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The Jazz was promptly 
swept away so the old men
could watch the girls jive 

I love kissing slow
matching our lips to and fro
between breath and bite

Danced on the terrace
with a blonde under the moon
may have got me sick

Gossip allows scenes
to thrive as long as there are
cigarettes and hats 

Sipping red wine in 
tiny glasses, salty air
Ravens in palm trees

Iron Skillets Rule
the small kitchen by the beach
Dozen different jams

Please, river of dunes
Give me strength to defy, thy
Father shrinks me so

City boy won't live
beyond blue lake's teeth
patterns sinking deep

Chorus of pine hush
over human engine roar
seat in fallen tree

after a shower 
wearing whatever chosen
a sex thought collects 

Insignifigant 
You are, but you know people
Love mind does mean more 

​​Sticky old grease coats

ephemera, collected 

between meals and sleep 

Once paid with sea shells 

rocks and feathers, now faces

on coin and paper 

 

Saving money for

the unconfirmed tomorrow

subscribe if you like 

 

Black cats replace the

souls of dead dogs, no matter where the water walks

 

An empty bullet 

shell shot out of the chamber 

Good shot, wasted round 

 

King palm tree stands guard 

As Daughter Moon changes for

the ball of faces 

 

Half moon hides behind

fog tonight, crickets provide

songs drifting to sleep 

 

At least once a day

neighbor graves are in shadow

chris and Anthony

 

Even in death, they 

are a show, an attraction 

highlight of the trip

 

Taking pictures of 

graves we won't look at again 

effort made at least 

Ducklings born near graves

Hollywood sign down the street 

David Lynch haunts there

 

Rest with bronze mothers

graves behind a wall of fame 

only if you look

 

Did Chris Cornell think

He would be buried next to 

Tony Scott, post Life? 

 

Maps to the dead stars

Garden of Legends share the

sun with koy and reptile 

 

Wind blows through the zoo 

of the dead, visitors balk

at unfamous stone 

 

Satan, God's lover 

would only love her, not man 

go to hell, she said 

 

Always looking down

walking, even when they're stopped

experience, now 

 

Roast beef floats up there

cosmic sandwich for all time

better with Swiss

 

I was just debris

unwanted shredded lettuce

wandering dungeon 

 

I was in your way

discarded shredded lettuce 

one root beer float, please 

 

Am I at my best 

dehydrated and a mess

Basement folk think so 

 

Sun Setting shines through 

old wood blinds on black barman's eyes, hero thief 

Homeless woman throws

batteries, bouncing off the

trees, lithium screams

 

Wish you dead, dying

like the animal kingdom 

hope to sleep past ten 

 

Two herons flirting

Scuttle by trees covered in

Forgotten blankets

 

Pekish, Close to noon

amongst the many chairs  I

sit, peel an orange 

 

As the tequila

takes me, I question neon 

Soon bile will eat 

 

Husks of the polypS

Blue, clear like potato ships

thousands washed ashore  

Furious shaking 

goes the fever tree 

A brave woman cries 

 

Three margaritas 

two tacos and a cold beer

Hepburn and Tracy 

 

Locked up behind the 

shadow of our joy, working 

on an escape plan

 

Endless apartments 

Exits under stairs, bedrooms in 

the crawl space, lost 

 

Lovers hug under

dead, stuffed mongoose in dim light

Warmer than sand

 

The Star Destroyer 

rises from the windy sea

orchestra of moan

dragon is the greed

keeping your nirvana from

where it needs to go 

Holding on, when she

let go a long time ago

She is your dragon 

Listen to the song

throwing it all away, sail

into sunset storm 

Even in my dreams 

She's screaming at me, stop stop 

looking, stop, stop

 

Fell in love with fire

who did not wish to be tamed

got burned, torched my core 

night with a good friEnd

of long, can be what you need

to fight tomorrow 

Welcoming today

I remember Yesterday 

Tomorrow assumed

 

Friends discuss how much

they can't stand other friends, prove...

that you're worth a damn 

Just off the highway

vibrant purple tree greets me

Flowers dance in sun

My old dreams trying

to lose me around the bend

new paper shimmers 

 

If a leaf could  talk 

it too would be alien 

like if trees could run 

Are leaves curious?

Or do they only wait to

change color? Brittle 

 

But what about the leaves? 

