— The Rig Veda (10:16:3)

Oh manifest and unmanifest, 

wave and ray of breath, 

red lotus of insight, 

transfix us from eye to navel 

to throat, under canopy of stars

spring from soil in an unbroken 

arc of light that we might 

immerse ourselves until lit 

from within like the sun itself. 

A spring so beautiful it gives me a headache

winter jasmine climbs my spoked black chair 

screentalking hours away in lotus pose

 

you telling me how much you miss me

clutching yourself while you say it

I hit the end button, you don’t call back.

 

A headache so jasmine it clings to the cortex

a floor-length drape that obscures any view

from the window. Let the nape of your neck

 

be the power of a prime and I a positive integer

for every vertex ∝ our entwined fingers, show

the nonzero code word its own guttural syntax 

 

∴ Keywords cream heavy droplets in morning

blackness coffee dark and deep searching: engine

optimizing things I saw today. Behind the masks

 

we are all eyes now, bump against baser desires

(lips behind fabric)*(shield touch, disease)

remembering an interlacing of longer sums.

 

a nun’s habit, not a niqab’s notion, though both rise

from some dead man’s mouth like ≠, ever ≠ and <,

though what the mask conceals reveals truer

 

impurity, a velveteen world of prohibited touch. 

Beneath cloth, my breath dampens the outside

of my lips and I only taste the salt of myself. 

Bald-headed metaphysicians wonder if I’m real, 

You cannot taste me nor touch me nor even cop a feel.

But when I start to gust,

They only notice the waves against their keel.  

Without words, I say, 

It’s in the Japanese Kami, 

The Polynesian mana,

The Anglo-Saxon wod,

The Semitic shekhinah,

I’m a numen. 

Phenomenally. 

Phenomenal numen,

That’s me. 

I materialize in the mind

Quite spontaneously, 

Leaving behind 

A gift for those who own 

Eyes but cannot see. 

Like a feeling set free,

The holy is a priori.  

I say, 

It’s the thing-in-itself, 

And the heat from the chair

Left behind by the one 

Who sits everywhere. 

I’m illuminated 

Numinously. 

Luminous numen,

That’s me. 

Is what you sense in me. 

You try so hard 

But will stay barred

From my inner mystery. 

Even when I reveal myself

You’ll claim you cannot see.

I say, 

It’s in the dread of my force, 

The wing of my awe, 

The tao of my telling 

Unwritten by law. 

I’m a numen 

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal numen,

That’s me.

The man in bathing

ape color-camo sweatpants

makes origami

dragons in the next bus seat.

I can’t fold my city map.

Certainty is stone.

Being perplexed is enough

over rice noodles

the steam rises, disappears 

like potentiality. 

The Beijing man sports 

a surgical mask because 

of air pollution. 

The Tokyo woman wears hers, 

being sick, not to spread germs. 

“We have decided 

not to die,” the one title 

I can decipher.  

Reversible destiny 

lofts to shake tenants awake. 

in a geisha’s silken lap

gazes with disregard

while being stroked and tickled.

Before a photo, they’re gone. 

Of people, there are 

two kinds: some who love robots

and some Godzilla.

The floating paper lanterns 

fade into the horizon.  

“Can a prefecture

be hood? Roppongi Harlem,

Kabukicho Compton,

Yakuza instead of Bloods?” 

I ask his tattooed forehead. 

The art of placing 

stones into wavering plinths

stable in the wind.

The place of art in making

love shares a similar trait. 

Mitsui cider, 

Ashai beer, umbrellas, 

novels, omikuji

(random fortunes), batteries:

some things in vending machines. 

Home for time once spent

with Vector the Crocodile 

and Miracle World’s 

Alex Kidd, Akhibara’s 

retro Sega multiverse. 

During rush hour,

oshiya, or “passenger 

arrangers” (pushers!)

jam commuters onto packed

subway trains with white gloved hands. 

The washlet control 

panels have proximity 

sensors on heated

seats, adjustable spraying

bidets, even masking sounds.  

Nigerian touts 

promise cheap booze and women. 

The bass pounds above

strobe lights flickering, a man

in a moonsuit plays bouncer. 

Ganguro translates 

to bold black faced girl in white

concealer, hazard 

tape bright heels, skirt, scissorhand 

fingernails and a deep tan. 

When Gwyn Stefani 

rocked a bindi, no one cared, 

not Indian me. 

Appropriation, surely,

yet she made being brown cool. 

Typhoon Jongdari 

hurtles towards the mainland 

darkening the skies

inverting umbrellas, wind

blotting out our voices. 

