Silence speaks

Tunes in my head
Driftwood in bottles
Washing icicles from my bed
Before dream keepers wake
Under sand blossoms
Snores keep vigil
Rest left behind
Tourniquet bottles in junkets of sand
Judging the jury
Out for the night
Clear as half moon nails
Unknown grows
Reaching dream pastures
Where the knocks keep knocking
Storm catchers release
Just before the unknown ties up
All the loose pieces
Junkets of sand
Tourniquet bottles
Drift wake
Rest left behind
Silence speaks

Denis Streeter 8/30/11

Commandment castles

Sanding on granite
The spores of tommorrow
Heat waving day
Sending suffragettes out hunting
Hunting for huns
Or whatever equivalent
The masks take
The swallows taken
Arthur's ransoming task
Amazons of reasoning
Shark tooth tasting
Unpleasant to breathe
Untesticly well
Beyond the footbridge
Breeds the rabbits
Leaving feet behind
For some lucky winner
Some unlucky winner
And the truth maligns
A minor tour
And the rats begin
First one bed then the other
Until there was no escaping them
Food for the foder fuhrer
Some spiegelman advice
And the gustus restored
Some here some there
Until there was no escaping them
Just one rat trap after another
Scream permitting
But that was part of the joke
Just when one path parts
Robert takes the frosting
Divergent animals of another brain
And the coke hat winds
The interpretations wrong
The hats wrong
So I sent them swimming
Up the mats down the aisles
Until their eyelets open
The string cheese wins
Trusting the brain to market strategy
Opening casket just in time
Dropping flowers blow by blow
And the capers kept sinking
Under floorboarding wasp nests
Needling pavement
Exploring the door
Thinking of diving
Thinking no more
The cat escape opens
Dog engineered
When commerse commensed
A laughing face
A punched nose
Putrified waters
An unclean hand
A bible left behind
Interpretations wrong
In a washtub of sand
In a washtub of sand.

Denis Streeter 8/24/11

The pieces intact

The rhythms rolled
Out lagoons into tunes
The head played 
Over the oceans grove
Spinning for cover
Where the canyons run deep
And the souls flee oceans
When the towers spin 
And lagoons spit tunes
Just when the laughter stops
As if it weren't there
Where the wash tubs end
Hitching a rhythm the ride left off
Reaching under plates for some old cartoon
But the cartons were leaking some sea in a sieve
Leaving Lear on the lerch
Over the remainder building, nothing left
But ladder sliding sleeves
When the laughter stopped
Startled again
Some species unmixed
Some glaciers unmelted
Some glue for you
The pieces intact.

Denis Streeter 8/21/11

Ashtrays out

My first job
Royal Fork Buffet
1977
Cleaned and set up the tables
All the same way
Some strange billiard game...
Sugar shaker first, pepper on right, salt on left
And the glass ashtray inbetween...
I still remember
Stacking about thirty dirty ashtrays on a rack
Hosing them down before sending them through the dishwasher
And now I wonder...
Are there still places like that?
I miss the glass ashtrays
Even though I don't smoke
Some bygone era...

The ashtrays were out
Some winked glass wondering what to do
Feeling like some head shop accessory...
They look yearningly
At empty beer cans
Caressing hot ash butts
Winked glass wondering waiting
Some butting return
When smoking parties were fashionable
Winked glass
Looking yearningly
No ifs ands or butts
Re-fashioning death
Some bygone era
Some prodigal son.

