You There — Me Here

i wish the wind would squeeze and squish me down
to nothing but tiny bits for the many miles that i’ve missed
or if the sea would weave me into its waves,
maybe i’d stay

another stranger passing by
like a friend, just traveling blind
you there — me here
three seconds sow our day
i looked at the map,
it seems like we’ll make it okay

so i’ll sleep until morning burns, then all will change
i watch through my window
awake until my star returns me, all will fade
all will fade, all will…

papa said that i was getting old,
but when i’m asked how old i still don’t know
hungry for the yolk of home
do i really have no place to go?

i’ll sleep until morning burns, then all will change
i watch through my window
awake until my star returns me, all will fade
all will fade, all will…

Dim Nature

sweet butterflies of my brain,
where do you go to when you’re not with me?

the mouth of soil expects all the men who murder trees
at the grave of empty nests are names of the mothers who have died for their babies

it’s the grit that made the pearl
little hump to little sun
hull the miles of madness
one by one

sweet butterflies of my brain,
where do you go to when you’re not with me?

your light has liquified as i’ve waited
is this a place of dreams or a sensitivity?
back-and-forthing cradle, arrival of the deepest sleep
a shadow is pacing for every life never given the chance to be

there’s a lid caressing the world
the tallest tales escape us
so long, the goners have gone
one by one by one

bye one…

skulls might as well be made of silk
the pink mess of heat mocks the still
cocoon me a corpsing day
fuzzy thing colonizing my negative shape

caterpillar, king of the cruel
searching for gold to find gold’s fool
high noon saw the womb’s many murals
take the familiar and make it eternal

dim nature!

As It Was

your toes are cold, your bag is stuffed
those damn columnated gums got the spinach stuck
you still flash a smile at the break of dawn
isolated, teasing ancient whims and rambling on

a trusted nose tends to wander off
dumb luck comes as the unharvest of a crop
ten thousand miles saw no muck for months
now carbon-dated dialects hit your tongue

mmm

this rain is acidic, my pH simply won’t agree
my thoughts are idyllic when i wash them down with a cup of tea
warm liquid fuzz of potential dominos
left as it was, suspended embryo

i saw my mossy spirit cultivating their poetry
tales of a child to the eldest islands of me
poor softened buzz, you’re on your own
nothing is left undone

how is that so?

i would fossilize every moment if i could
rise and fall with each to pacify my dreams
where the sands of time become a labored soot
born at the highest of heats, life is the lightest sleep

i saw white within and without me
a soundless chime but beaming through every end
open my eyes to the wild and quiet beginning
slivers of sight where i watch myself living in an idea

(living in an idea)

Half-Moon

raking by first bell
emptied of my self
old clones sleeping in piles
praising the hillish hell

skin shed in a dead room
half-light under half-moon
i’m here, but i’m see-through
if only you could see me now
watching as the day swoons
half-blind from the half-truth
oscillating between two
on earth but off the ground
nowhere to be found

the breath is ahead of me
baby buds gone before the dream
my arms are spread, i am begging for morning
my family bleeds, won’t you take their pain away?

maker, you anger me
come and go as you please
just know that i’m not your child
i have my mother’s genes

Grand Opera Earth

i cried through the brickyard
at the sight of a fish
a wave from the water
so easy to miss

i heard the harper
weaving their song
fragile silk of a secret
scrawled in the false dawn

i danced with my shadow
dirty old friend
a black moon reposing
with the milky silence

i followed a rhythm
from its death to its birth
the loving awareness
of Grand Opera Earth

god, hold me down
there’s a light before the sun
palms up, my feet have left the ground
what life lies beyond?

fearful symmetry
i learn it with pain
beneath the madness like gravity
what we leave behind remains

so i danced with my shadow
until the very end
we spent a long time waiting
to do it all again

a world to me but a me to the world
another finger of the hand
i listen like a biologist
touching all that i am

god, hold me down!
there’s a light before the sun
palms up, my feet have left the ground
what life lies beyond?

Inch by Inch / Mmm

i move inch by inch
until i’m smaller than the finest grain of sand
i’ll wake in the belly of the oldest clam

reborn as my twin
until i see my soul sat in every hand
like clay, i shape an empty vessel

i look in the eyes of my meal
i patch my rags with fin and scale
the waters are flourishing
the wind is hushed
i crack my bones and return to mud
i bow to the light that palms my skin
working the flesh of this body, i unhinge
i merge with dust

i move inch by inch
forming unturned earth into gold
worms tend by slithers or i wither away
i stretch with pillars, they show my fate

reborn as a king
squirming to unlearn the bruised and the bold
wordless like whispers, they wither away
i am my dinner — i have no name

famished fisher
put down your shoulders
reel it in, you’re beyond time

sleepless shepherds
let me cry
there’s no path ahead, no path behind

fleeting figure
within the still
take a look or it will pass you by

a moment like forever
and ever onward
returning to another life

(i merge with dust)

...

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Summer Singing

squirrel with a nut
up on its luck
mashing a memory
with all of the other stuff

mashing
oh, you make a mad mush of your supper

bird with a berry
quicker than stone
feathers fell from bottle rocket
a kill so close

feathers fell
oh, the feathered blessing of your numbers

the season is changing
a summer singing back to me
the little suns have waited
for a life not quite the same as yesterday’s

you walk with a duffled giant
to some perforated place
wet at the crest of crying
with the sagging hope of rain

if you never stop your counting,
boy, you’ll surely meet your fate

wits for a world too quiet
and arriving much too late

the season is changing
a summer singing back to me
the little suns have waited
for a life…

(i’ve been waiting for a life)

little sun is falling
and the sky is calling

Patchwork

you gathered all the moves you know
and put on a show for me
now you are all i see

passing by the pruned willow
some familiarity
i wonder what will be

the scattered seeds in your pockets could grow
amongst the fostered children
we are one in several billion

the patchwork of all the songs i wrote
everything always repeating
as if there was any meaning

no numbers, no days
only the love that you gave
second sun, just a face in the mirror
with nothing to hide

no numbers, no days
i was caught by the wave
second sun, born a skinny dipper
feeling free for the first time

when the sky opens,
i offer my truest words
a bunch of nested voices
all waiting to be heard

life is but a dream
i’ll see what i’ll see
and i’ll leave when i’ll leave,
then all will change!