V

VI

august had days so ghastly bright
i had to walk around all day so blind
but a man in a beach bonnet
never has serious business
but to watch the flashlight
spirits of ghost crabs
or wash in the brown brine
of that violent ocean
and pretend to be
the oldest man who will float under or away
like the guiltiest german

and under the white snarl
of the august sun
we find problems
very bothersome problems

who is it
hiding in the corner of the pool
doing keystands underwater?
why does the disney scion
have a picture of his wife
naked and spread open
as the background on his iphone?

sherlock holmes stayed up all night
smoking a mountain of shaggy hash
to solve the case

and those nights were blacker
watching for hounds of baskerville

try to go to sleep or go surfing
unsolvable cases each
just end up on the beach again
puking dunkin donuts
standing so tenderly
weeping motherly tears
watching the sea gulls look embarrassed
while they peck at my vomit

then some golden days
id climb the wooden stairs
that overlook the beach
and see the dear hearts
of tiny friends and tiny family
underneath those circus umbrellas
they say hello!
id blow the glorious kisses
and then fall down the stairs
everyone claps and says
hoorah!
hoorah!

VII

chain link girls line up and get painted
huck finn style and hope
their faces dont drip in the sun
im really far away but i still laugh
shouting "down with the babes"

and "ugh"

they dont hear me and
id still like to get the names
of 15 maidens tattooed on my a

VIII

IX

my good friend said that he had the best joke of all
he had it on some very fine and sturdy sherlock holmes paper
folded up to keep all of the juice in
i unfolded it gingerly
and read not without fear.
it said: "the little sisters have a book"
at such times one feels the horror of misunderstanding

X

each other:

sometimes you sit in a car for too long
and feel like you're in high school so gross again
dunkin donuts with no drive through
and whatever lives with you
starts to feel very haunted

is that a butt?


months get so backwater
sit in a freight-yard where no one
bothers me ever no days counted
but tuesday a man in a complicated truck
crow circled my perch and
got out he said to me
"now i enjoy a drunk amongst ruins just as much as the next soul
but this isnt the place for you friend"
dudes and times left me with so much gravel in my teeth

XI

five thousand stitches in my face


and i still cant count to one hundred



i pissed my basketball shorts