on digging graves:

i'm terribly sorry

but i'm fresh out of marble.

this fire's been drinking and driving

summer 2009

you hate having your picture taken

and i like that about you

so i'll bring the camera

and we'll develop our tragedies together

in a dark room we call 'the last seven years'

laced with innocent nights spent on your bed

and arguments some serious, some less severe,

these prints will show your eyes and nose

so hardly insincere.

let's go back to that place once more

where we used to take time while

your mother patched my clothes and we

made hours last doing only Lord knows.

black and white semi shiny squares

depressing and somber and grayish in tone-

i'll snap some keepsakes of us together

before we both die alone.

tom loves life

august, 2006

forest lake, minnesota

on home life and decades:

we did the dishes today.

goodbye, two thousand and nine

and goodbye ots.

father's day

minneapolis, minnesota

2009

no wonder the world hates christians

"hey, i'm a christian so

let me give you the finger

in this picture that will

undoubtedly end up posted

all over the internet and please

by all means

allow me to curse you up a wall

around all sorts of other people

and there is obviously

no reason you should bat

an eye when i drink myself

into a filthy drunken stupor

and end up sick

with my face an inch from the

piss ridden vomit toilet water

where i retreat from the

buxom brunette whose breasts

i've assaulted and groped repeatedly

with my adulterous fornicating eyes

because this is obviously

how Jesus Christ would want

His blood bought children to act."

is what you're saying with your lives

and no one cares about what you say

with your feeble, empty words

when you live the life you think belongs to you

like that.

xld hxxse dxxsxxs

june 2007

north branch minnesota

haiku 01

hunter s. thompson

shot himself in the kitchen.

he must have been sad.

we do not start coups.

we just listen to godspeed

you! black emperor.

old women inhale

light smokes in gold cars. why not?

dead soon anyway.

i like not missing

you because that means you are

probably near me.

minnesota is

cold this time of year. you all

would probably die.