excerpt

THE TEN-YEAR-OLD boy launched himself from
the high diving board in a perfect cannonball
and exploded the water a foot from his giggling
friend. Marcie Welch blew her whistle, summoned
the pair to her lifeguard stand and banished
them from the pool for two days.
“Aw, Marcie,” the human cannonball wailed, “we were just
havin’ fun.”
“You can come back on Friday, but if you have fun that way
again, you’ll be out of here for a week. Go on home.”
As the hot afternoon wound out and suppertime approached,
Marcie gave three long blasts on her whistle and swung down from
the lifeguard stand. Children climbed out of the pool and gathered
up their towels. She walked to the low end, where Poodie was
shepherding a handful of his charges to the ladder at the edge.
When the last of them scampered toward the dressing rooms, she
bent to offer him a hand. He took it, grinning, and pulled her off
balance.
“Oh, Poodie, you……”
Marcie rolled into the water, came up laughing, and met a spray
from the push of Poodie’s palm. She seized his hand, then his
head, and dunked him. He swam away, turned and surfaced
behind her. She felt his arms around her waist and the power of his
thighs against hers. A trembling warmth infused her. She waited a
few seconds to push away in confusion and giddiness. His trickster’s
grin modified into the gentleness of a smile,

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08W7SHCMV

Orion
Your sin will always be more than enough
in the silent hospitality of earth
your evil thought will always harm your eyes
that you carry in your two hands
like broken street lamps
yet you’ll follow the path of the sun
guided by the hammering of water
that builds houses and laboratories
of gods in the sea floor
you’ll follow the path of the sun
accepting the advice of children
who direct flocks of shadows and thunderbolts
that you’ll have as a roommate the fairy
dressed in the morning shyness
that you’ll reign over
the fruitful earldom of October
hunted hunter
with the insubordinate belt
brother of my fear and my lust
and blood brother

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763408

Cop
In his new ironed, creased uniform
epaulets, golden diagonal band
proud like a young four-legged donkey
having a loaded gun in a holster, sealed
deadly provocation to the new cop’s mind,
bobby, pig, words used to describe a cop
as he imagines being in action when
the thief is caught red-handed and the cop
can draw his gun, power in the hands
of morons, such his thoughts as
he smiled at his idol preparing to appear
at the parade, in front of the naïve
people, in his hands the power
to absolve or protect, the power to
punish or to judge with the tool for
peace or war in the busy streets of
big city that relies on this young donkey
to do his job, to just act like an animal.
He too chose to hide his questionable
manhood and insecurity behind the mood
of the ambivalent and deadly weapon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763637