Open Window Hands

open window hands
the doves go out, return
mourn the dawn
call us to our prayers
back to a god we limped from,
holding close the injuries
still unable to say
from where they fell
so to the vacant broken mouth
open window hands
send doves, go out, return
fill with mourning

jun 24, 2011

Dream Rot

disappointed i expected --
but what a one from
without the city, from without
the world could do
with only twine around
her earthen, half filled
notes, half felt breaks --
what a one who knew
so few names
but the few she only assumed
and cast about into, bait
for clearer bodies, lesser
smaller in their breath in their rage
for even one dream
enough small things filled her heavy
she felt deep --
with her one expectation wrappered, handled
as if a secret, as if hidden
it might become its own insides
but disappointed in the shade
of many fecund dreams of others
and many days grown dark
over
the grave cavern palms
under
receiving arms
the thickness pressing them away
the wetness the seep the drain
depressing rot into the seed
the ordinary way and mean


Jun 24, 2011

Little Thief

little thieves
with broken hips
only fill their hands
and not their pockets
they weave in drunken
talk in foreign
sit in silent
little spaces
but all i sometimes
think about
is half beaten
blood scraped
naked
taken for it all
happy through the vacant
bars between my teeth
between my eyesight
between my intellection
of what small talk
distracted me subtracted
the little thief
filling hands, mouth, pockets,
all
with my turned out collection

Jun 23, 2011

Shoulder Blades, Vertebrae

The sand between my shoulder blades
between my vertebrae
chorusing there
in skin tones
I won't know or care
and when the sand is all that's left
it will decide between
the sheets, my skin, the morning
I predict
how little I'll be shaking out
and the shape still making out
in skin tones
between my shoulder blades
stuck between the vertebrae

June 18, 2011

Serifs

Learn to out louder,
learn to turn up your heart
the whisper fist swinging at me
still clinging to its beat.
Learn to roll your tongue
on the rrrrr's of that dream,
the serifs trailing running into me
speechless as called for.
You'll know your heart broken
when it splays open handed,
a thunder clap on an empty shore.
Recognize its last breaths, its sore chambers
and give eulogy to the sound it spent
itself making, make a small sound in memory
a from the hollow sound,
a back of the throat rrrrr,
that translates infinitely
webbed into all made memory.

June 18, 2011

Waste

waste plans and hands
and cleaned dried time
waste tied bouquets
and strings and strings of beads
of words of sighs of mostly
glory vain and straining
through and through long
eyelash shadows against
long rooted afternoons
waste good dreams on
laughter and roomfuls of
fright holding off holding back
always waste wait wait wait
wait here until its safe

June 18, 2011

Gore

the night sky leans into me
all day battered through with arguments
and love underneath, sore but proud
what will tomorrow take
and what are we ready to lose
there is no question of willing
in the noise of the looters' scrabble
those questions flew
lay us down in close quarters
to save something for tomorrow
the weaponry the space
to pull or invade or ignore
will wait for us to wake and rise
to shake ourselves from one another
to change our minds about the night we spent
and run the day bluntly through again

june 1, 11

Half and Half Made Up

all frantic to

tell you where

and not how come

i can't

you'll fill in the blanks

then and gone (when)

we kept it simple

as easy as it was

your eyebrows fall in together

my smile does as much 

as my boots do ring

in line line line

of course all paper writes

better than our hands

in our palms

our own strangers

impatient with these men

with my teeth

i'll tell you

that i took the note

i had left for you and

had it made into a pitcher

to pour black water from

as my hand

casts a shadow over the words

i scratched in hand

all into the dark

and sort it out

late

half and half made up

made believe mostly

skimmed in blue veins

counting by trains

and their stops

i lay my head back

how can i

be your only

can you be mine?

my heart fades under

lights of late

street signs

the train pulls out

like (it knows)

like the past

you won't get to speak

til next time

she teach me

i teach you

you teach me

to say line line line

you dance

from your knees (up)

at the end of the night

whenever

we find it

it's what's left

in my hands and

not yours

that we're left with

the knees fall out

from under

I slouch to you

shallow in my

swung from the hip

suggestion

just drunk enough

to know

you're jack

i'm gin

tuck in our chins

to laugh hard

and in our knees

to weep

me all numb in your stun

aside

i need to be

a good deal drunker an this

a good deal holier

it's late

i grew eyes

i held so still

what do we do with

the sweat under our shirts

our skirts

sleep dance on

straighten your back

to pass me in the doorway

and don't let me catch you

in waiting again

i can see your cheekbones

you weren't for me

aside

summer all

can't last that long

can it last that long

summer bawls

summer ah

the proof

is in just a stain

a bruise i

re-enact

a breath i

re-intake

my excuses are

boots on the wood

the solemn only sound

of a late coming spring

i get behind all i can

dance to

the musicians tune

we fray

you do the violence

i'll do harmony

i put you

but i don't see you

like i seen you

in a man's bed

half there and gettin so

you have to

you leave too

much time for

the lending

i can't believe and be

my heart and its

relentlessness

double up

what i have is

prettier than what

you say 'sing'

aside

it'll take a year

to believe it all.

don't be ashamed of

afraid of the things

behind your ears

may 27th, 2011

Measures Taken

there are
things
left to give you
held and handled
in their waiting
filled and then
emptied filled again
days and weeks also
respect the measures
taken here
standing watch
keeping the time
in hand
for your sake
not mine
what comfort
carpets the house
like waiting
like counting
long enough
it's been long enough

june 12, 2011