a weed in a big clay bowl with soil and stuff surrounded by cigarette butts and a burnt paper cup.

Elderly man with a full head of grey rocking in a chair, on a wooden Victorian porch, white boards, large white house...white picket fence, no grass, only dry, cracked dessert earth.

A three legged dog hobbling across the dirt parking lot beside a Circle K at night, dimly light by a yellow light fixture kicking up dust.

Two young adults pressed against an adobe wall, both with a cigarette breathing smoke onto one another

Rusted 48 ford pick up
at dusk
with a daisy hood ornament
plucked clean of petals
in a gravel lot.

A lonely kitten sitting on the edge of a plateau
two angry men dangling together by a wire over a dessert canyon
one trying to overcome the other

horse fractures it’s leg, tumbles and crushes its rider
empty space, an echoing voice

Rat with its head caught in a snare
toddlers gathered round a dead bird, each with a poking stick it - checking for a pulse
Age 2 girl standing on a three step stool,
counter top presenting two choices: Cookies, or a knife.
She reaches for the blade - curious of danger.

Woman, shouting...crying
urban backdrop shattered by crack
young black male running away with a pair of shoes
Hands ripping apart some rib eye
greasy lips, red teeth. A slippery grip, bird feathers being shed off in layers

Burning roses falling from the sky being trampled blackened everywhere
a statue of The Virgin Mary in a forest of flame, unscathed, grass still green around her feet
man crawling leg-less reaching for a water canteen

Babies head left crushed on cobble stone ground
as snow falls from the sky
empty windows, none to notice the travesty of dead youth
fat kid naked in a high school gym left taped to a basketball pole with a jock strap in his mouth
young long haired teen at the check out counter of a Wal-mart holding a scanner in a dead silent, empty stare
The repetition of life, red scan bar, every line moving in synchronization, shopping cart boy runs into a man, irate now demanding compensation he does not need
a van going 90 on the highway gets a flat and flips over jack-knifes a semi.

Fish in a cracked tumbler glass awaiting death to break
man tearing into his own flesh, searching for his soul
a finger admiring a blade of grass moving swiftly to crush a red ant
fields of barely bending into finality before a scythe slices through.

Butterflies turning to Irises.
Irises turning to sand.

08/31/2005