mollification

the shine was off so I grabbed another
drifting down as I went
coffee filters try
drip up my legs with a cup of wise
I didn't ask questions while waiting
that was for later
drinking mollified wine
it's all in the wait
the craftiness of drafters, saving for later
orange gone mandarin belie the point
sauerkraut on lime waiting for delivery
there be an old man in a tub
seeding the washing
bully for him and his waggelty thing
overexposed and nudish
the blocks of sun they lie betwixt the copper spaniels
beneath the desk watching the washes
29 in line
goosing the porridge hot to cold
eating the equilibrium
one taste of wise and down the hatch
it doesn't always happen that way
summer high summer dry
none too wise
the toothy know better
scratch your legs and roll on
tried to fail
not that you care
carried away
forward and backward eating tide
the ocean's wake tottles the wind
it was not what they liked, but how they cried
perhaps the toothache's whining
trots the cupcakes liming
timing the measured molecules
arising to squat them away
cursed in all 12 tongues
I don't ask why
nudish rails
one doesn't ask the left behind
I grabbed a stick to beat the senseless molecules til they cried
it was meaningless
left them behind the burning bush
turned on the hose
the house is empty


denis streeter  8/24/16

snatches of why

the scrappiness was outdone
waking toadstools from their oasis
watching pools rise and fall in unearned bliss
the watches were ticking the highlights were lighting
Even the fish seemed fishy but who asked them


rogers ago the fences went amiss
perhaps it was remission I don't know
the guns silent as magpies
twice as scent as wise
double meaning met phonetic
lost and tried again
there was no humor lost
I checked lost and found


the badgers were glistening again
I asked why but they didn't know
just sat on a toadstool and cried
no sense in lying but I did


crabcakes are too much, lions not enough
the birds cracked wise
forgetting eggs
they missed the time


perhaps the waffles are ready
i'll check them in a minute
could you check the stove
coo!  they're ready


i'll fill the bath, you get in
no no.  I'll drink the wine
just get the lab rats ready
we'll find out if they swim
wow!  look at their white lab coats!


too much for now
could you quit disturbing me
i'm getting ready for bed
yes i know.  stop already!
i know my fly's undone


you've done the math, I've done the whiskers
let's have no more commotion over that
just get dressed I'm ready to go
umm...could you help me get this splinter out?


dodgy i guess, but that's the way the ball flies
I'd jump if i was metaphor
but pundits let me off the hook
now I'm on the fly


i guess you know by now, everything's got to end
but I'm finally ready.  could you get my coat?
yes that right.  the one in the corner
it's too high?  ok i'll get it


denis streeter  8/18/16

Beneath a feather

Trappist monks
Taking teabodies
Out to sea
In a scrunk
An open door
Remains shut
And the winter air
Hungers
Feeding shelter
Through finger tips
Opening chores
Feeding clothes
Other loomings
Live in shelters
Unreleased
And in the rubberbands
The wastelands live
Prufrock gallivants
Pavlov salivates
Rorschach leaves
Results under tea
Where the norm bipolars
Under the busted grins
Everyone knows your name
Leaving lashes
Under the steeplechase
And the understudy understands
At half past nine
Feeling the weather
Icing decline
And the temperature rose
Toward afternoon
Knees blistered nose bled
Thoughts sinister
And my head said
In the afternoon
The seahorse shaped question
Marks the time
And the question is the answer
Laughing moonshine
Leaving me and
My guests behind
Funny steeples
Shot windows
Caressing doors
Where the new you know
Keeps laughing
Falling
Seeping
Sleeping
Under the hyde of night
Where none come out
Degrade
Digress
Degrammer
Falls and hides
Shipwrecked
Beneath a feather

Denis Streeter 

what's up

just a ten minute write
it was hiding in the corner
didn't see it move
just dust out and bite me hard
harder than a toothache
scary as pencil sharpener
you know what I mean
and I was driven to pleasure
but first the pain
it wasn't just the title that made the pain
it was jabbing the pencil into the desk pad
smudged graphite killing my dream
it was like looking into a  maelstrom of greys on whites
the words appeared in the mind and recorded on paper
but no not quite so
fingers across keyboard
you don't need to be an operator
to sing these keys
and when you're done
you wonder what you've done.

denis streeter    7/23/16

too much for two shoes to count

the dreams were hiding
up down dirty
lessening realms of fine
doctored  to let go
cabinet cabarets liquor souls
livered by chance and lost horizons
treble cleft and underlined
sold to massive souls and lies
dealing destruction with letting go
maybe what's gone is numbered
downstream upstream
and lost fools need reminders
left of center and tied for coffee
chance set and prodding for shells
when the decanter broke and centered for free
just before the neutral moon and tent explosion
when the nerf ball flies the centrifuge broke
borrowed on empty with the coffee frigates
nothing but hose working dynamite
lassoing hope with divine retribution
the sticks were happy they were loathing each other
lessons for knack were sadly empty
watching each other in the wasteland prufrock left behind
with the littered accomplice stuck between leathered patches
touching up tunes in a stroke of wine
lather bent and twice as wine
watching the signs go by
fried with a better chance of onions
just before the night time bed fry
countenance loaded sheen for free
only good for bed and two puddings
just before nightfall the beds disappeared
it was only the onions that'd flown away
before the noon bell tolls left trolls to waste
leaving prufrock sadly wasted
junkies laughed to cry through the jewels
fools left their tubs open to see what was left
a peanut butter jar and a left hand fly
shooting for wine in a bandit jar
butterfly loose and fancy free
juggernauts before noon set jams on fire
no allusions just a pregnant pause
the dinner bell rang the food arrived
oodles spent their fancy divine
not enough to prime
but enough for a bedtime outing
shaving between the covers
just left of rhyme and two shadows wry
too much for two shoes to count.


denis streeter  6/29/16

no lemons passing by

the joke was on him but the cleaning was not
full of rebel chic and wine dropping
he was not used to the shine
it used to come off so easily
particularly when it came off the hamper
and it was off again and on again
never reaching conclusions
the story brighter than not
dressing more fireworks than thunder
and conclusions worked the night
stealth and full of dark
shadows only reminder of light
dim blessing
the war went on over time
dressing in undress
the stakes were high and the mountains
no time for nonsense but there it was
no debate in the matter
oceans opened and swallowed
it was past tense
nothing near and nothing far just nothing
worth noting
a missing letter and all was lost
dressing down to dress up
nothing but sawed juju
and times wait for crawlers
just in time for witnesses
it was all in line
the substance was there but it was all unclear
the beheadings and all that
don't know what was true
perhaps it was traffic passing by
there were no lemons

denis streeter   5/29/16

reality check

no parking
lot full opposite church
in uw
so I went
down 15th
to meany hall
parking garage
the sign said
$15 street fair parking
I waited behind a truck at the toll gate
for five minutes
then left and parked
you were supposed to park for free
if you were church
but it was street fair
so I did not believe it
I went back to the toll gate
talked to the attendant
told him I was parking there for church
he said that was ok
I started to argue with him
how do you know I am church
there is no sticker on my car
I was thinking of u pres church
where a parking sticker is required
he smiled and said that was fine
like he trusted me
I could not get that inside my head
yet
I went to church walked back again
there was the car
with no ticket

denis streeter   5/22/16