It’s there, you say assertively.
She holds out an empty hand.
There, then.
She holds out an empty hand.
There.
She holds out an empty hand.
(July 2012)
-
Walking After Midnight
by
Within this clichéI walk aloneon a familiar pathas a way to moveaway from cautionwhile staying safeeach tangentelides a differenceto a similarityeach step shiftsthe name of meaningenough to matterthese woods I entertransform as I movedeeper to myself(July 2012) -
incommunicado
by
so many holesfor questionsto embedimplicationslike echoespartially foldedinto themselvesuntil evenhonestycloaked in doubtapproacheslike a mendicantbeggingfor answersto solidifyuninterrupted(July 2012) -
Projection
You are who I imagine,until you are not, and thenonly who you are remainsscattered like thoughts.(July 2012) -
How We Go On
by
We talk through the night.Afterwards, you walk home in the dark.I watch you to the bend in the road.(July 2012) -
Fourteen Similes Without Context
by
like glass slivers scattered on the ruglike blood splattered on our walllike a prize without a winnerlike an ecstatic sinnerlike a stranger’s slow gaitlike her causal laughterlike the sun at nightlike a fellow neophytelike an empty pickle jarlike a hand crushed in a machinelike the opening of a doorlike the smell of an unread booklike a poemlike a moment after your dying thought(July 2012) -
wants
by
he wants to talk with hernot so much around herhis tongue stumblesas he tries to explainshe looks out the windowat the mockingbird singingshe wonders why he explains solike the mockingbird nearbyhe wants to say what he wantsbut can’t because of fearshe wants him to speakbut doesn’t listen when he doesthey watch each other along their edgesthe mockingbird sings in the tree(July 2012) -
fractured mosaic
my hand cups……a slight curve of skina wine flows over……take this offering…as does the nightbird crywith the dawnwe sleep(July 2012) -
Galatea
by
He shapes her to his mind:a mind to mind entwinesbefore he approaches the coolbeauty of the marble skin.She lives beneath his touch;each stroke brings her forthinto herself: this life to comeawaits but on a kiss.(July 2012) -
speech acts
by
he talksof thisshe talksof thatthey do thisbut not thatit becomesall abstractnebulouslike a kissa wishfor an acta wordhe sees amissas if she’sa factwaitingto enactsomething morethan lessa chancehe missedshe talkedof thishe talkedof thatthey did thisand not that(July 2012) -
but a walking shadow
he worries over each exchangelike an entrepreneur countingthe initial stock option in his planas if what might be said willbe said instead of rehearsedin all its manifestations untilhe screams out his botched liesand when he steps from the minutiaof these possibilities the essenceof his rage trails after himlike smoke from a firebrand drivinghim ever deeper into the tissue of doubtwhich spasms like disembodied frog legsat each jolt of his unrelenting memory(july 2012) -
One’s Own Advice
I laugh at my catwhen I brush herand she bristles a hissat the slightest touchlao tzu said waitfor the water to clearI think let the brush movelike a purr through airyet I bristleat the slightestcomment offeredwhen I should laugh(July 2012) -
“skoal with the dregs”
a shot of bourbonsweet corn smoked out of this fieldreaps my darkest thoughts -
Roman Rocks
by
the ruins of centurieslie about us like storiesin a retirement centerbits of disconnectednarrative exchanged with teaflattened to equivalencybefore folded to fit snugin pockets of cultural referenceor hieroglyphs constellatedupon an allusive discourselike jazz riffs on pop songswe play upon our clichésto fissure otherwise strangetotalities’ crushing silence(July 2012)
subtext 