Vivid Dreams Involving Castles

Making vocal audio energy tunnels with our dial tone
mouths on the Appalachian Trail,
Spending an inappropriate amount of time looking for
two dropped joints by the campfire,
after asking him if it was OK to smoke.
And Dad, getting on his knees,
helping his daughter get high in the woods.
"Only nineteen deer" that day.
A stalactite toned organ at the berth of the cavern
played a song to still us at its center,
a place where the geographically inclined wed,
a chapel for those who like less indirect architectural design
from GOD.
A bottle of Frank's hot sauce in my fanny pack
for my sinuses, we ate thousands of calories a day,
passing lean, tanned bodies wearing themselves against the trail,
characters en route to Shackleton's ship
for the last of the dog races off to their doom.
Owls hooted, really, and coyotes howled,
a dog's pant of a ghost flew over our heads.
A blind man once hiked the whole thing?
Picking black and raspberries before the summit,
we held them and our breaths for a mama bear to appear.
My brother smoked cigarettes behind us, heavily breathing
till we emerged, charlie chaplining our way out of the woods,
our legs dissolved now and jointless stork limbs shoved deep into our hip sockets.

Back and Forth

Bumping your head on a thick plastic Tiffany lamp
You ask the waitress to pull the bench seat out-
Its torn in the middle.
Nesty layers of crumby cotton stuffing leak out,
A basketball team mascot knifed in the back.
You sit down but don't open the menu,
A goblet of neon blue syrup arrives,
you let the straw paper fall to the floor.
Under your table crayons, sized Kids, break underfoot,
making waxy rainbows on the soles of your shoes
as you make as many trips to the soup and salad bar.
You check your reflection in the sneeze-guard
and transport the dab of Ranch on your chin
to your tongue.

The Tension Between Car Crashes

The smell of baked hair
under the stage lights in your cafetorium,
singing into a cloud of scalp skin,
sweating, on the highest riser
next to the boy with the bagel breath,
is enough to send anyone
to the counselor's office