there will be poems and
truth laced lines
to walk us through
to teach our broken bones
to work again
to convince
our blood drained hearts
they are meant for this
to lie against our
wail worn faces
and whisper them dry
by morning:
"the world goes on
god goes on
it's only you that dies
it's just you, don't mind it"
aug 23, 2011
Spool
The sewing thread
spins the spool
undoes the soles from the shoes
and the flicker from the trees
and the locks from the doors
takes my "maybe" to make it "of course"
The sewing thread
in the bottom of a purse
lies in wait for fingers
sends them through others
making sense, making riddles
pulls my "maybe" through "of course"
The sewing thread
in its hundred thousands
follows black lines
in sidewalk cracks
in iris tenses mends
everything to this
"maybe- of course"
aug 25, 2011
spins the spool
undoes the soles from the shoes
and the flicker from the trees
and the locks from the doors
takes my "maybe" to make it "of course"
The sewing thread
in the bottom of a purse
lies in wait for fingers
sends them through others
making sense, making riddles
pulls my "maybe" through "of course"
The sewing thread
in its hundred thousands
follows black lines
in sidewalk cracks
in iris tenses mends
everything to this
"maybe- of course"
aug 25, 2011
Not What We Thought
So far
i know we are not guilty
but small and held together
as if buried under war rubble
i know we are not weak
but sore from failing to move time
time as hard as the sky
that will never adjust no matter
how we grow
i know these are not tears
that dry up others' mouths
but that wear down the mortar
masks we wince behind
i know we do not die
but pass from one hand to another
and our hearts do not break
but dream of air we have not tasted
and have been told is impossible to breathe.
aug 24, 2011
i know we are not guilty
but small and held together
as if buried under war rubble
i know we are not weak
but sore from failing to move time
time as hard as the sky
that will never adjust no matter
how we grow
i know these are not tears
that dry up others' mouths
but that wear down the mortar
masks we wince behind
i know we do not die
but pass from one hand to another
and our hearts do not break
but dream of air we have not tasted
and have been told is impossible to breathe.
aug 24, 2011
Tender
Witness the tender season
laying down its arms
going on its knees
hands up empty
letting hostages free
giving up bodies of fire
scraping the hard blue scales
from its helmet sky
sending its blood out
in the open to cool.
Still warm to the touch
the tender season
buries its face
in a pile of surrender.
Witness the tender season
lift its last head
look us in the eye
as life drops from it
degree from degree.
aug 24, 2011
laying down its arms
going on its knees
hands up empty
letting hostages free
giving up bodies of fire
scraping the hard blue scales
from its helmet sky
sending its blood out
in the open to cool.
Still warm to the touch
the tender season
buries its face
in a pile of surrender.
Witness the tender season
lift its last head
look us in the eye
as life drops from it
degree from degree.
aug 24, 2011
Winter Wood
Look winter love
see the room
drawn from the space
you've drawn out
from here to far away.
I'll sit at its baseboards
making tallies
of the numbered times i've
lost my own breath
and had to search it
in the winter wood
you've made this room of.
Once found, once I breathe
again as everyone does
in and out again,
i'll spend my drawn out time
drawing the black sky between
the limbs of your white wood
and bless it
for relating our messages.
aug 22, 2011
see the room
drawn from the space
you've drawn out
from here to far away.
I'll sit at its baseboards
making tallies
of the numbered times i've
lost my own breath
and had to search it
in the winter wood
you've made this room of.
Once found, once I breathe
again as everyone does
in and out again,
i'll spend my drawn out time
drawing the black sky between
the limbs of your white wood
and bless it
for relating our messages.
aug 22, 2011
Salute
The warning flyers silent
dropped around your ears.
I sent them slapping
from the belly of my planes
then droned away
to let you think
and time to escape.
In the whole city
in all your streets
you stood standing in place
over and over again reading
the printed declaration
the spelled out shame.
Run, was the gist,
get away
before I come back
with my mouths open
and my hearts marching past.
aug 22, 2011
dropped around your ears.
I sent them slapping
from the belly of my planes
then droned away
to let you think
and time to escape.
