RIP Christopher Hitchens

The world is a lot better off with your contributions!

Weddings and Vino

For Kari Kennedy

It’s locked in a vault.
That distress signal
that adheres to the
side of a vessel when

the heat of pain rises
past the point of boil.

Like the time the car
was loaded up,
maneuvered down to
Columbus, Ohio.

Or to the vineyards
that bask in southwest
region of the wolverine
state with their grapes,
just beyond the table
wine of the Indiana.

The faces, with lips and
teeth stained red, in the
crowd laugh and cry
the ceremonial harmony
of false matrimony.

Identity crushed like
grapes under violent,
dollar-dance feet

Collage

No rest until every moment passes
through mind travel of night and day.

Smile of death resides in a bungalow.
Close proximity of enemies turn up heat.

Talking to hidden friends out in the cold.

Sounds of angelic guitar feedback reverb
off the backs of dying millionaire shysters.

Scene, decaying in the test tubes, leaves
an aroma trail of embryonic afterthought.

In a corner like a coat rack, the black and
white road hits a dead-end roundabout.

Reservoirs surround each side of a vision,
protecting ideas from total destruction.

Fair Trade

“Thank you for the cigarette.
It’s so much better than
the Marlboro Lights they
sell here,” she said.
“Your Camel Lights really
put me in the mood.”

Half-hour later, she comes
up to me with two Marlboro
Lights in appreciation for
the Camel Light.

“Two of these are worth one
of those,” she said.

“That’s fair, I’ll take it,” I said.

She bobbled off to another bar
stool, over there, way down
there. Almost out the door.

I smoked the two-for-ones,
silently, drinking beer after beer.