Tahoe Mountain Road

shackled to a promise of flying
It is there at the top

as smoke rolls over
indifferent walls of granite
A forest of dead trees

aimlessly tumbles
Iron drips

in every breath
fights momentum
Bound to moulded metal

to wires and chain

to a promise
Push down

to ascend
to the last turn
a wall

    When its over, I hope that some thing carries through, even if the details a lost.

and Yet

I saw myself in 30 years on a road to winters. Spandex shorts, cankered beard, neon sleeves against the cold, heading in the same direction, a headwind, cadence slightly slower.

"Keep your head down," I said and looked at me with stern eyes.

"Keep moving. Forward." I replied and looked back at the road.

A bike ride.

we're a
living for
a
moments  between
the
counting minutes motioned motions walking through
when
moments come we're a
living when movements come we're alive in

the
olive     grove the
almond grove an
almond        tree the
olive            trees on
|||:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::------------------------|
the
sticky road the
sun bricky road on
the windy winding winters road.

Music for Sunsets

People
is
music
for sunsets
for big SSSSSing
through bike lanes
past surburban library parking lot solar arrays
under clouds big CCCCing
in robin blue
People
always
come
ar
o
u
nd

Itssunnyand75Itfeelssogoodtobealive

Forgotten Narratives Part 2

In case you were wondering, the world actually ended last year, and we are now in those last remaining flashes of light, the last gasps of air, the few flickers of vision before it all goes black. Throes. Spasms. Contortions. It is an illusion, like the chicken's head on the ground, detached by the farmer's axe, watching her own body run around the yard for a few more laps, wondering "What...is...that?" before the last spills of life blood drain from her neck. A painless, final, hallucinatory reality.

And all of these pieces fit to prove it: the deer on its hind legs, reaching for leaves, its antlers too new to fall off, stretching over the wire fence, the neon green women running, a coyote in the middle of their pack, dazed but unafraid, accustomed to the sounds of Nike Plus.

Those beings, now: An order.
The Deer eats the Leaves,
the Coyote stalks the Deer,
the Neon Pack consumes it all:
Everything in its path.

And our long shadows stretch out before us.

Our tears of joy are not because we are happy, but because we long for a happiness that has passed and we can no longer grasp. The child near the river, jumping at the sight of the lizard he's only seen in pictures, his squeals convulsive and involuntary, (and down, off to the left, the sun's sharp whiteness rebounds off the river) the lizard calm, the father's hand just there, just grazing his shoulder to say go ahead, reach, son reach, but to to say I'm here I'm here here if you need me son son as he reaches down son to new reality too too new real.

A joy I can't understand, a joy I can't hope to even remember, tears of joy.

And our long shadows stretch out before us.

Rhinoceri: A Study

A 

rhinoceros's eyes are on the side of its head, and a 

rhinoceros's skin is made of scales. But they don't categorize by a 

rhinoceros's eyes, so its a mammal instead of a lizard.

My babies make 

me who 

I am. And on a bike ride 

the clouds doubled 

the size of 

the hills like 

the sides of rhinoceri and we rode through olive grove's sticky roads to 

the valley where berryessa lay.

lyrics for my black metal band about bicycling

the abstraction of sky
the glance behind sunglasses
foot locked, wide laned

they are actively trying to run me over.

race the train
dehydration
no one cares
no one pays attention

the taste of blood.

Manual shift, five speed.

at some point, I realized that when I had been looking, everything was upside-down. That those pinnacles in the distance behind me were actually troughs, and that this slow, coasting descent was a climb to a peak I have not yet known.

I was fooled because we've climbed so effortlessly, free from a lactic burn in our legs. So let's pick up the pace, let's move so fast that everything stands still.