she said at least
the equivalent
of maybe
so much other
than he desired
but enough
to hint
at least
momentarily
toward a soft invitation
he wanted
but never had
(February 21, 2026)
Category: desire
-
She thought, but that it need not be mentioned.
She doubted he could understand at all.
The party pulsed around them obliquely.
She thought about her old dreams once again.
He claimed she was being irrational.
She doubted dry reason’s caste privilege.
She laughed and twirled toward the dance floor.
He kept talking as if she were still there.
Dancing in tight angles and broad circles,she thought at her best with her blue eyes closed.
He felt comfortable in closed boxes
easily stacked in a dark corner room.
She knew that reason was an emotion.
He desired life to fall tightly in place.
(May 27, 2025)
-
Either/Or
by
“I have committed adultery in my heart..”
—- Jimmy Carter
the moments went unnoticed
until days sometimes years later
when the obvious slid past
like shadows tossed through a window
by a passing car late at night
and he realized what had been offered
when the difference in time between what
almost occurred and what he desired
vanished so regret could have grown
from a surreptitious kiss bestowed
instead of the one that was not
(April 26, 2025)
-
always the desire
to be ten years ago
when life was easieras now ten years hence
(March 29, 2025)
-
Beneath the whispers
I hear a nascent breath:
a phrase, isolated,
out of context, yet
still a residual force—
like a white noise
days after a concert,
sings in my inner ear.
Outside the poem,ghosts of my desires
rise mouthing words
out of order, slurred,
as a pentacostal’s
frozen fire burns.
(February 3, 2025)
-
the desire for words
inspires delusion
the ambitionlaced in envy
clots the throatwith small words
small ideasuntil all that’s left
to say wheezespast dry lips
in a finalthin sigh
no onecan hear
(March 15, 2024) -
Do you see the hope, the longing
that waits always unfulfilled
like despair upon a bridge
unwilling to stand balanced
upon the rail, to watch the flow
of the white river through the rocks;
unwilling to decide
which ecstasy to embrace:
the ecstasy of hope—
to fly unimpeded into the sky
as the wax our father shaped
into wings softens with the setting sun;
or the ecstasy of fate—
to accept the freedom the plunge offers
in the froth and blood far below?
(January 20, 2024)
-
it’s when you believe
you are someone
that the mistake begins
you are not the nailthe crown fell later
far from your loss
what I wantednever mattered
more than now
and now is too lateto be any more
than a thin fume
a last twirl of smokeafter the ember’s gone
(January 17, 2024)
-
Figs grown fat with flesh
split open offering up
themselves like ripe lips.
Words quickly notedhint toward more than a meaning
that memory can know.
Hunger drives us onto speak, to savor the fruit,
to trust the mythos:
a date, an applea fig just beyond our grasp
which we cannot name.
Seeds cling to the sticky flesh;a warm undulant silence.
(July 16, 2023)
-
Original Sin
If I hold cliché in my hand
like an apple, will I fall
to its seduction? Dare I bite
the peach, perhaps an avocado,
or pursue the nubile temptress
dancing a bare finger’s tip
out of reach? It’s laughable
to think I might escape it.
The original roots still leach
the metaphor from the soil,
while I root about like a pig
snuffling for elusive truffles.
Each word I speak is mine alone;
each word I speak has been said before.
(July 28, 2018)
Source: subtextures.wordpress.com
-
Ikkyu Reiterations: The River Vanishes at the Sea
by
acceptance, aging, change, delusion, desire, despair, ikkyu, life, lonely, meditation, poetry, regret, samsara, time, transition, ways of knowing
All the moans of pain,
all the sickness,
he should have left
lifetimes ago.
All these delays,and distractions
have left him
alone in the world.
In all his wandershis only regret:
he waited too long
to see her again.
(August 14, 2022) -
to trust
by
to throw into the fire
the better part of you
your heart as sacrificeto the life desired
secure in the armsof your clarity
like a child heldtight against the night
secure no danger lurksbeyond the fire’s edge
where the shadows flickerwith insidious pleasure
(August 4, 2022)
subtext 