The infernal roar

when the shoji sliding door

opens must be a circle

of hell with the name Stardust. 

No. A pachinko parlour. 

Quadruple-decker 

elevators rise and fall 

(neon is passé)

shadows of woodern cladding

meant to emulate bamboo. 

ni, each step running water.

Otherwise beware 

Shibuya Crossing.

Spill like a marble. Scramble.  

Underground nation, 

banks of locker glowing red

or green, space to stash 

your stuff. What gets forgotten

lives unseen with new purpose. 

I missed Basho’s hut, 

its thatched roof with wide rice fields

stretching from bamboo 

groves and fallen persimmons 

to the Katsura River. 

Taking the stillness 

off the zabutan is hard

work for noise too easily

intrudes once the door opens

and the dead world is reborn.

Gaijin discouraged, 

nothing subtle in his words. 

The reason, my friend 

explains, some salarymen  

feel shamed not to know English. 

Harujuku girls 

are like Nara deer confronted 

with deer crackers. 

They can turn into monsters 

if you don't feed them enough. 

Before his manga 

obsession and his denim 

fetishization 

my friend Satoru Saito

had a rat rot in his room. 

100 Yen Shop:

pedicure pad animals

hand grips, sushi shaped

key rings, kanji drill books, dolls, 

dokodemo caps. What else? 

The sunlight shining

through the leaves of the forest

dapples the damp earth.

In Japanese, there’s a word  

for this dance: komorebi. 

In the land of cat

cafés, I just want to find

a sumo stable.

The barista makes matcha,  

wears his hair in a topknot. 

On an unlit stick 

of incense two cicadas

leave behind brittle

shells to return underground. 

What’s most vulnerable, concealed. 

Fragility: screens 

made from translucent paper.

cherry blossom petals’ bell

peals, then disappears. Let go.

listen to each name

                               pasted on this field 

tongues to discover 

                               an angle of incidence  

to revel in the time

                               the lines rhymed

when it did not feel

                               blanketed over 

waiting for insight

                               longing for being 

embraced, nurtured

                               understood 

well and deeply  

                               a certain particularity 

snuck like bone 

                               in every single body

whatever recumbent

                               pose or reshaping  

posture of motion 

                               it might take in light 

of this reading 

                               like bacteria passing

through a membrane   

                               that if unconscious  

an osmotic process

                               still marks distance

through alteration

                               a single cell doubled 

again doubled

      again doubled 

reduced to ciphers 

                              impossible to parse

when always moving 

                              slightly ahead of itself 

with a momentum 

                              that pulls forever 

forward until abruptly

                              it stops

only to restart again.

Added Money 

Budget Deficit = Net Savings + Trade Deficit − Investment

Aggregate 

net result of knowing and applying all defined terms. Not to be confused with composite materials or news tickers. 

Arm Jerker

to marketing and promotion what Les Parapluies de Cherbourg is to handkerchiefs.   

Association Saddle 

           1.1 The principal Sitter shall be as set forth in the Articles of Organization. These By-
           Laws, the powers in all matters concerning conduct and regulation, the duration and
           quality of the Sitting and any damage that might therewith ensue shall be subject to such
           provisions in regard thereto, if any, as are set forth in the  Articles of Organization as
           from time to time in effect. 

           2.1 The members of the Association in Competition are its Adhering Bodies.

           2.2 Only under extraordinary circumstances might the Association admit a suitably
           designated additional Adhering Body to take the place of the original Sitter. A Sitter may
           appoint as proxy only an adult member of his or her household weighing as much as but
           no more than the Sitter at weigh-in. 

           2.3 The Rump in question will be owned and controlled by the Sitter, who takes full
          responsibility for the salubrious or injurious effects that result from the Sitting. 

          3.1 Any rights of copyright hereunder shall not be exclusive and can be virally
           transmitted in video, photo and textual form to any number of print or electronic media
           outlets or private owned lists that the Association may ordain suitable, thereby
           marketing the product to the fullest. Any nonmonetary gains shall accrue directly to the   
           memories of the Adhering Bodies.

Ball Out 

sudden burst of chutzpah, bravura or sisu in the waning moments of any endeavor 

Bareback Riding

raw man on man action for pigs, bears, cubs and twinks.

Bareback Rigging 

staging the aforementioned on camera. 

Barrier 

     1. a fence of sensors and spotlights along the Mexican border.

     2. an exploit once known as mooning.

Barrel Racing

dissembling the staves back into oak and the hoops back into ore. 

Body Roll 

sagging so low you could see our boxers, yo! 

Boot the Bull 

giving up the thorny path of prevarication to let the light of Jesus shine into your life. 

