time is an enemy 
thick air 
a pigeon writes 

The big yellow house 
up the hill   a blue-green house 
across   a gray house 

they talk about / how Jane talked about / giving 8 puppies away

Charles Darwin’s great grandson
dined on frogs’ legs,
found them rotten,

Having lived together for so long that they could no longer stand the sight of one another, the couple decided that this alone was reason enough to legalize their relationship, and so they mailed off the wedding invitations.

In the late afternoon, above the town of Llanes, on the rock wall of the promenade, old men sit facing the ocean and read soft core pornography.

“D. Incarnate, call me Satan,” he explained, stepping in front of me.

Out after dark in what was left of the Combat Zone
we ate raw sushi next to Big Mo's Live Sex,

Remember where I came from.
Think of a continent of sabled czars.
Leave your home. Let exile fill your mouth

That the children slept
In their beds through the night

And much else had not changed