dog is my savior



Time

peeling off

into obligations

both honest

and dishonest

both sensible and maddening



My head

like a wound

made

no more or less murky

by the presence of

wanton ambition

disgraced goalsmanship

but that's not a word



I reside tonight among the presence

of substances

up to and including:



her heart, her hair,

the dog's

brown eyes,

television,

cans of beans,

macaroni-and-cheese,

30 cans of beer in my small fridge,

one of the cats inspecting a fragment

of sour cream and onion potato chip

Crossfire on TV bleating

death penalty or no for

murderers Mohammad and Malvo

and my pine tar inner self

down here in this hole

typing 3rd rate lines

onto the Internet

again



the dog stirs upon the floor



I'm a rodeo clown

caught up in a trapeze of

scarcely obtained

momentum



wildly oscillating between

whirling poles of safe harbor,

madness, clarity, disgrace



simultaneously

above and below

any comfortable altitude



flailing



the dog thinks I'm his master

and loves me

and owns more

than he knows