DO they care where the other

one falls, where it goes? 

The Curious folk

back home watch and listen

to the news from space 

Aliens like trees 

pilots like leaves, leave, descend 

into the unknown 

 

Ride lonesome until 

You've got room for someone else

lose the luggage quick 

 

Had dinner alone

with the radio and  the

cow's skull compANY

 

Middle toe, left foot

possibly broken, baby

a purple carrot

 

It's wallowing fuel

clawing at my groin, what dreams dream of, and swallow 

Music dives in, fish 

jump out, the river flows  East

The tunnels follow

 

On the banks of  the

LA River, a man plays

the harmonica 

 

Can't seem to find my 

home again, home is where I 

Push on without you

Waiting to see you

walk out of every vintage

store I pass, you don't

Did something truly

diabolical to me

once, not again

 

Sleep on the streets by 

night, catch up on the news by day

hands stained, eyes still work

 

What are we doing

if not wasting all the

time on this dead Earth

Never trust the bald

man in the bulky fur coat

on a summer day

 

Looking at pictures 

pictures of you, me and you

hate subsides for now

 

Daft Punk in my ears

Bashō in eyes and through my mind

beer too, a bonus 

 

As the Western comes 

back to life next to cow skull

Uncle reads his book

 

The man tattooed jazz 

on his knuckles, a journey 

he backs up in fills

 

Meows outside my mind

open the door, she croaks

wants me dead I sweat

 

If you stop and watch 

The human world, it's not time

flying by at all

 

Would it be the worst

not to return to New York

after all that jazz

 

She struck him through the 

heart with her neon scepter 

roadside attraction 

 

Cat sunbathes in peace

eyes shut, heart calm, head in paws

joints ever inflamed

 

Blink and you'll miss the

Zebra of Mount Diablo

next to the highway 

 

Antique Mall Inside

former movie theater 

sign of the end times

 

I never question 

who works within the trees

They both have GREEN eyes 

 

Honesty crashes 

forms a crater deep enough 

to let them all go 

 

I had minions once

Now I must prevail alone

volcano beckons

 

space dragons  remind

me to think of the future

present can be lame 

 

old folks dine with A

pint and a steak, tomorrow

The results come in 

The lake was blue and 

green rippling in the sun

Cave Rock's coral sinks 

 

Spending time in a 

Bar I've never been to, you

would not hate it here

 

Drank next to a kid

named Tahoe, in Tahoe like

Paterson's poet

 

Bunny scampers off

hopping across field of pine

cone and doggy poop

 

I wish I could love

You the way I did, but you're

not the you I knew 

 

Flies trickle about

gasping for a river trout 

Can they save the brood

 

I have a feeling 

that everything is nothing 

for a bad reason 

 

I have a feeling

that nothing is everything 

for a good reason 

 

Reasons for Being

on the banks of the river 

song, beer, moon's presence

  

There's NO plan I WOULD 

Rather do each one brings me 

closer to Japan

 

Sea coral laid to 

rest with lichen blanket near

waterfall, at peace  

 

Blame the burritos

For my lateness, friends, now let's

break open machines 

 

Fallen tree followed 

me up the mountain, climbed his 

dead bark to the top 

 

Playing with rocks, I

Ask what's their most stackable 

side, for today's totem 

Thank you for the shade 

My tall friend, if you could eat 

fruit I would offer 

INHALED DEEPLY ON 

THE FALLEN TREE'S THRONE OF THREE

LET THE HIGH TAKE ME

 

SOMEBODY ON THE

OTHER SIDE OF STATIC TRYING

TO COMMUNICATE 

 

FALLEN TREES FOLLOW

ME FROM THE MARSH TO THE RIVER 

CAN THEY CROSS THE SEA? 

 

MUST RETURN NOODLE

BALL TO ITS BERTH, THE RIVER

ANOTHER'S LOST TOY

...BUT NOODLE BALL GOT

STUCK IN THE PORE OF AN OLD

TWISTED LEAFLESS TREE

 

PINE NEEDLE'S WHISPER

SONG DROWNS THE HUMAN HIGHWAY 

BIRDS SING THE CHORUS 

 

WILD LIMBS THESE TREES 

HAVE, CURLS, BURLS, AND TWISTED BRANCH...

