Rubato

One rues the day on pillory display
one’s last tweet skids street stocks
to ad-lib a life one means to loose
the self from one’s love’s strictures
with daily tinctures of absent mind
edness not mindfulness mind you
on free range one affords to ignore
the pranger to be clear (for once)
contempt for public humiliation
only worsens one’s foot whipped
condition and enlivens passersby
to come closer and reach out not
to help but to tickle taking easier
forms of torture of clean beatings
this the dunce cap prepared you
for the report card without wit
and those sounds in the distance
coming over the mountains over
sand dunes and from far down
under the railroad tracks a dark
portentous prattle of pompous
importance back home to roost
one plays out of time for only
so long usually in fact for just
instances in time such that we
often don’t even notice a slip-up
especially in our time when time
has already been so economized
compromised clock punch drunk
now thirsty now dry now thirsty
in the twilight I see glow
blue eyes turn to gold.