Posts

Spent

I am bent. I'm watching sweatstreams Drop to darken dirt below in blotches. I am spent, And yet a never-ending waterfall. You are the puzzle I'm afraid I haven't gotten Time enough to solve. I see you take it black These days, Abandoning your snowy sugar sands. Your daring lipstick Is a lethal thrust Or bloodied shield for sheltering. Exhausted, I am dreaming of starfish, Blueberries ordinarily available, Soft patches of silver, aquamarine, And mother of pearl, Your slightly wicked smile Holding all the sprawling city, Maybe every inch of the world, Your uncovered shoulders on my pillow, Underwater eyes. My every thirst would quench And all my questions put to rest If not for your ambivalent attention. - 6/5/26

A World

You landed Lifted, A lunar rocket in reverse. Venice is a world away. - 6/4/26

Every Name's an Alias

You carry wind across the border. Soldiers shoulder rifles, Eyeing you with threatened faces Threatening. You never meant to end up here Against the wall Awaiting passage and permission. You took such pride in proving self-reliant. You chopped your hair defiant. You left your home to find it Dragging in the dirt behind you Everywhere you go. I see you through the strip of chain-link Staring open as a hungry hand, As the finales of forbidden affairs, As a complicated question of theology, But your betrayal laid me down On the dusty ground for years. Although I still can feel your breath Against my cracked and blistered lips, I've nothing left for you. - 6/3/26

Particle/Wave

Perhaps the humid sky's Too heavy. You are never there, The ending of the yarn You've strung throughout the trees Is simply tied onto a barren branch. I'm seldom tired. I am yawning Not from weariness, Well, mostly not, But boredom. The pressing air, Quicksilver lover, Older man In search of the end Of searching, Traveling on, - 6/2/26

Call

That stare Rejuvenates the dead and gone. Your smile Slays us all. The angel visited me early. She only speaks in warnings, Never blessings. Our highway's buckled and uncertain. You've got to toss down more Than penny antes When there's blood  In the middle Of the table, When lines relax to fuzzy smears Throughout the room, When all the colors fail to grey, When all you are Is taken, broke. I think I know a way around, A path directly to the middle Where the fire blazes  Yet does not consume. I can take you over, But you've got to make it halfway To my vehicle yourself. - 6/1/26

The List

She said to count the moments Everything collapsed to water. I remember when you hid the knives Beneath the pillows Because the devil pulled your strings, The night you danced anointed Purple, pastel red, and tangerine, The stolen day the baby died. The list is dripping. Oceans lapse And drop down sediments, Recover, Wrenching whitest cliffs apart. - 5/29/26

Penguin (too late)

Maybe I'm too tired to muster up a meal. Maybe I'm not hungry anymore. Perhaps I've eaten my last. She whispered soft Beneath her arctic eyes She loved me. I'm out of words, Replies, A penguin on the drifting ice, Floating farther from the land And friends and mates and snow And deeper into water Even fish won't populate. She radiates. I've got to go. - 5/28/26