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Hand held eyes

head unencumbered

telepathic, no need for speech

hovering instead of walking

how many babies? how many pets?

photosynthetic? photovoltaic?

 

No names needed

world long enclosed

beyond     behind     beneath     believing

 

When electromagnetic waves outnumber the oceans'

outnumber the pollen and spores in the air

so many messages never intended to blossom

allergies are opportunities, keeping us screenbound

as future generations with smaller faster fingers

as we get more micro than macro

AI telling me my odds of a safe lunch

The Ways I Do the Things I Do

 

i'm not porous but generous, not loose but ready

neither sharp or flat but inappropriate, at least out of context,

of the mouths of babes, how a screen can make me babble,

when a muscle's late, why any twitch could spark a dance

 

i can fall when i'm already laying down, the floor has other ideas

gravity never goes away but sometimes intensifies, like a snare

something tasty unprotected, just enough willpower and delusion

to take three steps into the air before i'mprone again,

where the sidewalks flow, where the rivers are hidden

or maybe permanently detoured

 

with my switch-blade saw,

my self-propelled loppers imitating a fearless crow

hand tools, foot tools, tools run by mind power, so much

jammedinto this batteryleaks or simmers, fumes and shimmers

itake a hit of power and cough for over a minute

breathing in the condolences and critiques of those who,

like me, have no idea what i'm about to let loose

 

i hold my shovel horizontal and stab it in the air, feeling the density

hearing a snick of friction, but the air refuses to pile, the pollution here

is neither magnetic or inert, air riddled with more energy than ever

waiting for somewhere on or in my body to attempt communication

 

hum the first 2 bars and i'll give you a song you never heard before

lyrics that take rhyme where it's uncomfortable, painting a scene

that makes you either close the window or grope for a light switch

my ears are more crossed than my eyes, i hear what's said a mile away

more clearly than what's said behind my back

 

if my lips are moving, if my hair is blowing in a breeze no one else feels

once i've pitched my larynx, shaved each rib to a different tone

my heart is waiting for enough native percussion so it can step out

and wail what hearts, lungs and glands start syncopating to

long before the ears and long muscles realize the day's begun

That Day so Much Changes

couple extra planets in the sky this morning

freeway so loud must be in an earlier time zone,

i'd rather the sun kept to my schedule

thoughI'm not a sustainable planet or moon

but a prototype ecosystem, sketched in. with dangling vectors

i'mso tiny in scale even time has little interest

in takingaccount of my deficits and surpluses

such small openings for withdrawals and deposits

the exchange rate seldom in my favor, and in those few cases

an ironic justice, a comic example

like a joke where the punchline's in a language no one here knows

google translate is so offended it withdraws its whole family

so I have no links, maps or videos

my walls reveal their virtuality, the wallpaper

turned bright blue, my version of windows

no longer compatible with any other networks,

electricity shut down from system overload

as the strongest hottest wind in decades is hours away

all information and input carefully pre-conditioned,

data clouds so polluted with viral spam they ooze infection

crash through their drives and silos

releasing mile high spumes of charged dis-content,

lightning so crowded and aimless windmills could melt,

solar panels could start hallucinating, absorbing oxygen instead of light

as our bodies join the confusion thinking we pump

chlorophyll not hemoglobin, desperate to not be bare-rooted

and always in shadow, feeling the deficiencies from artificial light

and rain so long removed from the sky it thinks

it's from underground and yearns to return there

liberating itself from pipes and spillways, dissolving dams

not with pressure but collusion, as the dams are from the earth

and never liked living so jammed together with

particles fromother states and eras

rivers boycotting evaporation, oceans realizing

how up-river means loss of agency and heritage

undersea mountains wanting a thin illuminated atmosphere

to be more than a dream

while landlocked mountainswish

the giant metal birds would stop threateningand poisoning them,

wish they could still seearound the earth's curvature, could still

accessthe legends glaciers would whisper into their veins

(mount hood seems to have drifted already)

next night i can see through, the stars will be much fewer

and brighter, more variousin color and twinkling,

not constellationsbut animated murals that

i'm not sure are scripture, legalese or ads

November Ready to Pounce

 

Given the weather

the long expired warranty

removing one shirt to find another

when i can't read the bus's destination

 

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Helicopters as small as mosquitoes

horizon just a mile away, river

feigning sleep but ready to uncoil

where fog rises and smoke descends