Braille

Abandoning the figure
has proven that
abandoning the figure
proves nothing.

The museum floor,
littered with bits
of broken language,
is building a

tower of meaning
out of babble.  A
blind man watches
porn in his imagination.

The best are full of
a lack of all conviction.

Deep

In the deepest parts
of the deep South it is
believed that if you
look at any animal

long enough, it becomes
an alligator.  There
also exists there the
notion that it is

wrong to rape
a woman who is
willing to have
sex with you.

Just have sex
with her, they urge.

No Solution

Trees slice
the sunlight
into shards
of its former

self.  Shade
drops from the
trees like
ripened fruit.

It is always
either morning,
noon, afternoon,
or night.

There is no
solution for this.

Perhaps Not

In my will
have requested
that pieces of
my dead body

be distributed
to the meek
so that they
 may continue

to believe that
I once existed.
Perhaps this will
help them to

understand why.
Perhaps not.

Declining

To illustrate
how much the
quality of education
has declined over

the years, my
grandfather, who
was yanked
out of school

after the third
grade so that
he could help
out around

the farm,
knew everything.

Rural

Snow's plentiful around
here in winter.  Our
women put it up in Mason
Jars to ease us through

the summer's unbearable
heat.  In this as in virtually
every town in the region
the law requires

that all open
doors be walked
through at least
once a day and

that every closed
door be opened.

Almost

Something I had
been unable to
imagine in my
wildest dreams

turned up in
one of my tamer
ones wearing
a raincoat and

what may have
been the beginning
of the end of
something almost

certain not to exist
in anyone's lifetime.