No OFF-button on the frickin' remote;
the tv hangs like an eye
which you watch prophilactically,
in case it might fall.

As a young medical student,

I sat across from my patient in the old neuro ward.

A retired high school English teacher,

I knew she was once quite sharp.

As is usual practice at the Multi-Service Center, a homeless shelter in the heart of San Francisco, I was sent out to recruit patients from the men’s floor.

Let me die in winter

Let me die in solitude

past midnight

with a flask of spirits

a cigarette that won’t kill me

winking at the stars

Let me die with my back

There are these two bugs – a caterpillar and an ant. Despite these differences, the two are best friends. They do everything together.

The root still lives

but the tooth is shaved off,

capped in plastic,

awaiting its crown of

GOLD,

not porcelain like the other two

but the GOLD

of Rushes, and bouillon,