spilled milk

if you woke from a nap blind,
would you whip your ears to twin peaks
summiting high over your head
and lean against the world's thighs
rubbing your rump against its belly
would you pump the air through longer tunnels
scraping every mite against your handkerchief of cells
test every follicle of stone or wool for flavor

or would you bawl
water those roots
shriveled as spilled milk?

breviary

all day
we grow older
and take things in
our arms to hold us aright
then there are six hours
after the sky tips
over soiling the colours
the part where the music turns
last ditch giddy
and we grow young
somehow it's enough
or it never is, but we accept
the compromise and go home
propped up all the way
with the things we never let go
even as we flung
the rest of the night
we grow back old
older again
the things we took in
to hold
end up soft swirled
piled on top
keeping us warm
pinned to the night

smokefall

the wind
blows his smoke down white to me
and mine up to him
spent and spending
i imagine and he
is not as i imagine
the stars
blow down on - we -
(he is gone
a curse sloughs
free
falls)
smoke and five point leaves
riding histories
up
and down

kite after noon

a long broad kite at the end of the bed
tossing sunlight at me for conversation
flick a silken angle
breathe open a crease
relax eventually
bored of it the game of catch
loosen as for sleep
without thinking
crawl up my side
eyes in the shade of my head
feet warm in the last of it
bend your angles broken thread

the butterfly orgy

in a room pink and dusty
from all the heave and ho
almost a hundred bare bodies
coiled into still bunsens
boiling desire as clear as cold water
from one apparatus to another
under several layers of skin
and under several layers of sewn feather
and when as an orchestra the temperature was reached
almost a hundred timpani blew the layers to the beams
i saw so many powdered wings tagged with postage stamps
and legs without feet stamping
stamping despair desperate come clean
cold water drown down us drain us
drive us into the -
but here i joined the stamp
and remember nothing else.

request

you would like the breath taken from you
and put you care not where
it is a hard request
most thieves
do not know how to steal
or what they have
or how to hide in plain sight
and no one else
dares

Venice 2

if you take for a guide
whatever first found moving
in any direction
in this city
you shall lose your way always
if you lean against the walls
you also carry them away
in your hair and knit

dreaming us

i dream these dreams on purpose
of our street darker
window light deeper
i call them up
exact replicas of here
but for time
folded coordinates
matching degrees
press together
in dreams
we argue the same affection
for many possible eternities

how we talk now

it was like love
first and shy
from your corner to mine
we wished to hold hands
but it seemed an ocean
sunk into that space, our faces
pained with smile
less to say than we had
this reflection between us
this surface
black, whitecapped
took your gaze
sealed and sent it
i could read your lips
but not your eyes
like i said
it was like love
all first and shy

leveler

i was a reveler by the fire
you were a bright bloom wasting
we took turns on names for god
hallelujah, latecome blessing.
down they poured
shaken, seeded
apart we shuddered
fording shallows, swimming secret.
names slick across our skin
dislodging bits for narrative
we recited omega and the end
the river listed reverent, relative
more it asked, more we sang
til tow filled our mouths, drew us under
giving up that bloom, that flame
we sank our names in the dark leveler.

bodies by mine

since bitten tongue
struck foot on stair
pressed hand to wall
or face to prayer
numb turns noun
state of weight
come skin to bone
take on nerve
only sensed when severed
by bodies by mine

the prisoners

marble wrest,
swim, love,
surface
from scoria
gnawed block
womb gnashed
only ligament and animus
barer than the newest born
cleaving light
your only carapace

To the Executions

we go to the executions
you watch
to burn off the blood
i, to burn off the love.
from our tame trained bodies
sweat breaks
from our indoor skin
fumes lift, mix, ignite.
in the aftermath
we half hallucinate manners
you offer the skull of a helmet
i hold the muzzle of your gun while you collect.

dec, 2012

Breathwork For Two

at the last moment
broken by the straw of that
least breath, mine,
your own lungs brimmed,
flooded,
and though you may have clamped
your teeth
your surprise
curse hissed there
swirling - through the conch shaped clouds
swirling - pressure in my ears
swirling - brine and tang
frozen crystal on crystal
until
your breath fell back to me
slivered and shaved
with just a hint of all the sweat
put into that prayer
 dec 18, 12

Tattoo of Honey and Soot

tattoo of honey and soot
the bees did not swarm
the woods did not burn
every blessed sear and sting
tendered for warmth
pain blots into a body
a hand traces it into form
working with available light
blood born into ink and reborn

dec, 12

Robes for Beggars

these walls collapsible,
night of tissue dyed,
these lungs canteens
of blood and ether
hold us over
the slow forever crashing,
so little for gravity
we'll catch the heavier teeth as they loosen,
fraying weft to wreck,
gathered for our necks,
the thin world -
robes for beggars

dec 18, 12

First Communion

silent morning, holy morning
city so drunk dreamt
even apnea cannot startle
jolt
bother
catch
a swarming light
hoarse crackles over
stay stay stay

jan 1

Cello Craft

to bend the bones
to place
to shave the swollen
jumping organ
to a shapelier
instrument
something deep that takes
the whole body's worth
to drag one note
breaks blood vessels
and nerve columns
and bread of a whole life
to draw one note
to the next.

jan 2

Necklace

slip stone
to slip
the cross braided with
turquoise and choice
chain rising as you rise
dropping as you fall
until its rhythm is your heart
and your heart is lost
you may spend the current
tight panic and scramble
sunk in silt
to the wrists for the symbol
go on
the chain glints at the bank
in the sundown
in the exhaust
you spread
your limbs
your head
your belly and back
upon that last
unabridged gap
that last
effort you cast.

jan 2

Upholstery

when you touch
that upholstered brick
that bribe
unholy bible
of mine
lacking latch or lock
lying in trust within your reach
as you talk and in between
trace its raised upholstery.

and i might try
not to see
not to breathe
its flipped cover
space fanned through the seams
i'm blown like love
lost leaves.

settling your hand -
lest it rest -
let it read
it is a press
for tensed membranes
too laden
to cling.

dreamt mythology

draft the horse and the unicorn
life size monsters merry
through the morning
loam and lee
you'd mouth
the magic road you'd lap
the blue dress
the flood
the goat's eyes
hyphenate
the waking hives
from dreams
the faces met
through wither steam
the cut hair
the myth the history

Numb Tongue

the dog's warning and farewell
antlers and hooves
hummingbird water doused
your dislocated hip
the nameless numberries
oozing houseplant stalk
through the column of you
sleeping sleeping
talking in your sleeping
and forgetting just as
just as then
just as soon
just as well
as waking.

nov

Prescription

the old,
young woman
medicine bottle
rusted tight
faded vague
in case you cannot
remember
what in the end was
me or you to poison
the symptom, written
in red, mildewed
and bled
"you"

dec somthing