NATIVE

CRAY-ZEE

to do it one way
or another way
that’s the question
I am being pulled
in two directions
at once
one I’m very familiar with
and increasingly dissatisfied with
the other is an idea
that’s been coming at me
for awhile now
and amounts to both living and working
in a very different way
the fact is
as I sit here pondering
this very pressing issue
I think I know what I have to do
I have to somehow say goodbye
to what has been
and embrace what is coming

Sten's Lesson

RUG IN LOFT

imagine imagination imagined
and then off
and one’s chin
digging
into one’s chest
and drool everywhere
and planets crashing
and woman falling
and children donating themselves
to pension funds
as the apparatus
for melting mildew
is delivered right on time
just as my stomach opens
and lets out the tributaries
of lust and proper nutrients
ah ha! are these not the days
of constant doom?
yes, of course they are?
so where’s yours?
I left mine at the dentist’s
with the receptionist
with the too big lips

TORMENT

what’s art without torment?
it’s not much at all
in fact it quickly ceases to even be
one must allow oneself
to be pulled in all kinds of directions
one must dance between
all and nothing
one minute the room is full
the next minute the room is empty
this is how it has to be
you cannot choose one
over the other
and just be that one thing
you must be all things
to yourself
because without all those things
that drive you
and threaten to drive you crazy
you are nobody
and soon you will end up doing nothing
so embrace and do it all
that’s the real you
any other version
is just wishful thinking
which has no place anywhere
if you write you must write all kinds of things
and you must draw and if you draw you must
collage and if you collage you must paint and if
you paint you must play the piano and when it snows
you must go out in it and scream

the end of nothing is everything

WORK

I am the stupidest piece of shit
that ever walked this planet
I can’t tell you why
but trust me
it’s true