The glitter swirls whitely
It’s a shake up
Isn’t there another pastime
You could take up
Tried to break in
To the cozy cottage sitting
On a bubble of a hill
All you can do is
Watch the flakes spill upon
This gentle scene
But I spot a tiny crack
Near your knuckle
Escape is at hand
For this gold buckled elf
In your hand
Pounding drums and violins
The introduction
To the latest catastrophe
Fires rage and people flee
Then it’s drowning or planes dropping
From the skies
Lady Tragedy smiles in the corner of your TV
War and famine to the jamming bass
Homicidal hippie commune cult
To the squeal of a grown adult
Barely contained fevered newsreader eyes
Lady Tragedy is mock surprised
Shock! the cameras just outside
From couch potato gone to fries
The sickly glow in the window
The remote control
Lady Tragedy holds
Bitter Bulging Biscuits
Sweet Lolly Lashes
Olfactory Ooh-berries
Viscous Vinegar Vapids
Low-hanging Slurp-vines
He stuffed into his
Greedy gob at once
Forgetting even to munch
This was breakfast dinner and lunch
And went off
Not knowing the gastro-wars
His belly would have to suffer
He had a Lickspittle Loose-worm
For a buffer
Puttered to the pot
To hit the spot
To soothe any galleon
The tea turned the bones
Over warm
His voice fell to craggy depths
To plumb the dead of
Their jewelry
And it soared with cloudy
Drifts
Or became a pool
To see
Oneself, shuddering
At the emotional
Wreck
Looking back
The lyrical mischief
Wound round
Life to strangle
Or comfort
Sly asides
And
Grunts and
Yelps
Pleas for help
And vocal stunts
That filled
The room
With imprecations
Of some stifled
Doom
Spotted from
Afar
Plant-like
Bobbing toward
The university
In the
Pale light
What frail creature
Beneath it
Seen
Close
Up
Furtive
Glances
Trapped
In
Stone
Halls
The magician waved his hand
A grave hush descended
This was the same moronic grin
They’d seen on the sign coming in
Place the Sizzle Sticks in
Your ears
And the images will become
More clear
The imagination of
A voyeur
The recalibration of your
Jittery system
Sit calmly as the Sizzle Sticks
Heat up
This process will make you more
Wittery
In social situations
Your perspiration will smell
Like a mango candle softly burning
Beneath each armpit
Never remove the Sizzle Sticks
If confronted by burning flesh/hair
Odor, disturbing imagery,
Ocular regeneration, or insistent outside contact
Once you’ve been aptly Sizzled, ears may
Protrude or stretch farther than usual but
Perceptual awareness will have trebled
Too many turtles
For one busted barrel
A single trusted turtle
For five in a whirl
The barrel rolled over
By a hobo gone feral
Gleaming turtle shells
By the moon by the shore
Turtle in the belly
Of a hobo on the snore
North wind blows
Past boots in the snow
Tucking in tracks
Has a ghost flown this way
Swift in the unknown
Whips and gusts
Greycoated sentry