walking away — his music has soured besmirched in the corner those croons, once vibrant hopeful fall deflated bereft as a spoonful of lukewarm cough syrup your touch, once teeming with impaired bravery evoke mere platitudes forgotten, unfinished cigarettes languishing in an ashtray if I could, i’d sport a pair of sunglasses to cloak…

Art of love, love of art — **For Marcus Parkansky** sleeves of pink sleeves of green sleeves of yellow the barista’s charcoal stare his liquid smoke stance exude a sooty aroma from the coffee grounds’ tender earth the coiled, onyx terrain is nestled beneath his weathered cap, smudged from his greasy fingers these same fleshy tendrils formed that…

a layer poem — lapis lazuli you’re thick and rich enough to paint these sour cream walls you’ve tinted these palm lines with an extraterrestrial’s blood cerulean with two shaky hands I swab your face and reveal your stained yellow teeth I step aside, aching to be swabbed by you denim that was the end of my shivering, when you…

Inspired by my recent stroll through lovely San Francisco — **For David Priggie and Alvin Kim** The Mix — the patio sizzling with various, savory scents and meats, casual shorts bulging with thick wallets, hard-ons, thighs tightened from a late afternoon spin class, marinating in crisp cologne, pungent from the fiery West Coast Sun David, taking another whiff of poppers…

For my Untitled Series — the margins of my books are brimming with my commentary in a language only close friends can decipher, amidst the audible disgruntled scoffs from my entitled spectators the footnotes of my essays spill forth used coffee filters and used Kleenex sullied by spittle when my tormentors lurk outside my door i raise a flag i stitched from the scraps…

A poem about the aftermath of betrayal and disappointment — My community is gone I wish my tears were Whiter, Richer like refreshing milk I could sell it to the highest bidder in St. Anthony My community is gone I wish my furrowed brow, creased from the North Loop’s collective sneer was perceived as a growing pain, a badge of…

Generosity in a pandemic — who’s counting portions who’s kidding who rationing charity as if we’re at war — that, we are my neighbors developed a custom picking at their scabs and sores wiping the exude on stained cargo pants my friends paint over their masterpieces in unforgiving shades of beige and brown stabbing, gutting their helpless…

mid-winter attack — oh, how similar we are our troubled dispositions, reflecting each other, restless tongues searching for lost teeth oh, how they castigate us wandering the snow-capped, gilded streets of the illustrious North Loop Elite where we’re constantly wary of the Robersons and their snobbish second glances like us, you’re tormented by an indiscernible loss, failing to recall who changed you and where…

misgivings on Sunday — last weekend we came in burnt fumbling with the chipped zippers of our jackets another had fallen it hit us how there are so many fallen so many stagnant, scarlet puddles the stench of copper polluting Central, Nicollet, and Broadway I confessed that night over a blunt i’m paranoid i’m…