deal troubleshoot brutal

Coyote Poker

The hand well-played is not always obvious
from the hand dealt.
It’s a constant troubleshoot
not a constant win.
The stakes are everything—
laid out, played out, piercing.
The deal is random
the cards are often marked
invisibly
making some hands brutal
in subtle hidden ways
even to, or especially to, those
who see and know everything.
Omniscient ones.

Reincarnate only within
the limits of face and suit.
Even then it’s luck or fate
or the turn of the trickster.

feedback, think, pumped

Critique

Words peel away the fascia of creation
like a scalpel removing flesh-eating bacteria
to get to the bone which is clean and pure–
the marrow carrying the load of intent.

Fluttering in the belly
the novice and the master,
their souls under glass pumped
and crushed by the words of others.

But sometimes it is all form and technique
the intensity of a life neglected
by the narcisism of culture
and the smithing of self.

The seeing is a mirror, a feedback loop
of percpetion–I think therefore I am.
The own knowing is what is known
and seen and said, not done.

The critic is a cat, unconcerned
with the effects of the game on the prey.
The words are believed because we cannot trust
that what we see is true, limited
as we are by our own reflections.

extract organic widowed

The bird that mocks is widowed–
some organic extract weakened her system,
or perhaps all her eggs were laid out
like a pauper counting pennies
without hope even for a side of fries,
or maybe she just couldn’t stomach
last year’s cuckolding mate courting
blindly with other’s songs.

Darwin doubted
a standard of truth
by noting the differences.
In my yard all I hear is
beautiful music.

(first draft)