GRIFTOLOGY©

FOLLYWOOD

soon the shelves and aisles of Congress and Safeway

and the nookie crans of smoggy check stations

will rock with laughter and earthquakes

entertainment guaranteed to rattle tea cups

muffled in careful placement of household cats

like ours

our Sphinx beings who make up for spelling deficiencies

with cryptic eyes

narrowed to slits that served well

in wind storms of forgotten times

we suspect them of wisdom while

neglecting our own

in snowy meadows

beneath desiccated weeds

rollicking bellies in their domains

rolling hills created in their own image

vast plains of blue lupine dotted with white winged

miniature

insects

glittering towers of real estate investment

traffic flow computed on TV screens

monitored at leisure

 for those few moments

laughter and rollicking bellies

yes, indeed

life on its own without advertisements

is life on the fly

reach for airport pillars, rails along a creek

as a house floats by

where everyday pant legs were pulled on one at a time

or a little short

while the weather mom shakes her broom

and spiders fall out

disconcerting is it not?

how did those damn things get there in the first place?

in the shelves and daisies

of our entertainment

SUV warriors

armed with GPS, on-board computers, radar maps

stalk tornadoes

which do not have technology

and no inherited DNA

and implacably proceed

altering condensation and condescending smiles

for an inheritance of fools

big jelly belly

aisles and miles of bureaucratic ignorance

echoes of earthquakes

whatever it takes

to get a laugh

shocking

is it not?

let's make a movie

NATURE'S IMAGINATION

when TV gets to be like watching the freeway

and a Big Mac becomes dysfunctional

perhaps a galactic memory returns

salvaged from childhood

when glowing mysteries were unexplained by astronomers

who speak in billions and trillions

cause and destiny and eternity, being incalculable

are best left to kids and lunatics

or worse

philosophers –

just imagine

the meat and potatoes of existence

entrusted to restaurant patrons

who do not own a pot

nay verily, citizens

we must make our own soup

or starve

soup stock begins with bones

ordinarily discarded

or in our impoverished case

eternity

it can boil for a long time

but when to turn the pot off?

well, to approximate

how about half the time until bones dissolve

reasonable?

calculus, however, does not apply to bones

it has limits that may be approached

but never reached

as that would be unimaginable

here we reach a meeting of minds

as it were

or a parting of the ways

an unreachable limit

limitless expanses

take your pick

but let's try to make it manageable

infinity, eternity are much too big so

cut them in half

which is what?

twelve hundred billion trillion or something

a nanosecond divided by quantum uncertainty?

so unimaginable

the lion stalks its prey

kids do not crush butterflies

to do otherwise would be

well . . .

ARCHIVAL PEACE

here is the song

which has been swept away

strumming - -

believe I clean my broom

a vague gentle breeze tonight

slight tic of the bathroom door

breath of cool humidity

and here is the picture

that slipped out of the developing tray

hit the floor

before it got to the fixer

far from the sepia toner

in Ansel Adams days - -

redwood trees in their silent majesty

tower over forgotten bonsai

sea shore crescendos

and small birds having fun

on the backs of sea lions

amidst floating weeds

all swept away

in a tsunami

a category 5 denouement

with no possible bearing upon ancient cash registers

or slot machines ringing with automatic calculations

or pot holes in neglected streets

it would be easy to say

that all of this

was the work of a gentle breeze

RAIN OF TRUTH

this is a coded message

swept up by Patriot.net to be clumped in a threat node

as I watch the Weather Channel

but still . . .

the triple dots are a clue

the code is raindrops

Nebraska beach

invasion day

coordinated from Climate Change Command

the all-seeing eye blinks

I am gone

the day is long

extending into midnight

I think night is pretty good

where all the dark things are

just on the other side of the window

all the gobbledy Google eyes in the sky

goblins, as they were fashioned in fairy tale days

oh, paranoia

unsafe for national security

arrest that man!

laughing

I am galaxies, a black hole, the Horse Head nebula

all the winds of your local tornado

a chicken coop in exponential ascension

I am beyond redemption

furthermore

the sprinklers of your average lawn

which depend upon a small device called a solenoid

that actuates commands sent from Colorado

where video pilots fly

dragon drones

and spies die like terrorist scum

on ponds that clump mosquitoes

oh, never mind . . .

