We were as beautiful as planetariums, On the hems of undressed ghosts, Like sleeveless butterflies Accustomed to otherworldly gravity. We made the poetry to accompany The soles of lost swimmers On the outskirts of deserted rooms. Enamored By the ambush of lifting the sky, The dark Forever bursting of inexplicable Word galaxies. But now, You are far away And move On two legs Of falling leaves. And there is little going back. If At all. But for such misfits as us, From the arches to the hairline, Into the unnoticed graves of greatness, There will be a lasting reaching out. The dizziness of daisies setting fire To our hearts.
writing
Portrait
You sit Here and invest in the part of you That has no beginning. Eyes fixed on the wooden Fireflies. A deserted city for a headband. Shoulders like Heisenberg's uncertainty Principle. The to-do list of dusk in the air. Which you have always taken seriously. And a tattoo Of wings put on the bottom of the feet. The Void for what it is, the thread count of Existence. You think, Did the universe inflate, superfluous Of compass, all in one go of it? Behind you the sky, Not knowing how many Keys make an accordion, Shoulders the long way Home. This is clear. As it is uneven, and croaked like meaning. Like a portrait. What the words have to do with this, Is an emergency.
Unknowing Poem
This I will say plain,
I will not
Sabotage distance with
Preoccupation, I will not
Dirty the socks of the moon
With pleading.
Let them be.
That’s why shadows are important,
They tend to adhere to you,
So you are what you are not,
Jumping atop lost pianos
In factory made shoes, singing
The birds are the perfect cents.
Originality is propaganda,
Certain exaggerations
Must precipitate into fairy tales.
Like November helicopters
Gathering up the body slams of dusk.
Pillows that are fire
For this garden head.
Is There Anywhere for the Universe to Pull Over?
Is there anywhere for the universe to pull over?
To park, to fall in love?
A well-kept bike, a stack of poems in disarray.
What if these poems really did mean something?
How terrifying.
The menu of poets
Is full of branches.
The books on the fridge. I'll get to them soon. After a walk and a few
more months of procrastinating. I’ll write poems too. Small ones, by
an open window. The moon like a dog licking a plate.
Mirrors reflect, yes, but they
Don’t know left from right.
A group of dusk is called a vanish.
The wild arteries of stars
Do they feel it too?
The quiet celebrity of being alone.
(revised from an earlier post)
Notes in Windows
I would have me emptied, and to remain behind. A plastic bag gripping a winter tree, in the wind, and the sound it makes is empty. You hear shoes down the hall, though you don’t live in a house. They sound as if they are approaching. The truth is, they are not getting any nearer. And you remember you have been left behind. Reflections in a bowl, sometimes city lights, sometimes the stars, for dinner. You stop to read the graffiti, and the notes tapped to windows, posted from the inside facing out, written on, leaving no margins: I think this happens more so than it should, in poorer cities. I would have me slapstick readied, though I remain on board. I know the captain has burned the charts. I know the city birds are one big computer. The notes in the windows sometimes include pictures: an angel with the living earth for feet, or burning trees with typeset for flames. A skirmish of ghosts, folding in on itself, breathes its last. I am at sea. Without a bathing suit in the arms of stars.
The Self
Is
Pummeled
Dirt
And cosmic
Spat,
A shoreline
Of
Alien coast,
More fictitious than thunder
Disappearing
Between the fingertips of the moon,
Is utter non
Sense
Played without jest,
A box of giggles
Forgotten of hat,
A grave contest drawn in
The dust of stars.
You will not know the self.
The self is not enough.
But you will burn nonetheless.
Dandelion
Let your brain be the dust
Of yellow laughter
Like the meandering
Tattoos of the moon
Vanishing
Into shuffled cards
Into asteroid belts
Just Saying
The beginning stands
Like an old shadow
Waiting for rags
For rain in paper cups.
Put the house up for sale. We’re starting over.
I stand on an ineffable table.
I borrow a folding chair and break the kitchen dishes.
I mop the floor as if I was in a movie, even if I was a movie.
I botch my words. I am smitten.
Beauty wears the seams of transience absolutely, and the seams of the
absolute transiently.
The amble of gravity over the hills and through the voids
Bare knees howl.
~
I will not have words for you
I will not do right
I will not do ill
I will not truth
I will not loathe
Just Saying
Last Song on a Bicycle
Bike
Night
Home
Through puddles of clouds,
Across galaxies of yesterdays.
The sky
Orange peels defiantly orange!
~
Death is butterflies
And karate moons,
Till we too are on our feet
Whispering to stars.
The Opportunity
There is an oblivion
Just next door
Recently relocated.
Here one visits
If one is willing,
A returning
From the future
That’s been with you
Before you were born.
A pumpernickel dawn
Of abandoned hospitals.
But some fool
Cut off the wings.
And misplaced
The spelling bee.
So, you hold up
The rainy bicycle
With the perfume
Of your arms, and
Into this pinch of creation,
And pinched by creation,
Till your knuckles have as
Many stars as a galaxy.
Laughter is a tree truck
Without a ride home.
