[The Cost of Almost Apprehending Anything]

The cost of almost apprehending anything
is ignoring almost everything else
and misapprehending the gibberish
that seeps in. John

Ashbery's birthday in a month, first
sentence a pedant's
prescription
for how not to read Ashbery

when plasma raindrops
the size of Ireland
thunder the sun. The world,
plagued by John Ashbery wannabes.

[Needs Saying]

Needs saying
these moods
scare me,
happen
more frequently,
longer wider deeper.
I
see dogs
beaten
cowering
in shelters
at
adopters,
assholes
gloating
over
lion
corpses,
motherfucking
me
buying
new digital camera
shooting
mountain laurels
I drove
new
Subaru
to shoot,
cops
clubbing heads
for
boss
secure
his cops
club heads
boss wants,
lets
cops
bash
any
head
as reward,
see
boss's
rival's
cops
retaliate
in kind
on same
orders
same
rewards,
these
moods
scare me,
I





know
condiment
is not cause.

[My Clock's]

My clock's
annual
rewind
this year's
intern
stethoscoped,
close eyes?
she asked.
I saw Fallsburg Pizza,
corner
79 & 586,
closed
just April
before
I had
the chance
to never
eat there.

[Nineteen Photos]

Nineteen photos
today's Sugarloaf
hike. I love hiking
alone, I missed my wife.
Nineteen photos,
it takes 38 seconds.
Were you taught
to alphabetically
type one through twenty,
Roman Numeral
21 up? Photos fourteen,
fifteen, sixteen,
rock pile & cairn
top of the mountain:
I drank water
shared yap & gorp
with husband and wife
combined age 167,
hike together
every weekend
60 years.
I love hiking alone.
I missed my wife.

[Knowing]

Knowing
everything’s
collapsed
diminishes
none of
my
collapse’s
consequences.
I brine
yesterday
in juice
of sneakers
just turned
putrid.