

Much Too Big To Be Blamed
They look down from their sprawling place
High in the truck,
Barely watch as I scramble
Never flinching too much...
They have taken this job, and they
Come to the call,
But beyond that they don't aim...
Only flies on a wall...
Though they crush without thought
They hold wheels they must turn...
In the teeth of the gears
It grows hard to discern
If I blame their control
Or my own foolish state...
Far too large for the burden...
Their future uncertain,
But certainly falls
Past the realm of the small...
Much too big to be blamed
As they watch me with eyes
That have gone dull from privilege...
Their lobster stalks dry
At the point that the optics transmit
To the skull...
Much too big to blamed...
Ours is flesh that they cull,
And muscle they tame,
But it's all just so easy...
Like reflex they squander us...
Only waste what is pleasing...
6/6/25
Bunny Villaire
Don’t Let Me (Die)
Don't let me die
Up on the vine…
Don't let me dry
Without a sign
That someone out there's
Heard a squeak
That's caused a dimple
On their cheek…
Don't let me die
Up here in vain
Amongst the winds
And steady rain…
To finally collapse
With a thirst
Upon tableau of
Barren earth…
At times it seems
Out on this branch
Where crows decide
Whose back to scratch
That high ideals are
Tossed at will
Into a maddened
Oil spill ..
Don't let me die
Up on the vine…
Don't let me dry
Without a sign
That someone out there's
Heard a squeak
That's caused a dimple
On their cheek…
Don't turn your eyes
Away so soon!...
Don't steel your nerves…
Approaching doom
Has crept into our
Windswept halls,
And sprung new leaks
Where we stood tall…
Through tightly clenched teeth
I bit down,
Denied the cardboard
Traits of sound…
I was dismissive in my shell
As worlds collided
By each swell of dusk
Descending on pale flesh…
Don't let me die
Up here in vain
Amongst the winds
And steady rain…
To finally collapse
With thirst
Upon tableau of
Barren earth…
6/5/25
Bunny Villaire
Edit #3
The Shadow of Our Shape
Out here beyond the limits of the noiseless heights...
The frozen faced giants stalk the outskirts
And pause while passing
To remind us with their doublespeak
By wordless language of aggressive arrogance
Speaking with eyebrows only
That the future and past are in a static position,
And like the silent
Cycling of the planets
In the far reaching galaxies beyond our notion
We must not be rash and act out of our call...
No burning bridge, and all that razz-a-ma-tazz
That'll make their eyes come alive for the first time
Since Christmas gave their hardened hearts joy...
No toying with the ever screaming gears...
I fear...
There's a nervous act behind their veil of eye-lid yet...
Ah still...
I feel that life is worth
So much more than they or any
Fool in power could have it priced...
Don't doubt...
That speaking like the pulse is dead can hypnotize
The soul for only intervals at a time...
I climb...
Inside my own internal tent until
The fire and screaming have died down but know
It's bound to reach us all so we must
Find a way to take clear steps out into sprawling dark...
And let the leper
Of the soul befit the shadow of our shape...
5/31/25
Bunny Villaire
Street Musician
Tell me where did you defect to
My lovely street musician?...
You were always on the edges...
Living bravely....
Playing song...
Sometimes you had guitar case,
Or a hat upturned for loose change...
Now there's something in the air
That keeps you dormant...
Something wrong...
Is this the same sad aura
That's kept the ice cream
Trucks in hiding?...
I'm still yearning for their
Repetitious loop
Of rattle clink and clang...
I can taste it on my tongue
Just like the lovely street musician...
Maybe soon they will return
Despite the centuries harangue...
I remember an old black man
Who would play the fastest
Rock songs
I would see Sam without fail
On my scoot to the café...
Always had a morning song
Like a sparrow on my window...
Tell me where did he defect to
Like a lost elusive stray?...
I can taste him on my tongue;
This outstanding street musician...
Sometimes smiling, sometimes grim..
Ever changing as the sky...
We must cultivate our grounds
To support the street musician,
If we can't open our arms now
It's in alleys evil hides...
Watched him bless spires
And steeples in the morning
While the callous
Walked right by him
In their malice
Acting like he'd soiled the air...
Let us hope the street musician
Soon returns of his volition
To inhabit every crevice which
That kind shopkeeper grants...
Every now and then I hear him
Wafting from some darkened corner...
His poor voice is so much older,
But his remedy's the same!...
5/28/25
Bunny Villaire
Edit #3
She Watches Where I Wallow
Outside the birds are singing...
You can hear them if you try...
Outside the birds are singing...
You can hear them if you try...
Inside my door is closing...
With one foot she kicks it wide...
Maybelle, she's quite a woman...
She will make you lose your crown...
Maybelle, she's quite a woman...
She will make you lose your crown...
You'll be begging on some corner
For just one night on the town...
Drinking from the sewer...
I'm under her control...
She watches where I wallow...
In dirt, or rocks, or snow...
Watches where I wallow, baby,
With her telescopic
Optic lens...
I'm begging every angel
Fix the heart she
Dare not mend...
Last night the thunder rumbled...
My poor stomach was in knots...
Last night the thunder rumbled...
My poor stomach was in knots...
I asked her if she loved me,
And she handed me my cot...
I got both my coat and hat on...
I can't see where I can stay...
I got both my coat and hat on...
I can't see where I can stay...