WAVE HELLO, GOODBYE 

 

UNDER CONCERT'S GLOW

THREE-HEADED CAPYBARA 

CAPYBERUS LIVES!

BUY THE THINGS YOU MUST 

SO YOU CAN DO THE THINGS YOU

MUST BECAUSE WE MUST 

 

MAKE A SPACE YOUR OWN

NO MATTER HOW LONG IT LASTS 

BEST FRIEND CHARACTER 

 

WHOEVER BUILDS THE

FIRE IS FOLLOWED BY THE SMOKE

MOISTURE TRAPPED, BUBBLING 

INSIDE ANCIENT WOOD 

OOZING UNDER FLAMES, CALLING 

THE MASTER, HISSING 

SO LOUD IT HERTZ MY

EARS, BURNS MY TOES, SACRAFICE

MY EYES FOR MORE SONGS 

Windy between the

Jaws of the GREAT Boulder king,

lunch upon his face 

 

There was a fire

Here, on this small mountainside

black trees tell me so

 

There is a spider 

on the ceiling above me

You owe her nothing

 

DOn't make me wander

farther than I have to, my 

souls are wearing thin 

 

Shadow of the Earth 

upon our satellite rock 

waning the gibbous 

 

Rise Reborn from the 

Tahoe Waters like this face

glorious beer bird 

 

I gaze at blue lake

constantly conflicted by 

brooklyn nostalgia 

 

swatted a black fly

with New Yorker Magazine

How the well-read wept 

Twenty twenty-three

was the last great year for me

the old me, thAT me

 

Branches like bones

the great ribcage of the whale

of the RED forest 

wooden spine, smoking

under it refers to the 

beast the tree could be

masturbating to 

dead pornstars, cumming before

them, honor the past 

 

Her last name, story

I am my own obstruction 

don't apologize 

 

Black coffee hits me

hot on the tongue, mimosa

confirms my death path 

 

Drink, never alone

always with my shadow here 

to refill my cup 

 

 Bones and the bullets

remind us why we march for 

more smash burger joints 

 

So hoT Snow melting

awaiting friends arrival 

killing time with lime

 

Blooming, stagnation

not yet bloomed, tomorrow boy

keep the ego dim 

 

Found a dinosaur 

human Plastic toy under 

the ice, carnivore 

 

queen Tarantula 

listens to my green moon dreams

over blackberries 

 

Plated black berries 

resemble nameless planets

with a thousand eyes 

 

Even a direct

path walked a thousand ODD times 

conjures a new turn 

GRASPING TO CREATE 

A BIG PLAN LAID OUT IN FULL

A SHOT TO INSPIRE 

HER ORANGE CREAM SKY 

LAUGHED THE SOLID BLACK MOUNTAINS

TO CROWN HEADLESS HOME

 

WHEN YOU THINK OF LOVE

SHE WILL BE THERE, ALWAYS AND

SO WILL YOU, PIGLET 

 

FREINDSHIP TRANSCENDS  TIME

IT MAY PASS WE MAY SHARE IT 

TRUTH THAT IGNITES US  

PRIVATE NIGHTS JUST ME

MOVIES, MUSIC, PEEING IN

A CUP, A STORY 

MY PRIORITIES 

ARE STILL MOVIES HOW FAR THEY

ARE IS UP TO ME

THE BEAR IN THE DRAIN 

GARGLED AND GROWLED WET WITH SPITE...

WAY DOWN IN THE DARK 

IN SEARCH OF PLEASURE

NO MATTER WHO I FOUND THEY 

BECAME BETTER PAIN 

TWISTS AND TURNS HIGHLIGHT

NIGHT BEAMS OF DEAR COYOTE 

HIDING BEFORE US 

THE FLUTE PLAYER WITH 

THE HANDLEBAR MUSTACHE RIDES

A MOTORCYLE 

FOGGED UP WINDOWS IN 

HOUSE OF BREWING LIBATION 

SMELLS OF ARTICHOKE 

THEIR BRITISH VOICES 

BEHIND THE STEAM AND SUN

WAS ALL I COULD SEE 

 

Saturday night drive 
The sunset in the rearview 
with CReamsicle sky 

Raced a coyote 
Along dark Pioneer trail
turned left, howl nice game 

Allbino humpback 
Whale, witness song so rare
Come back soon, ya hear? 

