1.
Index cards, deafened nod.
My knee gives out,
I bend.
Any moment I will go to lay beneath
the bomb, by train.
I hold my wrist to check my pulse,
as the animals do what they will.
What comes naturally.

2.
Closing Zippo clicks,
clacks as the sun comes up.
My lottery numbers look good.
In subtle motions I ease up to you.
I smell you on my shirt.
I sweat through my expensive socks,
while Salman Rushdie sleeps uneasily
on my couch.

3.
An efficient coffeepot is attempting to sound important in the kitchen.

4.
She moans alone but is still breathing.
(Her name is on the tip of my tongue.)
I pray for grace and pennies.
I anticipate bad weather.
A scar on my head itching.

5.
For a solid minute
I thought of her as
I prepared myself to sleep.

6.
I can tell you got all dressed up for me.
I can tell you got nervous thinking of fucking me.

7.
I have flown my flag of shame.

8.
God fights gravity.

9.
It could be worse.
It could be me flying down to earth on fire.
It could be me staring starving at your banquet.
It could be rocks and shells
left on your headstone in pensive prayer.

10.
A wooden Booker’s bourbon box
behind the bar becomes full of
bills and letters I will never send.

11.
A plastic trash bag,
industrial strength and scented,
smells of her gardenia neck.
  

12.
This is a stamina I did not know I had,
to walk and breathe and fly
without you.

13.
Taking a less direct approach
I lay perfectly flat and slide myself under your door.
This will keep me honest.

14.
I tore along those country roads
and bled along with the dead underground.
Frozen stasis in dirt but not hiding,
I face the cold.
I dream of Heaven and
picture myself there on a bicycle there.

15.
We sip the coffee and
tough out the sky after sleeping in.
Outside we crush the
fresh green leaves beneath our feet.

16.
Cupid kicked my ass.
I recovered nicely.

17.
A merging telling of fallen leaves,
Streams of semen and hidden condoms
under hotel mattresses.
I wake up crazy for it all.

18.
If someone were to tell her how horribly sexy she is,
she could conquer the world on a whim.

19.
I ate your secret aspirin.

20.
Under my sheets in relief,
in all conceivable misdirection,
taking chances,
in noble rage priced as high but still willing to accept less,
I will love you there.

21.
Sometimes we do something
for which we will never get a second chance.
I cross my fingers. (Broken watch.)

22.
The God I believe in hides in the details.
This is not the end of this.

23.
I have many good arguments.
I have nothing left to give.

24.
I lost my queen in a balls-out move.
I regained my position and
I won with pawns.
(I left 2 pieces in the park.)

25.
You are tumbling.
You are shaking.
You are turning.
I will be there in it. 

26.
My reflection in
floor wax is loosely
distorted with daysleeper
red light-
I am ten feet tall and brilliant.

27.
Her face
shining with sweat
she ignores herself
and me.

28. [On the day Johnny Cash died. A true haiku?]
I killed a six-pack
Listening to Johnny Cash
Just to watch it die.