surviving without breakfast : epic tales of ort lust : part 2

when i was 11
i scavanged the cash via empty soda bottles
to buy a hay-huge sack of m&m's

i got home
went to my room
and searched for a place to stash my horde
(i had 3 sisters)

what i didn't realize was
my doggie was being Big Brother
and watching my every move

after taking my afternoon fix
i put the stash between
the mattresses

when i came back
in the early evening for another fix
the stash had been raided

and
not ordinary raided
more like savagely attacked and destroyed

colors and chocolate
were everywhere
between the mattresses

it was
a slaughter
an m&m bomb went off

the carnage
was real
and grotesque

i ran down the list
of ususal suspects
the MO did not fit the suspects

i was... perplexed (if such a thing is possible in a kid)
but it did finally hit me
ye doggie

from that day forward
her name was
'ort'

i loved the ort
and the ort was good
long live the ort   

surviving without breakfast : epic tales of ort lust : part 3

art was riding the tube
jim spotter
me at the helm

there's an interesting phenomenon with water
at just about 30mph
it turns from soft to hard

this little pleasure craft can crank up
to 25mph
the thrill ride comes from whiplash

i bring the beast up
to speed and
hard over port to whip art out across the lake

the ski rope is tied to a car inner tube and
the handles positioned just right
for a hold

art's electric orange ski jacket
contrasts brightly
to the black inner tube and emerald green water

his body snaps off
the end of the line and
sends him screaming across the lake

chest on the tube and legs dangling
as he coarse sandpapers past the boat
at 45mph

here's something you need to know
when breaking
the 30mph soft to hard barrier

every and any little ripple on the water
becomes
a rock, a stone, a medium of pain

when you're the rider 
and you snap off the end of the line
the speed thrill outstrips the pain

you hold tight against the centrifical force
and hard stones crashing against your legs
to throw you off

art is at the peak
riding the wild bronco
screaming past the boat

that's when i see it
the wake of a distant boat coming
and art coming
and that's it
a stone curb on the lake

nothing could be done
every cartoon you ever saw
is art

he slams into the wake and
takes off like a pinwheel across the lake
in a hyper-speed cartwheel

its the kind of scenario like war
bombs are dropping and its horrific but at the same time
riviting and spectacular

art's pinwheeling begins to slow
he drops below
the 30mph magic hard/soft line

the lake grabs his foot
and wwf body SLAMS him
his ski vest explodes like a piñata

i am gob smacked as
i bring the boat hard about
and speed to art

i pull along side
jim is trying to gaffe him into grab hold range
the boat stops and i go over to help

art is lying back
head just above water
eyes a slit and this funny
ehh ehh ehh sound
like a hamster in heat noise?
this is where i begin struggling
i am stomping down
a rising belly laugh

art is damaged as we haul him aboard
i'm beginning to hurt
keeping the laugh down

i turn away and bite my knuckle
i need something to chew on
"jim, we got any chips left?"

            Ode to Lao

I’m on the Ventura Pier
having clams and beer

A bi-plane flies over

There’s a sea gull to
the right
a three-quarter moon in
a late-light sky to the
left
and the surf is rolling
in calm
 
I get up and walk to the
end of the pier
up to the rail

I lean over and look into
the darkening green

I feel pulled on
I go
pitching headlong into
the water

When I hit
I let my arms travel loose
along my sides and kick
hard for the bottom

It gets dark, black
and cold cold
before the bottom suddenly
lights up and I hit the sand head first

I suck deeply on it so
I’ll be weighted and not
float up

I lie there in a no-time place
Crabs pull at and eat
away on my flesh
Fish nibble and feed
I go the way of ten thousand
eyes

I see the earth is a door
a gateless gate

I make the passage
to meet...
you

a bedtime story