The River Flys

What do I want to say?
The river is in the sky.
It hangs around our ears
It's been swimming with the
Milky Way all night
Forgetting us
Remembering God.
The river settles down
like a summer bedsheet
shaken up for straightening
but it's floating right
around my ears, no lower.
What do I want to say?
The river talks God in my ears
I'm forgetting myself.

ap. 23. 09

Running with Patience

It takes patience to keep
trying to sleep after each dream in the night
and it takes it to stop trying
when the darkness finally gives up.
It takes patience to look at
the pattern in your own eyes
and it takes it to lose the weight
that has nothing to do with your body.
It takes patience to run,
to make it,
until, without knowing you're not running -
it takes nothing from you to fly like that.

ap 23, 09

Not a Difference

It won't matter to rest this black pen here
on my shirt to dry
to let it deepen the black there
a colour I can
pull up to my chin
to let it absorb words
not shot through and white with holes
not making shadows on my skin.

Apr 2, 09

At the Windowsill

The sky stayed still. It stayed out late
at my window sill. It stayed quiet
thinking, lying
quite still,
quite still.

apr 2, 09

You're the Hollow Bones

If you're the feathers,
then you're the hollow bones
I can't work or grow
And you'll fly around my house
all alone
waiting for me to come.

Apr 2, 2009

Cold Again

No body at the washing stoop
the river turns cold, still.
The tree branches jump and tremble
as if filled with birds
but its the wind
not willing to blow
just wanting to bend something.
The river doesn't listen, doesn't move,
doesn't reply.

Apr 2, 2009

Juice and Red

What is blood, but juice
to make us round, not flat?
What is red, but the color
opposite of just air, just water?
Our mouths open to make way
for air and water
but my blood burns
reaching for yours.

3, 29, 09

Other Than Blood

We love like fish
that need blood
to flow against their blood.
Desperation to know
another smooth body
replaces responsibility
to fill our own skin
with other than blood.

3, 29, 09

Birds in the Bamboo

Birds in the bamboo
Spring breaks a sweat
it comes out in neon beads
that run in all directions
across the days.

3, 21, 09