Break Away Calf Roping

application of a synergistic blend of lanolin, beeswax and colloidal silver in ointment form to relieve the pain, itching and inflammation. 

Break Away Roping

Tarzan-like escape from a rehab clinic with vines or cables.

Buford or Pup 

born blind and deaf in a litter among the thugs.

Bull Riding

variable speed buck and spin control in custom hides. Also known as taming “the bucking machine.” See: John Travolta and Debra Winger.

Calf Roping (on Foot)

thickened areas of dead skin painful to put pressure on. 

Cantle Boarding 

a synergy of paraffin fakie frontsides and aromatherapy nose grabs, harnessing the wick to the extreme!  

Catch as Catch Can 

some combination of grappling, hair tearing, fish-hooking, groin clawing, sternum elbowing, eye gouging, lip tearing, kidney thumping, ear biting, nerve numbing,  stomping and pummeling that prepares one for reconstructive surgery or the mixed martial arts. 

Chute Dogging

one of the basic tenets of Freeganism, or “limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources.” Also known as binning, alley surfing, curbing, shopping at the D-mart, garbage gleaning, dump-weaseling, tatting, skally-wagging or trashing.

Community Loop 

Yves confessed to Man who chided Max who was fucking Joan who hadn’t told André he wasn’t straight but had implied as much to René while berating Luis for not inviting Marcel as they all drove to Yves’ house for a dinner party. 

Cover 

a fake moustache or heavy metal ballad performed with harmonica and Moog synthesizers. 

Cross Fire 

early film noir. 

Cutting

four times as many females than males have used sharp edged objects in self-harm then worn turtlenecks and long sleeves to hide the evidence.

Cutting Pen

the bathroom mirror. 

Dallying Off (Dally)

spending a workday lunch in the park for too long dreaming of being an urbane bon vivant having an affair with a minimum wage honey to take the mind off its troubles. 

Daylighting 

far in the daylight haze among the piles

as of some fed up drone sacked out by lunch  

when all is dull, and task and day with wail

pass too slowly to even put off doing work

(after Tennyson’s “The Passing of Arthur”) 

Dogfall

a windfall gain that comes with a concomitant burden that makes its value dubious. Like an unexpected inheritance that is not monetary but in the form of a pit bull kennel, complete with leather leashes, syringes, pry bars, breeding stand and explicit instructions prohibiting a sale. 

Dogging

banging a stranger in public or talking smack behind someone’s back. Not to be confused with prairie dogging. 

Dragger or Trotter 

piece of refuse like masking tape or leaf with sap on it that clings to the shoe. 

Fading 

(from Phaedrus’ treatment at the hands of Socrates) to dismiss or to mock. As in “I faded the fool right to his momma’s face.” 

Fanning 

going on a blitz shopping for clothes with your team’s logo, buying season tickets, listening to sports talk radio, and meditating on such bits of gospel as “when your running game is nor working, you’ve got to go to the air.” 

Flag Racing

     1. first one to the top of the pole gets the worst abrasions. 

     2. an oxymoron like a Cherokee Pioneer or freezer burn. See also: the flagging race and steer riding. 

Fleaster 

the most important feast in the Wingless Insect liturgical year, celebrated in observance of the fact that from the cycle of larva, pupa and imago, new larva is constantly produced. Secular celebrations involve the capering of a Fleaster Bunny.   

Floating 

perpetually leaving one or two major requirements undone so graduation day is put off for as long as possible. 

Freight Trained 

being interrupted while in the process of saying something particularly witty.

Goat Dressing

1 stick butter

2 cloves of fresh garlic, minced 

1 teaspoon lime juice 

1 tablespoon Soy Sauce 

1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce 

1 tablespoon Celery Salt 

1/2 teaspoon each, Rosemary, Basil, Savory and Oregano 

1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper 

Hat Bender 

something so strange that it boggles the mind to contemplate. Like the international curiosity in Brittney Spears. 

Hazer 

one responsible for the procurement of goats, duct tape, paddles, pantyhose and tasers. 

Headhunter 

nickname for a military recruiter.  

Hickeyed 

not as pumpkin pie-eyed as the bumpkin or bleared with whiskey as the redneck but specked with the colorful pleasures of the hog farm. 

Hot-Shot

            (disambiguation) a generic term that describe all types of electric shocking devices.

            (disambiguation) solid iron cannonballs heated, then fired from cannon

            bacteria that’s invaded the bladder. Can be tested for with a swab. 

Hung Up 

progression from attraction to idealization, from anxiety to fear of abandonment, from tunnel vision to stalking. 

