BUDWEISER

If you land at sea you will see the land from the sea.
Give me a beer.
I like the bubbles in the ocean.
I wear a dunce cap so that you don't suspect
How smart I am.
I eat an IQ test so that I can taste my intelligence.
I fish for sharks so that I can take a piece out of myself.
Tomorrow has forgotten yesterday's dimensions which
Rise from the water like forgotten ghost.




DANTE

What you left behind became the forefront for an intruder.
Ask questions about your lies to affirm the beauty
Of deception.
I have a lot to ask you but I have forgotten why.
The squirrel that was run over on the street became
Part of your coat.
I hate the screamers from Peta in front of Dennis Basso.
I don't give a fuck about dead minks.
I'd like to juggle do-gooders and drop them on their heads.
A pacifist guarantees the death of his teammates.
Why would a person feel proud that he doesn't want to hurt
The other side?
Your death is desirable.
I want to hide in your skeleton and set up a sail to cross the lake.
I'll bring Dante with me.
I like poets with reputations that burn.




RUBBING POISONS

I am banging heads with a moose.
The face that comes out of the night shines
A flashlight on it.
I remember camp fire days in sleep away camp.
I had poison ivy,
The worst case the nurse had ever seen.
I had been rubbing the leaves on my body
To show that I was immune.
I wasn't.
I looked like pimples on a scarf,
A rash anomaly of disease and sympathy.
I worried about myself like a quarter standing
On its edge.
No change.
I still am rubbing poisons on myself.




UNDERTOW

When we meet we go into a dark barn where the horses gallop in place.
Bridles smash in the time glint.

How many times
Have I lifted you from the doldrums
To a pedestal?

The last time we climbed the Himalayas I dropped my pickax and killed
An invisible donkey.

We are riding yesterday's flanks up to the magnificence of this view.
It is not a glacier.
It is just our relationship turning to ice with a warm melting undertow.


© David Lawrence 2012