of course I know
nothing remains
of now or then
nothing remains
beyond memory’s blur
a loose thread
she flicks
from my sleeve
(May 15, 2014)
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Casual Conversation About Memory and Ash
It does not matter if what I sayis true. Each morning in the dark,fears sit scattered nonchalantlyabout the house eager to conversewith any who will stop and listento their gleeful whisperingsabout death, love, flowers, and bears.In this city of shadows, the moon’salways about to set; she sits fatlyon the horizon like a cat watchingfrom a window. Within these darkershades, beneath the murmuringtrees, I float, like fireflies, obliviousto the figures lurking tense alongmy edges. I shed memory, like artifacts,to be retold as a new man to a morejaded audience somewhere beyondthe fresh ash occluding the prescienthand grasping after air like beggars.No warning sounds soon enoughto pierce my ontic musingwith clarity to comprehendthe swiftness of an unforgiving end.(May 10 ,2014) -
Listen
Can you smile at your ownconversation, surprisedby the improvisation,rather than crushedbehind the stock phrase?Are you following the sentenceas it unfolds, each wordfalling neatly into place;or are you leaping ahead,dancing within your laughter,greeting the end as it arrives?I linger within your words,as if lost in your kiss,beyond the sound of our voices.(May 7, 2014) -
manifestation
do not markthe chainmouthed softlyas she speaksjust submitquitaccept futilityas your godthen vanishinto the earthbeneath her feetas you pray for lovein open-mouthedsilence(May 5, 2014) -
be not coy
The rose opens to his touch,the petal’s flesh moistbetween his fingers.(May 4, 2014) -
as the wolf bites down
it’s easy to saydon’t be afraidbut when the slaverdrips from the jawsyour fingers pry aparttruth becomes slipperyand fear and luckconspire to justifyall your panicked whispersthrough the solitary dark(May 2, 2014) -
Two Haiku on the Scaffold Steps
by
How soft can one goto deflect the killing blow?The wind flows through leaves.*Another chain’s forgedbending your head to the ground;the axe blade gleams near.(May 2, 2014) -
In Time
by
with this drought the seedoverlooked by the sparrowmust wait for the sunto relent it’s cold greed(April 29, 2014) -
My Fear Finds Me
Within this lightI carry, I am onlyable to see beyondmyself a certain wayinto the darkness.Friends turn as Ienter; in greeting,I nod as if I knowanything morethan who I once was.I bring what I canto the table, scrapsof past ideas I canno longer patchtogether as one.I try to listen,but only sensethe conversation’srhythms and flowdancing in the room.Uncaught in anyear, I watch mymetaphors diegasping in needof explanations.The noise becomesmy silence, a cocoonto comfort into safesolace while the world’sfangs drip in hunger.(April 28, 2014) -
sentence
by
Condemned to a lifeof controlled contentment:to do what’s expected;to play the proper part;to exist not livewithin this labyrinth,I translate my loss of selfinto a cleaner line strippedof loose tangential talk,one where I could rise outof my self-loathing,attempt to fly on the wingsof a stereotype so simpleno explanation would be askedafter the unremarked crash.(April 27, 2014) -
unstable
“the millstonescommenced their grinding again”–Denise LevertovI am onlya tremblein this air,which I gulpas if drowningin a water far deeperthan I could everwade beforeslippingbeneath the surfacewith a lastquick thrash.This morningat the rear of the meeting,I read poetryas they soldtheir promisesof pufferyand changewithout change,and felt fragmentsblister and flakefrom my soullike painted facadesin the sharp summerlight until onlytears remainedto riseagainst the broken levee.(April 26, 2014) -
and always a wolf lurks close by
She wonders where he goesas he turns another corner;she panics she will lose himas he wanders in the wood.He walks in tighter circlesnot knowing tree from tree.He broods into the darkened skyfretting the silence in his laughter.She pads between birch and elmnot knowing all she knows;she finds her way to track himdropping crumbs upon the ground.With another layer of abstraction,we hide within cliché’s expectation.(April 25, 2014)
subtext 