P's face tickles). The motor stops and sputters for several

Seconds. Moth, "Where is this allusion to
Shakespeare, you're thinking about?" P cannot move, wants to and
The motor starts again and is shut
Off: one minute to seven, P says, "I have to re-think the cri

Sis in Lear," the moth beats harder and cannot
Move, want to! Stuck in fluid: Vibiana's bell beats seven
Times: Gone, P's hearing it again, or
Again hearing something like a hammer against a sewer hole co

Ver. "Convinced that no effort will have val
Ue," lasting or otherwise, pleasure as opposed to wis
Dom, intelligence, knowing the dif
Ference between an ant and a termite - nothing about the con

Crete is safe. One more hand comes up over the ladder, the
Ladder, the goal, the proper pace and position yielding
The pain as it pushes against the
Seams in the concave circle of rusted metal wrapped outward,

"The making of reality is the es
Cape from the hole," the release in transition and arguing
"You can take words and not mean," not once,
Open it, take one or many.  The additions are the divi

Dends: one waits at the back door, blue eyes and
Gray hair, "Will it produce pleasure?" The edge is cracked from wa
Ter and age, "Dismantle thought and go
Under the door," under the red pine trees glowing in the dark.

p & beard

the beard rests on the shirt.
among the teeth are pieces of bay leaf
across the street
a concrete barrier to protect anyone from fall

ing debris, immobile: one corner for two months
one corner for two months, "do you remem
ber how these trees
find water?" his head, at the foot of a wall

is bent to the side: snor
ing into the concrete sidewalk, stuck to
the saliva 
around the collar on the coat - his knuckles are

bruised from pushing a
way from rolling into the street, a knuc
kle becomes a
brake; head in place without feeling the tears in the

skin, the tears streaming
down around the lips onto the chin a
gain looking up
at a building an realizing my gums are bleed

ing - the eye protru
ding from the beard and away from the face
onto "my" hand.
responsible: let me tell you, a cat walks by

no longer standing free
ly and by their own muscular effort
dangle from in
visible strings, head knocked off and bent to the

sides; changing from effort.
from volition - the car drives itself down
the hill a be
ing until stopped by an oak tree; say it's

bludgeoned to a mes
sy pulp and left to rot under the leaves,
the oak leaves and
an acid residue - action does not take place.