Jellyfish reverse 
transdifferentation 
immortal pOlyp 


“Koi No Yokan”

 

I wish I could JUST
Be more than who I used to. 
I AM FAR more NOW.

DON'T BE LESS BECAUSE

it cheats YOU from being fair.
Adventure is more.

Nevertheless, have

you BEEN? Then how can you have?
Nonsense is a thought,

Be it as it may

I must take it very slow
I have just arrived

After twenty-five.
Years, I WAS seduced BY THE

DAKRSIDE, IT WAS LOVE

To feel the same form
of PAIN, F. Scott says. There are

all kinds of TRUE Love

in this world, never.
The same love twice, yes. Looking
for the same. Love is

folly and empty.
Relish THE love you had AND 
OWN it forever.

Remind yourself how
many. Loves and forms of love.
You will always have.

You are made up of
that love. Never alone, please
Whisper it, sing it.

It is a song you
can sing and dance to always.
Creatures with voices.

Memories with tongues
Dreams with fingernails. Let your
record spin four sides

A, B, C, D! roar
The lions for you. Now, frogs,
toads, join the swamp Stink

Primordial bog.
Smell the burning tar of change.
It laughs, YAY with you.

Mother and Uncle.
Both near and far are with you. 
I appreciate

All that I have said

to YOU, This haiku story.
Is it a story?

Or just a THEROY?
Where does it begin? Is there

a middle, an end?

All I know is that.

main protagonist, From There

to There, rest when There's

nothing THERE to see. 


A Dachshund grew wings
and became the king of 
The Toth Dragonflies 

Building A Model 
model building me to be
a story taller 

Closest Living Kin
to Tyrannosaurus rex
eighty-eight faces 

Eggs go crack a shell 
capacity to see light,
ultraviolet  

Gecko licks hello 
Dead iguana on the shore 
starboard sea turtle 
 
Sun veiled by winter
storm, pure white hot disco ball 
reflects me here, how? 

Until tonight, pink sun
radiant as ever, my shine
hurts and yearns for sleep 

Good day, handsome moon 
I relieve you of your shift
crescent tail, depart 

Angel entered me
took hold of my bones, bent them like... 
metal on fire 

Sore Skeleton skin 
Satan's sunrise submarine 
So Shy, she sauntered 

For now could mean A
dawn, a day, a decade, or
a glass of Syrah 

Witness me, witness 
tree, branching out to see where
My roots will wander

This small book is for
My family and friends 
flashlights in the dark

I told you to live
Life, never did I want it 
to be without US 

Conjuring a girl 
to be the feels of that first 
middle school dance world 

In the last seat of 
the last plane on the last night 
before the First storm 

I'm afraid to feel 
how I'll feel, when I won't feel 
youR soul in me more 

I will wish you the 
happiest birthdays I can 
as long as I can 

I'll be at the bar
on a hike, at the movies
more often alone

Who be it to say
that to cry is a weakness
When muscles expand 

When I cry, I laugh
When I laugh, I cry, and I
Thank you for the secrets 

I cry when I drink
I drink when I cry, and MY
Grace, Do You tango 

Green and black toy car
Buried in Mexican sand
Never found the Green

ancient blue ocean
Pelican in the shade, green 
Jungle keeps the peace  

PINCHING out a LOAF
I wipe to find my own blood
again and again 

Alligator bird
feathered scales and beak of Teeth
Eyes that see between 

Oh my! Little Girl 
How cute, on your stoop, eating
Fruit, watching cartoons

The salty winds bring
merchants from the mountains to 
sell A bus ride home

American Voice
Mexican spice, I read A 
book about Japan

Beyond The Roar of
waves crashing, chips crunching, The Cobblestone music  
 
Pelicans Descend 
Beneath Vallarta's Waves 
skydiving for fish
 
Scissors and toxin 
a song to kill us slowly 
leave the birds flyin'
 
Man of the hour
half-high, unannounced, dashing
raped his wife and child
 
Cut me loose, oh witch!
My dry nose numb with boredom
Can't your beast be shot?
 
Get your last grandma 
some flowers before you spread
First Grandma's ashes 

Can't sleep, know why so 
How many times must I sleep 
dreaming of mudpie 

Thy hands are living
ships in orbit, ready to 
self-destruct in ten ...

