Hard-Wired

“the blind bang of shoot
vicious mantra booming light
the talking doll dies”

tonsils of star swell wobbly in raw love
know no opening or sweet closing to play
dice with a rabbit not wearing a glove,
a shoe, a talking doll, a corset stay
the execution, the blind bang of shoot
the rag head sly doll chokes out a hoarse call
that sounds in night black like a broken flute
hissing the shrill songs of fear and of fall
red and gold memories laced with color
vicious naked mantras of stark white nights
and galloping flights, stop. stand, and smother
the blind bang of shoot, a flash bloom of light
invited to sing, unable to dance
the talking doll dies: bitter hard-wired chance

–Stephen Morse

Walnut Creek Fault Finding

1.

My blonde
suburban
mother tries to
fly
in the socialite
newspaper
dumb show
of Bales Drive
under the dry
white sky
land abandoned
by the deer and
the crow:

2.

co-opted by the
claustrophobic
cat
domestica and
slobber-jawed
dog
snapping
cookie kids and
a flock of bat
toting young
hands fondling
a green-tree
frog.

3.

a word-camp
of post war
blood white,
and blue
anger flaring
soul drying
sodium.
Parents cured
broiled
bland by the
great war
smoked in
mushroom
deaths, we find
faults
to ignore

–Stephen Morse