is mexico even a place you can be? what if argentina is just an ocean wave? papua new guinea just a coffee bean? what if there was no napoleon? his crusades just a comic book series? these are not questions but exclamation points. You’re the chief of police’s son. Pow! You’re a doctor’s wife. Pow! It’s magic really. Pow! You just won the lottery. Pow! Pow! You’re the luckiest virgin alive. Pow! You never knew your friends had never eaten a chicken back. Pow! You learned to beg change in junior high cafeterias! You were prom queen! You were suspended for cross dressing! Pow! You stood on the lunch table and shouted your allegiance to communism! You drive a BMW! You never made love to your wife! POW! POW! POW! IT’S MAGIC REALLY! LOOK AROUND! Life is happening spontaneously really. It’s really magic really. And you never lived to be 30. Pow! And you never lived. It’s magic. Really.

welcome to the two thousand zero zero years the years of zeros. zeros in yr check book. zeros in yr bank account. zeros in yr cheerio boxes. Wake Up. it’s the third famine. The Great Anxiety. Zoloft in the drinking water. safety standards now require seat belts in all box cars. helmets on the subway. condoms in soup kitchen serving line. For Your Safety And Ours. billboards. newspaper headlines with yr name in it. old drunks defecating on city sidewalks. Wake Up. History repeats itself. blister cream and heating pads now stocked in all vending machines. History repeats itself. witchcraft made popular by tv sitcoms. History. wickedness praised as ambition and the height of professionalism. History. believe what you want it’s been this way all along. H. believe what you need it’s been buried alive along with everything you hoped to become. B. Wak p. Hist. peat. L. L. L.

which one of you comes sitting from over-there? the over-there. i wonder aloud as you approach. worn denim jackets worn with the sleeves cut off. i hold my breath and wait. trying to look in the other direction. direction other than the over-there direction. but it seems to be everywhere. you seem to be coming from all-sides. but just one. so i wait. trembling a little. for fate to decide where to throw me. looking back you're standing directly in front of me. hands on hips. foot tapping. just like a bad movie. i swallow hard. gulp. just like in a bad comic strip. we occupy all genres. i wait for you to speak. the time never comes. suddenly a cup is in your hand with arm out-stretched. i rummage pockets fumbling for and old quarter. but only dimes. that would be insulting. but a dollar would be too much. i wouldn't want you to think i do this all the time. looking down i take my hand from my pocket dropping two nickles and an old button in your cup (i noticed you were missing one on your vest). when i look back i see you've grown old. your hands wore and eyes clouded over. your clothes less fitting, collected from others, or the garbage, tossed away. you're dirty and ashamed. i am still afraid. but it's a different fear. a guilty fear. i look down at my shoes, fidgeting , as you grunt and walk away. back in the direction you came from. you disappear.

sleeplessness my weakness like pity. no weakest. no weekend. the hues of blues and strawberries behind i eyelids. a coffee brewed. solo piano drone. things strewn around my cluttered mind. haha vision of stand up comedy. haha visions of sit down insanity. that's a wrap boys. downloading rap music. rebel without a cause. sarong and no drawers. no shave. no head. no hear. keep the lights on flickering the shadow movement in i eyecorners. static electricity. other words i come up with. not for entertainment. just as a reminder. and i haven't even seen winter for a year.