I am asymmetrical

beyond proper spelling

I escape calculation

confusions of my Plan D

which fail the test of simple delivery

just in time to prevent blindness or fatal blood pressure

happy to fail the test of loyalty

you minders of my putative heart

which might, at anytime, cause a preventable expense

if only I were monitored

by an implant

I hear raindrops in my coded den

[!!!]

hear them splashing just beyond the windowsill which overlooks

a zucchini vine, struggling to ascend

recycling string on our front porch rail

its young blossoms in total harmony with a family reunion

brothers-in-law reappearing here

and so it goes

all you NSA guys and gals and computers

was it so difficult to discover that the weather doesn't lie?

how amusing

zzzzit . . .

drip, drip, drip . . .

HAPPINESS

the world tavern is a brilliant place

SHADOWED

with zombies, lifeless faces

here in America

world dream

citizens allowed to pursue happiness

guaranteed the freedom to achieve it

as debts accumulate

which must be paid or face imprisonment

no matter how they were assigned

downcast eyes stumble in conformity

with freedom proclaimed

with gunfire, batons breaking bones

and green banker's lamps

pitiless am I to have left behind the hallowed heritage

pursuit is not far from death

which marches to its own drummer

heard fading into the background

a noise of sizzling bacon

no matter how I die

or refrain from proclamations

or attend to proclamations

God, Zeus, Helios, Buddha

leave me

to not be

a Polish hot dog at the Art & Wine Festival

all the happy people with dancing eyes

that will fade at morning

when the sun comes out

ashen eyes

burnt

with days and nights

of immortality

LONGEVITY

day's end

speculation vanquished

let's call upon a shooting star to furnish delectation

or consider a crap table

it goes beyond simple excitement

to engage the mind

in careful consideration

of the odds

how do I bet thee?

let us count the ways

the end of my fingertip has no limit

point it and it points back

as in that famous painting which

once seen

cannot be forgotten

though the painter has reassembled as dust

what a glorious scene!

an imagined history

certainly in time out of mind

which each day comes to

clunk!

let us consider a crop failure

rows of corn, or beets, or barley

in rows

students at Sunday school

to glorify dinner tables

and they wilt

is it not depressing?

it is treason

bread basket of a nation emptied

to fill the coffers of bankers

who have their own ideas

of what ends speculation

stuff that clunks is everywhere

mortgage arrangements

nuclear missiles

sliding doors at the BART station

and there are legal agreements

mergers and bankruptcies

it's all neatly divvied up

it?

DIRECTIONS

could be a category 5 nightmare

or a 0 dream

mindcasters find impossible to scheme

I award them donkey beads

and all the comforts of home cooking

an ice age seems comfortably distant

earthquakes, nuclear meltdowns

but a return to the age of steam?

rising seas

sea gulls dying

coral reefs dying

bees dying

all too much for wakeful sanity

save the whales

dying

of course dying is old news

the ultimate forgiveness of debts

beyond reach

but in the breach

beaches are obliterated

before mortgage assurances can activate

their air bags

and so the stuff of dreams

heroic dramas

is gone

over a collapsing dam

the enormity of it all beyond comprehension

a fabrication

washed away by reality

dying is what we have to do

like it or not

so let's get on with it

(how insensitive!)

rack your balls at the pool hall

do the break

how sensitive is

a nine ball in the corner pocket

plunk

slam dunk

but let's not go into labor over this

surely the dream can wait

it will not cuddle furry rabbits anyhow

being just a dream

*  *  *

on brick walls anywhere

or even on clap board walls

Virginia creeper will cling

will decorate fall admirably

as small birds chirp

singing on and on

here in galaxy seven of nine

lined up in digital representation

of images in a gallery hung for the blind

golf ball hail pelting tiny skull caps

Jackson Pollack drizzles wavy lines

faithfully flicking pixels in random order

distinguished photographer of the western world

modestly sharing insane talent

in his studio with that other artist

that

fly on the wall with a thousand eyes