HUNCH

What seems reasonable
in retrospect is what
is cause for alarm
among the cannibals,

who munch on one
another on their way
to lunch. If I had
a hunch about

anything, it'd be
about something no
one else had bothered
to wonder about.

I'd keep it a secret, though,
that no one else could know.

AFTER LUNCH

Memory, like misery,
is negotiable only
up to a point. The
point of no return.

Turn left when the
road does if you're
really intent on arriving.
Gathering intelligence

in a land populated
by imbeciles can be
difficult. Don't
try it unless you

have gloves that won't
fit you after lunch.

BEAUTY REVISITED

A thing of beauty's
a stupid joy every
time we look at it.
Nonsense is its own

reward and knows
what it's talking
about. Spring
brings a new way

of looking at things
that's an old way.
This is not to say
anything as stupid

as the joy beauty is
each and every time.

DEEPER DOWN

Sirens screech toward
midnight. We sleep
deeper down, where
every evil's scrubbed

until it gleams.
Diving up past dawn's
watery border, we
drag a dream behind

us into daylight. It
blinks and disappears.
The world we return
to's the world we

leave to return
to the world we left.

SEASONAL

When the sea stiffens
in November, previously
incredible things hold
their collective breath.

Every inch measures
less than it did when
a much bolder sun
delighted in egging

it on. Gold, far
less electric in
December, keeps
its value closer

to its vest. Nothing
is as true as it was.

IN THE MEANTIME

When natural light
returns, displacing
this cloned light
that resembles confusion,

the sun will understand
what was meant again.
This won't happen
anytime soon and

won't come wrapped
in any of those old
newspapers the prophets
have tried to sell us.

In the meantime, be
careful not to open your eyes.

SKETCHES

Tell me everything
you know about
love and then get
the hell out of here.

The architects are
coming with their
sketches of what
matters in the end.

We don't want to
be here for whatever
the future may hold,
even less for what

it lets go of in a
last-minute fit of rage.