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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, then me

 

Branches like bones

the great ribcage of the whale

of the great forest 

wooden spine, smoking

under it eludes to the 

beast the tree could be

masterbating 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 

morse smash burger joints 

 

So hoT Snow melting

awaiting friends arrival 

killing time with lime

 

Blomming, 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 IGNIGHTS 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

DARSIDE, 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 with 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 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 
high 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 year ago... 
bleeding tar and ice 

Old man retrives 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

Solo Squirrel hops

under human chariot

acrons await him

Succumb to a freind

who knows you know 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 fos at night eludes me

forgotten the taste













 





































 

© 2026 by Nick Pray Love 

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