He took that junk chair apart
like it was the end of time
And all the time the maker took to
fasten it together
And all the time the owners took to
wear it worthless
was unraveled in his hatchet.
mar 18.09
The Brave Season
The year has courage
rising after such a beating
pushing up from the ground
to roll on its back
without grimace for its unkempt bones
but at least a few teeth shine
to be alive.
Again and again it drops in the dirt
loses blood
feels its spirit sliding skinwards
lies in state - just breathing
just in just out.
And somehow, later
sometime after we've stopped watching, wanting
it forgives itself and gets up to live.
mar 18, 09
rising after such a beating
pushing up from the ground
to roll on its back
without grimace for its unkempt bones
but at least a few teeth shine
to be alive.
Again and again it drops in the dirt
loses blood
feels its spirit sliding skinwards
lies in state - just breathing
just in just out.
And somehow, later
sometime after we've stopped watching, wanting
it forgives itself and gets up to live.
mar 18, 09
What They Call Weeds
The birds are all legs now
we kick off our blankets
cats hug
and collapse on the spot
things inside come outside
shiver
But for no one will we put
our coats back on.
And I won't be pulling
what they call weeds.
mar 18, 09
we kick off our blankets
cats hug
and collapse on the spot
things inside come outside
shiver
But for no one will we put
our coats back on.
And I won't be pulling
what they call weeds.
mar 18, 09
Answering the Door
Everybody left
and the world felt lighter
the earth was a rising balloon
I could not hold down alone
I realized you had only gotten out of bed
leaving a gap in the blankets.
But I could feel nothing replacing
blood all through my body.
mar 18, 09
and the world felt lighter
the earth was a rising balloon
I could not hold down alone
I realized you had only gotten out of bed
leaving a gap in the blankets.
But I could feel nothing replacing
blood all through my body.
mar 18, 09
The Junk Collectors
The neighbors are junk collectors
Their house is a pile
Every few days, they pitchfork
one type of junk out through a hole
in the wall or the rooftop or the door
It lands skittle skitter
in their dirt alley.
Then one of them,
I never seem to recognize the same
one twice. Maybe there are twenty people
living in the pile. Maybe junk collectors
become as unique as their wares and never look
the same after spending the night flattened.
One of them slowly stacks the junk,
as best it can be stacked
Smashes it with a foot,
as best it can be smashed.
And takes the good part of a sunny hour
tying purposeful, webbed knots around
the whole fag of likeminded nonesense.
I try to watch, but it's
like a butterfly coming out at last
taking its difficult time.
The last thing to see
is often a woman, often an old woman
plodding toward the edge of her life
with the junk piled on her back
high over her shoulders
a hang glider that would catch
the wind when she leaps.
mar 17, 09
Their house is a pile
Every few days, they pitchfork
one type of junk out through a hole
in the wall or the rooftop or the door
It lands skittle skitter
in their dirt alley.
Then one of them,
I never seem to recognize the same
one twice. Maybe there are twenty people
living in the pile. Maybe junk collectors
become as unique as their wares and never look
the same after spending the night flattened.
One of them slowly stacks the junk,
as best it can be stacked
Smashes it with a foot,
as best it can be smashed.
And takes the good part of a sunny hour
tying purposeful, webbed knots around
the whole fag of likeminded nonesense.
I try to watch, but it's
like a butterfly coming out at last
taking its difficult time.
The last thing to see
is often a woman, often an old woman
plodding toward the edge of her life
with the junk piled on her back
high over her shoulders
a hang glider that would catch
the wind when she leaps.
mar 17, 09
How Animals are Made
I do not scramble up akin to you.
I once dreamed what walking would
feel like if it were bounding
I woke up convinced I could feel inside your limbs.
I pick and pry my way up into the
nests of the world
And you chide me for stumbling when I
finally soar back down.
i can only say
That's how we animals are made
You with some spare toes
I with some wings.
mar 17, 09
I once dreamed what walking would
feel like if it were bounding
I woke up convinced I could feel inside your limbs.
