Happy New Year

Last night I ventured out into the cold
to see the stars in the blackest sky
amateur fireworks burst here and there
the popular color being green, lime green

off the shoulder of Orion, I thought

like tears in rain

I thought

the sad companion left behind
with his woes

with his dreams of women

surgically enhanced women

and his foolishness

He just doesn't get it

thinks it's all written on the outside

an open book

if the proportions cohere

I thought

and his grief just makes me tired

(compassion being quite inconvenient at times)


and I thought of my own foolishness
and avoidance of resolutions
other than digital images
which are the only ones that count to me now
that speak to me


I'm planning a trek
across the part of my country
between here and California
parts I have never seen except in photos
and movies
I'll bring along my dog and my cameras
and a cell phone and a laptop
and a nutritional system of my own devising
no tent, just an SUV

I could be dreaming, but the idea
could really grow on me
could become more possible
with each passing day

There was a time I felt a constant companion
but that entity checks in with me less often now
and I keep hoping

hoping

hoping

that when the time is right

I'll see the light

and hear the music

and dance. . .

Dream Deferred as Irrelevant

in the dream i am back in china
i am in the corridor
just outside my room
saying goodbye to some friends,
two women,
& i decide to go to the 10th floor.

i pass through floors of generational gap
assorted levels of tecno decor,
an electronic picture frame,
malfunctioning,

but for a second i glimpse
a snowy mountaintop pointing up
into the blue & there is a car bridge
aligned w/the rising sun
of the winter solstice.

So now I am back in my dear old LEXUS
heading out through gracefully rolling hills
although the mountaintop goal
has somehow receded out of range....

surely it never moved, yet
there remains that possibility.

I decide to walk instead,
abandoning the car
for the chance to absorb more aromas.


I find an old touring bicycle
& am pleased with it...
very pleased.

Such smooooooth synchronicity!

I become slightly disoriented (hah),
so i turn a corner, looking for a spot
of technicolor, grinning like an archaic Kore,
as a tall comedian tweaks my headlight
for the amusement of his stubby companion.

I shake the detritus off my hand into a wire
rubbish can & move along, pedaling, shifting
gears. I realize I am changing again,
changing--I cling to the side of the bike
with my legs & one arm
like a Comanche showman,
aiming my camera up through the handlebars
at a particularly appealing moon gate where
a young girl with a backpack smiles & waves.

Although I realize
I have left the car behind
i move out
into the streaming humanity,
merge w/the traffic
flowing back onto the bridge,
flowing
overhill
& I can see
my hotel
abides,

but i've gone ...much.... too...... far
to stop now.