Flashes

It’s hard to think

With memories of you

Wrapped around my neck

Choking me in clearly perfumed images

Visions of your glances

Like so many others

Lightning in my mind

I can’t sleep at night

Again, always

Love will forever run me ragged

For so little

Specimen

Some scientist should box me up
Neatly pinned
My parts flayed open
Labels displaying
All my marvels
And every flaw
A miraculous tragedy of nature

Dissected dreams bottled in spirits
All sins displayed
Under the bright glare
Of God's massive eye
They'll use my parts
Every sinew and hair
And boil my soul
Til all that remains are soft bones

1:00 am

In words there is no comfort, only truth

But when you can entrance no embracing arms

And tender lips

To wish away the pain

With only your brain ripping into snatches of song

Flung out from the center like so many rags

You must write:

‘I am the eye, and I am not calm’

Natural Disaster

I would hibernate in sadness

Until the slightest peck of a Spring thrush

Made me throw off the dark and heavy blankets,

Never again to feel the hunger

For there was a bounty on my doorstep

Magicked during the night

I ate until it turned to sand in my mouth

And delight sank to deep despair

Nothing could satisfy as that first taste-

I burned the forest down in desperation

For the fear of emptiness overwhelmed me

Only to emerge from my ravenous trance
Naked in a dead  world

Devoid of season and of comfort

And with no green seed to plant anew,

As I had kept nothing for the winter

A Thank-You Note

I could write you a love note
But I don't dare
For you'd only feel embarrassed
And tell me, "I'm nothing special"
Which only makes you more

Simple chance, and chance again
Was all that it took to illuminate
More serious similarities
Of soul and body and laughing spirit

Hazy days of hot smoking summers at the window
And dreamlike meetings on the carved rocks
The beginning ended quickly
And the rest of time began

So many single entities that embody you
Kind and gentle
Strong and clear
All good words and all good reactions
That confuse me, I don't know how to act,
So instead I am myself-
What a strange engagement

I say yes more now
And there are slips of comfortable truth
That I don't doubt
But I still must only be myself
As you are yours

No awkward verse could translate reality
Which may have no definition
But this existence is made sweeter by you-
I know my own worth
And suffering is turned to passion and joy

Monarchy

No head may be higher than the king's
Who kneels down before all his concubines
Prostrate with folded hands and a sly glance up


Lay on the ground with me, my queen
For I cannot bear your face so far above me
Ever-present as a distant god

Become human so we may share souls
And hold my eyes with yours, face to face
Here on this cold marble floor

I would do anything to keep you here with me
How can I rise to your height when I am made of clay
And your shining face cures my form



Let me tie a string to your leg
Let me plant a garden in your meadow
Let me shield you from the world, for you are my sacred idol



No queen may be higher than the king
As we play the parts of mother, sister, lover
All-powerful with bowed heads

I See the Wind

Late-Summer wind is sweet and warm

And powerful as a dragon

The current wraps ‘round my limbs

I am floating in the universal amniotic sac

My soul heaves against the gates 

I would fly if I simply fell into the life-giving ribbons

For my body cannot be ruled by gravity

While my soul flies beyond 

Still I am sturdy and free like the dancing limbs

Of the honey trees breathing in the breezes

The tingling of the stained glass chime

Marks its discordant tempo to the air’s melody

Unbottled liquid courage

Filled with scents of far-off-lands and adventure

My lungs cannot breathe deeply enough

The dancing molecules that sing so loudly

They block out the sharpness of the stars 

And I am left single-bodied and complete

September 11, 2016- 12:30 am