I pick and pry my way up into the
nests of the world
And you chide me for stumbling when I
finally soar back down.
i can only say
That's how we animals are made
You with some spare toes
I with some wings.
mar 17, 09
A Day Watching from 4 Stories
Men with spirit minds live behind the city
Babies row the open river
White cats slide through green gardens
Women with washboard voices rise behind our ears
They use an umbrella like a small sky
She hammers clothes like a folk chant
They lick cigarettes like finished plates
Their half grown eyes never see too far
He jabs his motorbike in the ribs
The day falls gently off its axis
mar 17, 09
Babies row the open river
White cats slide through green gardens
Women with washboard voices rise behind our ears
They use an umbrella like a small sky
She hammers clothes like a folk chant
They lick cigarettes like finished plates
Their half grown eyes never see too far
He jabs his motorbike in the ribs
The day falls gently off its axis
mar 17, 09
The Badlands
The badlands do not address anyone
but the sky.
And their days together
are either too intimate to detect the
sweet nothings passing there
Or too formal for anything
louder than the tacit reverence
held between them.
The Rocks hold nothing, no one.
You could fall from the earth there
or jump.
The badlands and sky are not concerned,
not with you.
They are only concerned with becoming
denser and harder versions of themselves.
It's a good place to become yourself
without the normal busybodying of all the world.
mar 17, 09
but the sky.
And their days together
are either too intimate to detect the
sweet nothings passing there
Or too formal for anything
louder than the tacit reverence
held between them.
The Rocks hold nothing, no one.
You could fall from the earth there
or jump.
The badlands and sky are not concerned,
not with you.
They are only concerned with becoming
denser and harder versions of themselves.
It's a good place to become yourself
without the normal busybodying of all the world.
mar 17, 09
Akin
Just like I don't see the powerlines
that would remind me I am not a lilliputian.
Just like i feel crushed and left whole enough to
feel it when I read a grown-up book
And crushed but dissolved
when I finish one for children.
Just like I can't stand to be laughed at
or looked at, sometimes.
Just like I choke and cough on my poetry
as if it were bronchial phlegm
And shred my stories to streamers
before I get a chance to write them.
Just like I eat raw eggs and roll out under raw sun
and scratch until spots of my skin also sting pink.
Just like the reason I don't want to regret anything
is because sometimes I regret everything.
Just like I can forgive the man his cigarette
because his holding his baby alone in a rowboat.
Just like all this I know that things will be written
by me. And I don't see where I come in in my own life
But we three are there - the time, the words, and I.
mar 17, 09
that would remind me I am not a lilliputian.
Just like i feel crushed and left whole enough to
feel it when I read a grown-up book
And crushed but dissolved
when I finish one for children.
Just like I can't stand to be laughed at
or looked at, sometimes.
Just like I choke and cough on my poetry
as if it were bronchial phlegm
And shred my stories to streamers
before I get a chance to write them.
Just like I eat raw eggs and roll out under raw sun
and scratch until spots of my skin also sting pink.
Just like the reason I don't want to regret anything
is because sometimes I regret everything.
Just like I can forgive the man his cigarette
because his holding his baby alone in a rowboat.
Just like all this I know that things will be written
by me. And I don't see where I come in in my own life
But we three are there - the time, the words, and I.
mar 17, 09
Techno and Roosters
There's the off beat of
techno and roosters,
the old man climbing a ladder
to hang his blanket on a line.
He told me, I want you to be more careful,
don't flail off from up there,
had I done that?
It seemed obvious.
He asked me to be more aware of myself.
"but it's myself who's not aware of me!"
I thought.
how childish.
I tried stepping, controlling my legs
I bounced and caught myself
with my head against a window frame.
He didn't have to ask see?
I didn't say I did.
I nodded, even after he left, I was
still there nodding,
until I noticed my neck bobbed in time
with the techno and roosters.
I checked for the man. He was down safely.