In the whole city
in all your streets
you stood standing in place
over and over again reading
the printed declaration
the spelled out shame.
Run, was the gist,
get away
before I come back
with my mouths open
and my hearts marching past.
aug 22, 2011
Turning Pages
Lost in the turning pages
of your face
weather lifts the corners
you spend mornings
smoothing one against the others
willing them to stay in place
two hands drawn down your spine
strong against your cover
your back
held close and closed
to reading eyes.
Lost in the turning motion
that feels like disaster feigning flight
and the broken weight
the sick lost gravity
that you can't know for yourself
whether risen or fallen
your open pages and their declarations
are useless
but for reading eyes.
aug 22, 2011
of your face
weather lifts the corners
you spend mornings
smoothing one against the others
willing them to stay in place
two hands drawn down your spine
strong against your cover
your back
held close and closed
to reading eyes.
Lost in the turning motion
that feels like disaster feigning flight
and the broken weight
the sick lost gravity
that you can't know for yourself
whether risen or fallen
your open pages and their declarations
are useless
but for reading eyes.
aug 22, 2011
Down the Wrong Way
can you hear of
the shame going down
my throat the wrong way
what should chase it
how to wind through
the canyons of city
i tried to love i tried to thank
i tried to follow through
still broke hands
strain as they might
can't uncover yours from your face
grit as they might
even teeth can't hold you in
you've gone deaf and tear blind
away to stay away
and me choking on the swelling space
aug 19, 2011
the shame going down
my throat the wrong way
what should chase it
how to wind through
the canyons of city
i tried to love i tried to thank
i tried to follow through
still broke hands
strain as they might
can't uncover yours from your face
grit as they might
even teeth can't hold you in
you've gone deaf and tear blind
away to stay away
and me choking on the swelling space
aug 19, 2011
By the Hems
by the hems
i snag
at your back
crushed along
others strutting
singing songs
the fray
your unraveling cover
i pull
washed in faith
crowded
from the way
you walk on
i see you're waiting
by the hems
i scramble
you know i'm coming
in my road weary way
aug 15, 2011
i snag
at your back
crushed along
others strutting
singing songs
the fray
your unraveling cover
i pull
washed in faith
crowded
from the way
you walk on
i see you're waiting
by the hems
i scramble
you know i'm coming
in my road weary way
aug 15, 2011
The Difference Between Bread and Wood
the difference, love,
is between bread and wood
neither of us know much,
enough, about either
but both suffer abuse
from the shoulders through
the wrists and often
the back, its ribs and canvas tendon
tender at the base but
terribly against the flesh of
either bread or wood
travels upward from this pain
and then down again to get it out
beat into another
i meant to tell you the difference
it's not important now, is it?
aug 10, 2011
is between bread and wood
neither of us know much,
enough, about either
but both suffer abuse
from the shoulders through
the wrists and often
the back, its ribs and canvas tendon
tender at the base but
terribly against the flesh of
either bread or wood
travels upward from this pain
and then down again to get it out
beat into another
i meant to tell you the difference
it's not important now, is it?
