"Follow your foot prints," a voice cried out

and like a homeless dog my soul wandered

inhaling decay down an alleyway of the night

until it met a dog with flashing teeth.

"Do I know you?" I said, meeting his gaze

"The trail ends here," the Dark One replied,

"You’ve come a long way, now lie down and rest."

Like coral burning at the bottom of an angry reef

A wavering light escaped from his mouth.

And it seemed that his eyes incandesced

as though they were set on some invisible string

worn by a famished demon happily wagging his tail

while raising a heavy paw to claim

a flank of meat from a tourist wielding a camera.

A Hound Called Cerberus

What a dysfunctional family confronted our Cerberus!

Imagine him an unhappy pup tearing at the flesh of the dead

as they descend into Hades, ripping and rending with scarcely blood

to slurp; it must have warped all his fifty heads, a multiple

personality disorder; consider his mum, she, part serpent, part woman,

and his dad–a fire-belching control freak covered

in a dermal embossment of snakes and dragons, ah, in stark human contrast

the heartbreak of psoriasis is but a zit on the very tip of a teen’s beak!

My favourite pit bull of a psyche, is he not the perfect guardian

of some biker’s scrap metal yard, and visualize the sign stopping trespassers:

Warning: Rex is waiting for you past these gates–or possibly the sign

isn’t there at all, although shards of flesh and bone fragments litter the yard.

Dear mom: I never did send you my letter telling you about my new job,

asking you to come and visit and bring some over-cooked chicken.

Canis Major, Big Dog

Our Big Dog, a happy spectre, is fast asleep

while gaseous fireflies attack his floppy ears.

Only God, his trainer, can hold his sparkly leash

that’s tethered to a sizzling necklace of Eternity :

I view his phosphorescent tongue and eyes:

they’re combustive fields that radiate intelligence.

Do you think our Master would handle a stupid pet?

This Dog herds hulking bears around the sky!

A mighty herder is our working Dog, and bless his pups!

Have we met before–were you employed in a scrap yard

of some inner city, you who are the pit bulls of my faith

eat well, dine heartily, you must ingurgitate the race

so gnaw the flesh clean off the shank of longevity.

Look star-ward, friend, don’t you see those frightened bears

racing toward a dark abyss that is the stomach of the night?

Hey, Medusa Momma

Hey, Medusa momma, I see you got some dancing curls!

Hey, momma, what’s that wriggling on your snowy head?

Hey, momma, marbled in memory–you got me stoned on hate.

Hey, momma, how’s your budgie doing in the spirit world?

Hey, slippered momma, shuffling about like an old arthritic dog.

Hey, momma, get a sniff of me; I’m not getting old, merely decomposing!

Hey, momma, your latkes have freezer burn; but then I’m a hungry schnauzer of a son.

Hey, momma, can I buy a mudder like you in the bargain basement of Eternity?

Hey, Medusa momma, love those hissing ringlets on your prehistoric pate!

Hey, momma, a tinted photo, circa 1920, is that you in a butchy sailor’s outfit?

Hey, momma, you always wore the pants, and papa wore a short leash.

Hey, momma, your pace maker, has the warranty finally run out?

Hey momma, fruit flies hovering around the rubber plants, turn down the heat!

Hey, momma, are you dead, and renting out your ghost kennel in Hell?

Homo Homini Lupus

Man is a wolf to man is what I am in my pelt.

In me howls the beast and yet there’s no moonlight

to brighten my cave of venomous reminiscence, nurtured

by a three-headed howler I drank her bilious lactose;

this, too, I’ve repressed; but still the memory throbs

like phosphorescence swimming inside an aperture,

that leads into some wormhole of a stellar-studded stomach

wherein I know my true biological mother dwells

jellied in ether; her quavering voice calling out to me

in a recurring dream, and me cringing like a dark pup

whimpering under an ectoplasmic security blanket

of my mongrel soul; curse her matrix, all that DNA

that formed her birth canal, and yours truly spawned forth,

writhing, gurgling, a whelp snipped free from the cord, a disease!