The blanket was up.
mar 17, 09
techno and roosters,
the old man climbing a ladder
to hang his blanket on a line.
He told me, I want you to be more careful,
don't flail off from up there,
had I done that?
It seemed obvious.
He asked me to be more aware of myself.
"but it's myself who's not aware of me!"
I thought.
how childish.
I tried stepping, controlling my legs
I bounced and caught myself
with my head against a window frame.
He didn't have to ask see?
I didn't say I did.
I nodded, even after he left, I was
still there nodding,
until I noticed my neck bobbed in time
with the techno and roosters.
I checked for the man. He was down safely.
The blanket was up.
mar 17, 09
Stories
The most important story is
how the story turned itself out
How the light asked the dark
to join it, to show the way to
never never never.
And when the story got there
that part makes you want to
blame stories for all the lies
we ever told and believed.
But the story doesn't end
there.
or anywhere.
In fact it grows and opens
like a tree of flame
into
ever ever ever.
mar 8, 09
how the story turned itself out
How the light asked the dark
to join it, to show the way to
never never never.
And when the story got there
that part makes you want to
blame stories for all the lies
we ever told and believed.
But the story doesn't end
there.
or anywhere.
In fact it grows and opens
like a tree of flame
into
ever ever ever.
mar 8, 09
Everything-Made
The God who did it first,
who lived and made and forgave,
cracked the universe like an egg
and poured the earth out,
we, all sticking, embryonic,
Opened the whites of our eyes
and filled them with his every thing.
Why do we close them
wringing them of clear soul,
sorry sorry sorry
for not being anything?
When the God who did it first,
who lived and made and forgave
every thing
then made us the same.
mar 8, 09
who lived and made and forgave,
cracked the universe like an egg
and poured the earth out,
we, all sticking, embryonic,
Opened the whites of our eyes
and filled them with his every thing.
Why do we close them
wringing them of clear soul,
sorry sorry sorry
for not being anything?
When the God who did it first,
who lived and made and forgave
every thing
then made us the same.
mar 8, 09
What I Remember of My Dreams
I often dream and often wake
and sometimes remember
the birthday gifts my
friends gave me at midnight
because they were ready for my birthday.
And gave me a baby kitten
because they believed I could love it
and that I wouldn't
step on it and not even care.
I sometimes remember
how I carried that kitten
near my neck all night
until morning,
knowing it's my birthday
knowing I can love it
knowing they gave me gifts at midnight
and waking hours too early for dawn.
mar 8, 09
and sometimes remember
the birthday gifts my
friends gave me at midnight
because they were ready for my birthday.
And gave me a baby kitten
because they believed I could love it
and that I wouldn't
step on it and not even care.
I sometimes remember
how I carried that kitten
near my neck all night
until morning,
knowing it's my birthday
knowing I can love it
knowing they gave me gifts at midnight
and waking hours too early for dawn.
mar 8, 09
The Point Is
It ended, "That's just not the point."
and we both hoped there was one.
Perhaps we'd search the nights for it
search loneliness and love
search words that don't work
and lines that haunt
like people we never quite loved.
And we hope, we still hope,
it's already there
in her heart, in the air around her ears
re-writing the end.
mar 8, 09
and we both hoped there was one.
Perhaps we'd search the nights for it
search loneliness and love
search words that don't work
and lines that haunt
like people we never quite loved.
And we hope, we still hope,
it's already there
in her heart, in the air around her ears
re-writing the end.
mar 8, 09
The Density of Coffee
The density of coffee
yesterday, sludge a centimeter deep
today, clear as clouds
washes the previous bitter down
and stands in for something like hope
yesterday, ankle deep
today, a sun as weak as spring in March.
mar 8, 09
yesterday, sludge a centimeter deep
today, clear as clouds
washes the previous bitter down
and stands in for something like hope
yesterday, ankle deep
today, a sun as weak as spring in March.
mar 8, 09
The Coasts
The coasts call
pretending they are not far.
They let their voices carry
inland inland in.