Lap and Tap 

    1. segueing from a Blaze Starr to a Fred Astaire number.  

    2. victory celebration of a championship swimmer that involves aquatic sex. 

    3. drinking water out of a dog bowl and begging for more. 

Lounger 

made of perspex acrylic complete with backrest that adjusts from full upright to horizontal and pull-out tray to hold cocktails. Uses industrial strength magnetism to offer a genuine floating sensation and no-fixed-means-of-support.

Marking Out (Marked Out)

use of the teeth in kissing to particularly noisy effect. Best done with clash of braces. Once one’s teeth are sore, one is officially considered to be “marked out.”

Mash Up 

to have humorous forms to call on if performance of the animal is inferior, like the ‘feast of fools’
(festa sultorum) and free ‘Easter laughter’ (risus pasachalis). This is not a spectacle seen by the
people; they live in it. Contestants who are “no shows” for carnival festivities or who don’t wear
long-sleeve shirts, long pants, western hat, and boots that minimally cover the ankle and have a heel will be disqualified. Degradation, in the case of hindered performance in the stall, digs a
bodily grave for a new birth. Whether fools or clowns. Goats or steers. 

                  (mash up of the International Gay Rodeo Association (IGRA) rules and Mikhail
                  Bakhtin’s Rabelais and His World. Translated by Helene Iswolsky)

Pegging 

           (disambiguation) defining trait of Bob, or Bend-over boyfriend 

           (disambiguation) to narrow cuff-size by folding over and rolling. 

knocking someone upside the head when least expected.  

Pick-up Man

someone with optional metrosexual characteristics such as shaved chest and gelled hair who has studied in the arts of the seduction community and can employ such subtle psychological strategies as backhanded compliments and pre-scripted conversations. Works best in the company of the Wing Man. 

Pole Bending

the Cirque du Soleil of the Kama Sutra. Also known as penile puppetry and genital origami. Can be practiced solo or with a partner.   

Poly

multilayered like a wedding cake, born with an extra digit, constructed from one or more variable and constant, synthetic as neoprene, having as many corners as sides, the Renaissance ideal, proof that lying causes side-effects, flared as bell-bottoms, prismatic and multilingual, a blinded Cyclops, hinged in sections, way too much love for just one person. 

Quarter Horse

one half a centaur. 

Quit the Cow 

marital abandonment. 

Rake

           (disambiguation) a lascivious aristocrat during the English Restoration (1660-1688) as
           in Aphra Behn’s The Rover 

           (disambiguation) from orgy to Bedlam in under ten seconds

           (disambiguation) no flop, no drop, otherwise a percentage for compensation

to run one’s fingers over a patch of skin where once there was hair.

Reata

to have a second Italian meal at the same sitting. 

Re-ride

play again for two extra credits. 

Rough Stock

bouillon that has sat in the cupboard so long it has fuzzed mold.  

Rowel

rut-ro Raggy rand me a rowel! Rats roovy. 

Scooter 

term of ridicule related to youth or inexperience. As in “hey scooter, can’t keep up with the motorbikes, huh?” 

Spur

representing the ACC, it’s the Big Fundamental.  

Spurring Lick 

a salt deposit that contains salmonella.

Star Gazer

aficionado of fuzzbox and “wall of sound” guitars overdubbed with downtempo sensations of gliding and hovering.

Steer Decorating

recommend upholstery and mildew-resistant slipcovers to brighten a sunroom.

Steer Riding

an oxymoron like a Cherokee Pioneer or freezer burn. See also: ride steering and flag racing. 

Stirrups

Gary Glitter, “The Famous Instigator.” 

String 

infinitely thin oscillating filaments that reconcile gravitational forces with quantum mechanics. 

Suicide Wrap 

low density polyethylene film (or a similar material) of not less than 150 micrometers in thickness

Suitcase Handle 

back hair aided by chemical stimulants to grow to graspable extremities 

Sun Fisher 

even on a chariot drawn by seven mares, Suriya was blinded by Sanjna. 

Team Roping

tricking the boss into taking the staff out to lunch to discuss new initiatives. 

Tie-down Roping

use of straps, harnesses, hogties and padlocks in edge-play; governed by mutually consensual safe-words.

Whipped Down 

sleeping in a bed of mashed potatoes. 

Wild Drag Race

    1. Teri Yaki and her lip-syncing queens use dildos as batons. 

    2. the xenophobia that lurks at the center of certain reading practices.

    3. laying mad rubber down before the Christmas Tree flashes.  

Working Cow Horse

milking those udders until you don’t hear a drop of moo.