Haiku five seven
five, enough to plan a heist
demands poetry 

Solid, still cosmic 
statue swallows the rings of
Saturn, smeared on toast 

My October room
oh the places you'll make it 
with a spark of joy 

Witness tree, witness
me seven thousand years ago... 
bleeding tar and ice 

Old man retrieves kid's
kicked out yellow rubber ball 
passing back the Earth 

In the shadow of
the solo tree I take a
drink and look out there
 

Insects trill and chirp  
She set his west on fire 
And the war horse died 

Bukowski, Bashō
And Baudelaire gave me my
passage beyond plight 

Piss dripping down my leg
burning the devil's lettuce 
intension again 

Observing family

absurd fantasy for me 

Collapsed in the mind 

As fast as we go

The sun is faster than ice 

Mountains beyond me

Midnight shooting star 

coyote after enjoy

the buzz of my birth 

Saw a coyote 

walking into Taco Bell

crispy burrito

The Solo Squirrel hops

under human chariot

acrons await him

Succumb to a friend

Who knows you now, knew you then 

and yet a stranger 

Driving metal spear

through ice to the stone with might

muscles feel static 

Anger falls like snow

first lite then heavy melting 

slippery metal 

The Happiness thing

A fox at night eludes me

forgotten the taste

Metal Collides With 

Frozen  metal makes way for 

colorful giants 

Breath evaporates 

like clouds in winter sun

Two less ravens now

Eight black ravens fly

a cold morning wing ballet

for me, scraping ice 

There will be more beer

There will be more women

There always will be 

fighter jet zoom booms

high above mountain peaks, black

against the white sky

even the raven 

with his mouth so full of mice

plays in the snowfall

Wanted different things 

slow sex on our couch as our

world burns all around 

Great serpent, I pray 

She finds meadows unburnt by 

immaculate hooves 

Imagine seeing

You again ten thousand times

old then young again 

Morning steam rises 

sun burning off snow, Raven 

cools off his talons 

Home is an abstract 

meant something once upon a 

time to go again 

Another friend I

disappointed by how I

choose to live my life 

LAST DAY OF THE YEAR

Pretty drive to cinema 

HAZY DRIVE BACK, WRONG 

COSMIC FORCE STOPPED ME

IN MY TRACKS, HEAD UP TO SEE 

BALD EAGLE FLYING 

FALLING SNOW BEHIND 

A CRITTER FOLLOWS ME HOME 

SQUERRIL OR RAVEN 

FLEETWOOD MAC REMINDS

ME OF A LOVE I ONCE HAD 

A BOTTLE OF RED 

A BAR FULL OF MEN

SEVEN OUT OF TEN IN HATS 

BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS 

METAL RINGS AND LOVE

FOLLOWED BY CHILDREN AND HATE 

BIG CARS KILL PEOPLE 

THE FURRY GHOST HOPPED

OVER THE BLUE LASER BEAM 

LATE FOR HIS BARBER 

TREE BEAST MANY QUILLS

SNOW COVERS THEIR MANY SNOUTS

DROOPING DOWN TO EARTH 

 

CHASING COYOTES 

THEY SCAMPER KICKING UP SNOW

YIPPING AND YAPPING 

 

HE SANG THE WHISKEY 

SONG UNDER HIS IRISH BREATH

I DRANK THE STORY 

Wide dense freezing fog

incubates beloved cat 

feathers without birds

Baphomet digests

his tribute, gluttonous a

PINE cone bearing tree

 

Monk pushes the seeds

of the cold storm makes him free

makes him remember 

 

noodles boil frog

up the windows, falling stars

build a castle

bar key in my back 

pocket heavy deadly weight

swings me to a smile

The weight of snow falls

away to reveal just how 

much light there can be 

breaking the waves in

one ear, die hard the other 

deafening the snow

thy reverie drowns 

In waves of doubt, fearless fish

The old horse recalls

Prison of my own

stepping on my neck, so cold

pork chops for christmas 

at last i am shown

the winter that was forseen

sword, noodle and peace

crown of heat remains

far below the kingdom my

queen, better than muck 

Blue bells of demise

be it to the seedling

an abstract branch 

Insignifigant 

You are, but you know people

Love mind does mean more 

after a shower

wearing whatever chosen

a sex thought collects 

 

 

 













 





































 

© 2026 by Nick Pray Love 

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