Didn't I know
I should or shouldn't have
carved my secret name
in their sands,
letting it sift out in the tide,
without understanding
(didn't I know?)
they'd always remember
that name
and never let it go
as long as wind still fills the air?
mar 12, 09
pretending they are not far.
They let their voices carry
inland inland in.
Didn't I know
I should or shouldn't have
carved my secret name
in their sands,
letting it sift out in the tide,
without understanding
(didn't I know?)
they'd always remember
that name
and never let it go
as long as wind still fills the air?
mar 12, 09
Sames
We are the same
She said it and said it
So I made an amusing list of our disparity
I knew she hated it and
We are the same
she would keep saying
making me lose my easy footing
Words became rotten limbs
on the tree I climbed childishly.
If a thing is true inside
It will come only
after all the even though's.
But it was only what she wanted
to make true
and it was wounded by that
ambiguous word, "but"
All her truth was drained empty through that wound.
Mar 6, 09
She said it and said it
So I made an amusing list of our disparity
I knew she hated it and
We are the same
she would keep saying
making me lose my easy footing
Words became rotten limbs
on the tree I climbed childishly.
If a thing is true inside
It will come only
after all the even though's.
But it was only what she wanted
to make true
and it was wounded by that
ambiguous word, "but"
All her truth was drained empty through that wound.
Mar 6, 09
Our Hill Came Down
They took down our hill
the one I took you to everyday in my mind
behind my ears
or tucked up in my hair
took it down like a bad billboard
“God is Love (but he hates you)”
It's almost see through
The birds fly right through space
like there was no atmosphere
on our planet, our hill
Today is a day out of season
like when you refuse to sleep all night long
because you're not through being alive
It's like summer got in that mood
and broke into the moon
like a bad safety box
like ours that I pick with my nail file
holding birthday cash
some important looking cards
checks
I think I saw a school photo at the bottom
The moon holds other things
the time between us
the horizon between us
the space on the other side of our atmosphere
all the birds that have learned how to reach it.
March 10, 2009
the one I took you to everyday in my mind
behind my ears
or tucked up in my hair
took it down like a bad billboard
“God is Love (but he hates you)”
It's almost see through
The birds fly right through space
like there was no atmosphere
on our planet, our hill
Today is a day out of season
like when you refuse to sleep all night long
because you're not through being alive
It's like summer got in that mood
and broke into the moon
like a bad safety box
like ours that I pick with my nail file
holding birthday cash
some important looking cards
checks
I think I saw a school photo at the bottom
The moon holds other things
the time between us
the horizon between us
the space on the other side of our atmosphere
all the birds that have learned how to reach it.
March 10, 2009
The One Glass
There was one glass of beige wine left
That seemed appropriate
and one clean glass, the one with a curvy crack.
That did too.
I cuddled glass and wine to my mouth
we're the friends who understand one another
and only sit in silence
though there's much to exchange
there will never be the time to say it all
so why start
why not just feel our skin on each other's
And I promise I will drain slowly
and the glass and wine promise they will swim slowly.
March 10, 2009
That seemed appropriate
and one clean glass, the one with a curvy crack.
That did too.
I cuddled glass and wine to my mouth
we're the friends who understand one another
and only sit in silence
though there's much to exchange
there will never be the time to say it all
so why start
why not just feel our skin on each other's
And I promise I will drain slowly
and the glass and wine promise they will swim slowly.
March 10, 2009
Snare Drums
Skin tightens in my heart.
