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Collected Poetry
(rd king dot net)poetry and digital art
The Big Picture
Groups of short poems.
The Long Labor of Betting on Love
1: White Pectoral A handsome man comes striding out of a trailer park, into the sun. Black sunglasses, unbuttoned shirt— unlit cigarette hanging from his lips. 2: Long Labor of Love The befuddled inkling of the moist unknown. That second slap on the ruddy cheek. Slow, pelvic thrusting—idyllic frenzy. Each other day abundant with plump distraction. And then, learning to let the daughters grow. 3: On a Windy Night Watching a borrowed video tape of Neil Young in late career. An odd selection of selected songs, from so many. The band looks rather old and haggard, as does Neil— but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. 4: The View from Her Parent's House What more was there to do other than sit on the wooden deck in Shirley's yard and ponder the marvelous view—the Santa Lucia's rising beyond, clouds shredding above, a tongue of fog slipping in between. 5: Hilltop Place & Inspiration Once again doing what I love to do when I get the chance to do it— running the elegant streets of this quiet beach town. Tipping my head to honey-fed women whose breasts jostle when they run. 6: Santa Maria We visit my mother in her mobile home park, wedged into a Latin neighborhood. She talks of things past and offers food as low riders drift slowly by—plates on the walls vibrate. 7: Things Long Past I recall being younger and driving across the desert—the thrill of the long expanse, full of nothing; the youthful wish to see something out of nothing. Today we meet too much traffic, irresolute clutter, too much careless debris. 8: Forty Thieves Shit-faced, but starry eyed in the Aladdin Hotel—wanderer in the bright, desert night. Wishing I was younger. Wishing I was luckier—but thrilled, nonetheless, by the excess beyond ruthless excess. 9: The Morning After I wake up naked in a cold, dark room with a window opening to an extravagant view of sun bathers: I ponder a sexual encounter—here the locals peddle performance enhancing drugs. 10: Bone Shadow Lounging in the pool at the Aladdin Hotel —early poolside, pool shine evening heat (sightseers on the Eiffel Tower). I see a man's spine ripple into his trunks as he sunscreens his wife's scapula. 11: At the Poker Bar My luck is fleeting. My bartender unattendant; my money is fleeing while my luck is fleeting at best. But the woman across the bar—a studious player—has bared vast tracts of her breasts. 12: Desert Passage A big man walks on crutches through the casino. The casino opens onto a themed mall—rain falls on the hour, the night sky turns into day. Bursting out into the parking lot, the heat seems largely out of place. 13: Highway 95 Dust devils spinning across the desert, we're accompanied by intrinsic and squat powerlines headed to somewhere unspecific. Low brush scattered across the dry lake bed. Mountains, rocky and barren, rising in all directions. 14: Western Summer Like fishing in a rocky stream. Like wading in a mountain creek. Smoke circling the evening campfire. Men walk with their fishpoles and wives through the rocks and cottonwoods to the river's edge. Dusk... back | ToC | next
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