There's a golden gate I'm building,
And she's standing in the way...
Drinking from the sewer...
I'm under her control...
She watches where I wallow...
In dirt, or rocks, or snow...
Watches where I wallow, baby,
With her telescopic
Optic lens...
I'm begging every angel
Fix the heart she
Dare not mend...
5/24/25
Bunny Villaire
Edit #2
Ochaya
Clouds loom like a leopard,
Spreading outward like a fan...
Caked in dust
Within this teahouse
Somewhere in Japan...
Here the spirit grabs you...
Angel blossoms fill the air...
Crouched against
A bloody sunset,
This garden enclosed lair...
Please enjoy a tea with us,
Wait for pleasure...
Steep!...
There's a hole
Where we freeze time...
Sprinkled petals sleep...
Every steaming cup to lips
Will artfully smear lines...
Of bureaucracy rock pile that we
Desperately keep in mind...
Dressing down as every tool's
A necessary art...
Take it slow...
Follow rules...
Now let the sadõ start...
Where outside the other you's
A thief of defunct light...
Separate the bull
From shit...
Nearing in steady flight...
Please enjoy a tea with us,
Wait for pleasure...
Steep!...
There's a hole
Where we freeze time...
Sprinkled petals sleep...
Every steaming cup to lips
Will artfully smear lines...
Of bureaucracy rock pile that we
Desperately keep in mind...
5/22/25
Bunny Villaire
Edit#4
A Mournful Evening
"I'm young inside this body..."
Said the old man to the teen...
"You see me as a leper,
But you don't know what I've seen...
...You don't know why each eye-
ball burns...
To you my skin is rotting...
I am a red flag that's unfurled...
A dying fawn that's spotting...
You'll never know my hidden fields...
My garden of lush fruits...
It's all just touch and go with you...
I'm like a show on mute...
The boy was so particular
On what he would allow
To cross his threshold of forbearance...
He was like some giant plow
That only saw the world as one
Which could be mined or tilled...
The old man stood for yesterday...
With modicums of guilt
The boy imagined this old man
As dead and in the ground...
The boy'd attain inheritance,
And staring at the mound
Of dirt that once was living flesh,
He'd separate his mind...
Compartmentalize his grief,
And as the cloudy sky
Began to gather darker fiends,
And monsters from lost years;
The boy realized that the grave
Had his name etched into stone...
The mournful evening drew to a close,
His jawbone fell like clay...
His arm fell off like a branch
Weighed down by a pine cone...
So soon he was just one big pile
Of dust, and splintered bone...
"I'm young inside this body..."
Said the old man to the teen...
"You see me as a leper,
But you don't know what I've seen...
...You don't know why each eye-
ball burns...
To you my skin is rotting...
I am a red flag that's unfurled...
A dying fawn that's spotting...
You'll never know my hidden fields...
My garden of lush fruits...
It's all just touch and go with you...
I'm like a show on mute...
5/14/25
Bunny Villaire
Stampede of Dread
Sarah stood there with her back against the wall...
The people rushing by like vital signs...
The world, a giant bug against her glass...
Her pulse felt like a comet meant to crash...
What brought me to this bedside,
To this threshold of the world?...
I will die upon this desert
If you can't soften the churl...
The sweet intoxication that
The civil minded get
When they play out their next nightmare
On the unsuspected sect...
"O, God, help me to forgive them!...
O, please, push me from the grasp
Of unmitigated masses
Who beg me to yield so fast,
And say yes to what now passes
As a woman in this school,
And in magazines,
And corners
Where they
Sell the golden rule..."
She stood there with her back against the wall...
The people rushing by like vital signs...
The world, a giant bug against her glass...
Her pulse felt like a comet meant to crash...
...Just as Sarah felt her locker,
And it's sharp metallic edge...
It seemed many knew her combo,
But she couldn't divine the words
That were pouring out the recess
Of her garden so obscured
From her classmates and her teachers...
Such a barred and secret haven...
As a hand held out some lipstick,
Another offered up
A bag
So empty,
Someone said,
"This is the lunch we made..."
...And the dread kicked in like hooves,
Dipping Sarah into shadow...
There was sweat across her brow...
Just like a soldier,
Thrown in battle...
Sarah stood there with her back against the wall...
The people rushing by like vital signs...
The world, a giant bug against her glass...
Her pulse felt like a comet meant to crash...
4/29/25
Bunny Villaire
Edit #2
Night Ships
We've been drifting over a rift in time...
Sliding in and out
Of an interchangeable embrace...
Eyes like keyholes,
Hungry as they search...
Staring into night
We lose our sight for something full...
Spinning out of orbit...
Pass me a portion of your
Empty bowl logic...
My tongue is dry, and needs the
Sustenance of wolves...
What becomes of lives,
When we're deprived of fastened bonds?...
Lost to peeling paint...
We cast adrift where we consume...
Eyes roll back in head as red bloodshed
Of the sanguine flesh
Engorges us, and makes the fury of the mouth
Alternate to the magnet of a gaping wound...
The sun and moon become only finger food
When we don't know how to
Slow our breath,
And take a knee...
What's killing you
Is killing me, my dear
And it's the severance from all
That's holy...
You find it in the cool lagoon...
You'll find it in the passing breeze...
Pause in radiance, and catch the crease
Where darkened eyes can see again...
4/25/25
Bunny Villaire