The taughtness channels a sharper riff
Bi dum Bi da Bi dum Bia da
I write back "I know you,"
so afraid I really have no capacity to fit those
words inside
A second heart
tightens against the rhythm of
my words
so afraid there was no one left to really say them
Bi dum Bi da Bi dum Bia da.
mar 5, 2009
The taughtness channels a sharper riff
Bi dum Bi da Bi dum Bia da
I write back "I know you,"
so afraid I really have no capacity to fit those
words inside
A second heart
tightens against the rhythm of
my words
so afraid there was no one left to really say them
Bi dum Bi da Bi dum Bia da.
mar 5, 2009
Doing Scales
The kids bike with violin girls slung on their backs
I draw fingers and bow around the belly of my cello man
And someone bangs ivory of conversation in the apartment below
trying out the pattern of a soul.
mar 5, 09
I draw fingers and bow around the belly of my cello man
And someone bangs ivory of conversation in the apartment below
trying out the pattern of a soul.
mar 5, 09
The Sweet on the Fire
I breathed barbecued brisket in deep
how perfect in a city
in a summer
Then I thought, human meat could smell
as perfect
no less appropriate
for a city
for a summer
How I know nothing
of terrible life
of terrible world
of terrible human
possibility
And only smell on the fire
that which is truly perfect.
mar 5, 2009
how perfect in a city
in a summer
Then I thought, human meat could smell
as perfect
no less appropriate
for a city
for a summer
How I know nothing
of terrible life
of terrible world
of terrible human
possibility
And only smell on the fire
that which is truly perfect.
mar 5, 2009
Dharma (or Demigods)
What a river in the shade
knows
that it must go on.
What children growing
up in the city know
that life is under conditions.
What every saint writer
prophet savior whole soul
and lover knows
that nothing can hurt you
unless you hold it to you.
And that whether
the sky is really
billboard paper
or not,
smacking holes in it to see
what the other side is like will only
tatter worlds.
Light is knowing without
doing and being without
knowing
And never never
an action word.
mar 5, 2009
knows
that it must go on.
What children growing
up in the city know
that life is under conditions.
What every saint writer
prophet savior whole soul
and lover knows
that nothing can hurt you
unless you hold it to you.
And that whether
the sky is really
billboard paper
or not,
smacking holes in it to see
what the other side is like will only
tatter worlds.
Light is knowing without
doing and being without
knowing
And never never
an action word.
mar 5, 2009
Kinds of Light
Call again, red heart;
see what colour responds.
It won't be this
blinding light
flickering with black speck static.
It will be a stumbling
glow
of spots of
colours
dizzy, bruised,
and coming up
from the bottom of something
that hurt.
feb 14, 2009
see what colour responds.
It won't be this
blinding light
flickering with black speck static.
It will be a stumbling
glow
of spots of
colours
dizzy, bruised,
and coming up
from the bottom of something
that hurt.
feb 14, 2009
Velveteen Rabbit
Boy with the velveteen ears
and a smile like the only light switch
in a stadium.
Boy with want arms
that take even what they are not aware of.
Big sturdy heart
with no leaks in the roof.
feb 14, 2009
and a smile like the only light switch
in a stadium.
Boy with want arms
that take even what they are not aware of.
Big sturdy heart
with no leaks in the roof.
feb 14, 2009
Blazon
Everybody wants
romantic hair dark
eyebrows
an unnoticeable nose
bony shoulders hands
with veins
a gently sloping torso
legs only used for
wrapping around the earth
and smooth feet.
feb 14, 2009
romantic hair dark
eyebrows
an unnoticeable nose
bony shoulders hands
with veins
a gently sloping torso
legs only used for
wrapping around the earth
and smooth feet.
feb 14, 2009
Hamlet
My face in a scarf
who am i who am i
she said "Hamlet's amusing,
so juvenile."
I breathe blue scarf
smelling my mother, my neck
blue linen from France.
where am i from
who am i, Hamlet,
who am i?
it becomes one word
a wrong direction
i suck warm dry scarf
against my teeth
smelling the hotel, smelling
America, smelling the humidity
here.
whoami?
here ((here) here).
feb 4, 09
who am i who am i
she said "Hamlet's amusing,
so juvenile."
I breathe blue scarf
smelling my mother, my neck
blue linen from France.
where am i from
who am i, Hamlet,
who am i?
it becomes one word
a wrong direction
i suck warm dry scarf
against my teeth
smelling the hotel, smelling
America, smelling the humidity
here.
whoami?
here ((here) here).
feb 4, 09
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