aug 10, 2011
Lost Men
in a man's eyes
what is there
may not be ready to take in
the lighter broader air
of love and its long list
of desires of darknesses
but a woman may
if she crashes in waves
on waves hammering
draw him to shore
may have him feel
himself pounded out
and in between
and without himself
him the fear
him the care
him the boy
until a man sore
and lost pushes up
from that sand
to answer his heart
a spiral echo
of one woman's crashing wave
aug 5, 11
what is there
may not be ready to take in
the lighter broader air
of love and its long list
of desires of darknesses
but a woman may
if she crashes in waves
on waves hammering
draw him to shore
may have him feel
himself pounded out
and in between
and without himself
him the fear
him the care
him the boy
until a man sore
and lost pushes up
from that sand
to answer his heart
a spiral echo
of one woman's crashing wave
aug 5, 11
a wild being
i be wilder
than your heart
be brave
i won't come to
your hands
to beg
i won't come near
but call out loud
i be wilder
than your heart
be brave
aug 5, 11
than your heart
be brave
i won't come to
your hands
to beg
i won't come near
but call out loud
i be wilder
than your heart
be brave
aug 5, 11
Troubling the Trees
birds trouble the trees
unless you can finish the season
it sings
don't bother with getting the door
don't bother with spinning yourself
out across the endless coming
you expect too much
the shaking limbs hum
of your going
and never expect
the ways of coming
and coming back
unless you can wait for your sunken line
to catch
it sings
don't bother casting off again
jul 20, 11
unless you can finish the season
it sings
don't bother with getting the door
don't bother with spinning yourself
out across the endless coming
you expect too much
the shaking limbs hum
of your going
and never expect
the ways of coming
and coming back
unless you can wait for your sunken line
to catch
it sings
don't bother casting off again
jul 20, 11
Bites
Apricots and skin
have always been
the same flesh
why send me home
lit up
but to send me safely
the come of the storm
tells of the year
come back
the wordless yet
tune slips
you're growing shadows
bite your place here
come back safe
to flesh
sweet after your shadows are sung
july 15, 11
have always been
the same flesh
why send me home
lit up
but to send me safely
the come of the storm
tells of the year
come back
the wordless yet
tune slips
you're growing shadows
bite your place here
come back safe
to flesh
sweet after your shadows are sung
july 15, 11
As Usual
My hand, as always,
skimming the fence
the rain will, as usual,
light our personal fires
all i have to say
comes in only
games for children
their sidewalk messages
to all, too simple
the only words they know -
houses and treetops -
their limbs fall all around us
we only have one further summer
left in us
but i will come around for you, as always,
for the fall
in the rain, as usual,
how never it comes.
july 15, 11
skimming the fence
the rain will, as usual,
light our personal fires
all i have to say
comes in only
games for children
their sidewalk messages
to all, too simple
the only words they know -
houses and treetops -
their limbs fall all around us
we only have one further summer
left in us
but i will come around for you, as always,
for the fall
in the rain, as usual,
how never it comes.
july 15, 11
Middle
the soft of my middle
the thrown of our cigarette
against a wall
fireworks on and on
so that the lyric falls
in the light fallen on our dark perch
you clear your throat
to say another
another and another
against the soft of my middle
and soft all over me
don't wish it away
don't wish it fall
unless into fireworks
on and on
july 15, 11
the thrown of our cigarette
against a wall
fireworks on and on
so that the lyric falls
in the light fallen on our dark perch
you clear your throat
to say another
another and another
against the soft of my middle
and soft all over me
don't wish it away
don't wish it fall
unless into fireworks
on and on
july 15, 11
Warm Without
there will be a passion
no longer, what it took
to believe in action
burned chemical and brief
the ways learned to master
worlds of others and their wills
brittle, soluble plaster
the space behind such walls
asserting through their cast
just the dark
the uncut and unframed past
all the fill of life
all the integrity ashen
but still warm and willing
to warm us to resurrection
aug 1, 11
no longer, what it took
to believe in action
burned chemical and brief
the ways learned to master
worlds of others and their wills
brittle, soluble plaster
the space behind such walls
asserting through their cast
just the dark
the uncut and unframed past
all the fill of life
all the integrity ashen
but still warm and willing
to warm us to resurrection
aug 1, 11
With Night
With night
sliding up my arms
with night
i go from here
with night
coming on
with night
rising to my waist
my chest
with night
i board, i go
with night
thin in places
with night
only under me
aug 1, 11
sliding up my arms
with night
i go from here
with night
coming on
with night
rising to my waist
my chest
with night
i board, i go
with night
thin in places
with night
only under me
aug 1, 11
Talk
We talk of all
the ways to talk
those ways fall away
who can hold me
with the shadow
of a slinking creature, hackles up
my only mirror
who can talk will
back into place
who can, without explaining the way,
talk to me
aug 1, 11
the ways to talk
those ways fall away
who can hold me
with the shadow
of a slinking creature, hackles up
my only mirror
who can talk will
back into place
who can, without explaining the way,
talk to me
aug 1, 11
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)