Denis Streeter 8/19/11

Wait

The world is way larger than we can imagine
The tree outside your window
Housing birds, creating oxygen, privacy
Your world is way larger than I can imagine
My world is way larger than you can imagine
Trust and love...
Connection...
Our worlds collide
You share
I share
I feel your world...
It is so large my heart can not take it all in
I want to have enough love to take in your world
But I can't. My heart expands. It hurts too much.
But I can't stop my heart expanding.
Please let me know when it is too much...or not enough...
I'll let you know...I'll try...
Sometimes I shut down
It's not you...but yes it's partly you
You and me are more than I can take in at that moment
Please wait for me
I love you
Please wait for me

Denis Streeter 8/15/11

No does not mean yes

People hear what they want to hear
All the wishful thinking they want
And log their thoughts in
Hoping you'll log your thoughts out...
At the library computer
I leave to print out my poem
Poem still up on my screen
He asks me if I'm finished
I say "No" and leave to print my poem
While I'm printing he's logging me out
To start his log in session
I come back
"I'm still working here"
"I thought you said 'yes'."
"I said 'no'."
"Oh...sorry."
"Don't worry I'll log you out"
And so I log in again
People hear what they want to hear
I hear this poem...

Denis Streeter 8/14/11

Slipshod manner

The signs of running
Running narrow made
Tip top narrow faced
Purses guessing the bill
Guessing hats as feasts gather
Hatting two by two
Just when the purses weren't coming through
And the time crunch stopped
Sailing earthen vessles to guessing jars
Guessing sinks waiting to be overturned
One thread decibel away
One threaded horn throw
And the horns turned on each other
Two by two
Two by fours guessing walking the plank
Guessing bills the purses left behind
Nursing grudges walking plank
One south sea behind, opening doors in slipshod manner
Shoring disasters hiding in stores
And when the shimmering waits
The shoe shines come lumbering in.

Denis Streeter 8/12/11

Sense and dreaming

Dreary loading the setting sun
Eyelid window tilted
Fishing downstream
Nonsense meadows
Sense walked out the door, but came back
Drew up my covers with Harold's purple crayon
Rest my eyes, dream of flying
Sensible came back. You can't do that.
Close my eyes and dream...
I'm at a friend's house and they won't let me leave
I'm already two hours late for work...
Why do I have these anxious dreams
I'm never late for work
But that was last night's dream
What will I dream tonight...
Angels and sparrows and and cottonwood rest in my head
Drovers of bows and pent up pistols lay their nests
Wonder and sensible work my dreams
Questioning my sleep
Dreary eyelid window tilted
Dreams of flying
You can't do that
Why not...

Denis Streeter 8/10/11

Just another expression

All the lights
And none of the shadows
Make for a Christmas tree of madness
The engines roar
Blue Angels above
The cheering of Seafair
The noise I've come to hate
Interrupting my thoughts
People come to be entertained
They don't want to think
Just forget their day
Let the roar of the engines
The wow of activities
Lull their brain to sleep
I hate Seafair
I hate the Blue Angels
I hate people
Well...okay...I don't hate people
It's just...well...forget it
Have another drink
Enjoy the festivities
Don't let me
Rain on your parade.

Denis Streeter 8/6/11

Silent wake

Whispers in the silence
The night walks in
Sinewy and dark with dreams
Dripping sound barrier
Castles crumble
Ounces wait
Oceans fracture their depth
Into tunnel causeway dreams
And the shadows roar sleeps silence
Deaf to wandering castles
Dream syndicate clarity
And the faultiness of waking hours.

Denis Streeter 8/3/11

Fathers

I thought I would write a piece about fathers
About dying fathers
And try to make it non specific
And universal enough so you could relate to it
But personal enough so you would understand.
But it was too complex
You said "Try me..."
Okay...
My father...
Brilliant, absent-minded, bi-polar, deviant
Caring, manipulative, honest, deceiving
Now wait a minute...
You've just made a list
Nothing personal, but that tells me nothing
Okay...
What do you want me to tell?
Who are you? Who was he?
That's complicated...
Just know that
I knew him better than anyone in the family
Strengths and frailties
Nothing personal, but that tells me nothing
Okay...
I'll deal...
He's dead, through his own hands
I'm living, dealing with friends
Customers relationships
I'm still becoming...
That's still pretty vague
Who are you? Who was he?
I am...he is...still becoming...
Story.

Denis Streeter 8/1/11