• UNBOXED

    They thought they had himboxed in, contained, constrained,but he would not be truncated, cast aside.He would make a quiet escape, proceedcarefully so they would not realize,until it was too late, that he was freeof their control, their rejection, their spite.They wanted him in their psychic morgue,one more corpse sacrificed on their altarof conformity, but none…


  • UNSAID

    There is so much you wish to sayand yet silence envelopes youwhile those who spoke are led away and you feel a moment’s dismayat what you were forced to do.There is so much you wish to say Gods and men you would inveighbut it was not your lot they drewwhile those who spoke are led…


  • ODE TO THE GODS

    You, who have walked herethrough the ages,who have watcheda million suns swallowedby untiring waves,what is it you expect?There is nothing here for youthe spirits of the old oneshave long since fledour sharpened blades,retreated with the starsinto the hillsthat rise from forest.The animals will cometo you no morefor we have served them upas a sacrifice to…


  • THE NEW GODS

    From their two-bedroom apartmenton the outer edge of Cupertino,the Gods evicted from Olympusare creating their pulsating metahell.They know how easily we, lemmingsenchanted by the sparkling void,offer ourselves up in sacrifice, alwayswanting still another gigabyte,entranced by the idea of the Deusex machina, blind to our own truth.They promise us eternity, a heavenof a parallel binary universe,redemption…


  • UPWARD

    The young child stares up into the skyand sees in the infinite spacecountless worlds take form and then die. On the mesa coyotes cryseeing gods in what men defacethe young child stares up into the sky hears his ancestors’ mournful replyin an atom’s interstitial spacecountless worlds take form and then die. Inside he sees his…


  • ANOTHER EVENING SPENT

    I wonder if there are priestssitting on beds drinking Diet Cokeand contemplating the meaningof heaven, of sex,of indigestion from a burgerand fries with onionsin a bar, the angelscovering their ears from the dinof four pool tables,of slipping on the spilled Red Rock,while outside the traffic thinsand the neon blinksits message to the gods. First appeared…


  • EMPTY PLATES

    The old gods have takenup residence is small casitason the edge of SaguaroNational Park outside Tucson. It isn’t Olympus, but theproperty taxes had becomeunsustainable with so fewbothering to offer tributes. They have gotten overtheir jealousy of the newgods living in the valley,with their European villas, yachts and getaways,for the old gods know wellhow it will…


  • YOU’RE OUT OF HERE

    The gods have ceasedto care about us, toobusy with other more importanttasks like fighting theirpending evictions fromOlympus and Asgard. And the demigods havenever given a damnabout us, always preeningand imagining theirelevation, so we are leftto muddle along and weknow how that has workedthrough history, so wehave turned away, anointedourselves, declared weare holy and built a…


  • APPROACHING NIGHT

    Arising into nightthe departing suntangos away with its cloud,memories soon forgotten. Other dancers take the stage,now a romance, nowa war dance, feathers raisedin prayer to unseen gods. Night will soon bringits curtain across this stage,the avian casts’ final bows takenthe theater will darken, awaitinganother performance,a new script tomorrow,but for this solitary momentof frozen grace, it…


  • STRING QUARTET

    The violinists’ laughter and tearsare flung from her flying bow,drip from his elbow,and wash over the stilled audience –we can taste the seaas we threaten to capsize. The viola is the older brothernow steadying, now caughtin the wave, ridingits dizzying course,dragging us in its wake. The cello is a torso, the cellista surgeon, her handsplucking…