June 2011


...to bursting
Vansterdam
Another Life
I Would Speak You
Help Me Laugh a Little
Humming in my Veins
played out
Where You Been?
The Breath of Maybe
Hobby Lobby

...to bursting

Like summer wine
a blush took the sky,
wings unseen
drank the last sips of wind.

Above a burgundy drape
the night poured in,
spilling packets of stars
on the table of this blueberry sea.

I am sore without you.
I am porous and cold.
These colors, once filled us
…to bursting.

Vansterdam

Clouds seem to sift the light,
streaks of cottony wisps
tinged in rust
as if dabbed on a long seeping wound.

Victoria is a smear in the distance,
her sparkle obscured
through the rising mist on the sea.
A violet cloak descending on her shoulders.

The skyline is blazing,
the ferries thrumming,
the roads are snakes of rubies,
an exodus back into the canyons.

Soon the city will quiet,
its neon humming,
the roads hissing with rain,
with our tender cries left behind.

Another Life

Birthing is hard.
There.
I said it.
You know this, but facing it is…

Renewal is cathartic,
cruel.
Paint leaves the walls.
Faces contort into masks of denial.
There is tear and wails of pain.
Words spill out like a broken egg
onto skillets that have no reason or rule.
Nothing can turn down the heat.

Water breaks,
Membranes rip.

Cells, tissue,
anatomy cries.

Birthing is hard.

Life -
…begins with a heartbeat
a timid curl,
and then a mighty smile.

Look what I created!
Look what I have wrought.

I Would Speak You

Were you braille I would speak you
as fingers to a sermon,
a soliloquy to your forest of skin.

Were you tea leaves I’d have known
the heartache you’d cause us,
the ache you would leave behind..

Where you color I could quash you
with concrete and shadows,
with curled metal shavings and brine.

Were you colorless I could molt,
my feathers falling in black and white,
beneath these cold pewter skies.

Were you sincere I could embrace you.
Were you real I could endorse you.
Were you here I would love you.
Were you braille I would speak you,
every mole, each raised dot,
each delicious salty smile.

Help Me Laugh a Little

I’m somewhere on the line tonight,
tipping me a scotch.
I’m somewhere near Topeka
Across from a Last Chance Motel 6.
The sky is Scarlet O’Hara
in a bed of Jackie Brown.
Help me laugh a little,
It ain’t me,
but someone’s dying tonight

I’m somewhere on the line tonight
tapping my toes to The Roots Crewe,
I can see cul de sacs of Sulfur,
and the neon sirens of Brimstone.
That must be Missouri,
I’m five miles from Holy Roller
and its working under my skin.
DIAL
“Can I call you?”
“Help me laugh a little tonight?”

When I got here I was numb to the world,
just semis and wheat, just SKY,
and tracks of our tears.
I’m somewhere on the line tonight,
and I’m on my last scotch.
I’m still eighty miles from Redemption.
Can you help me laugh?
You can speak to me in British…
- just for a little while.

Humming in my Veins

I’m waiting for you
on a shale outcrop
with an endless view of the sky.
I’m waiting for you
to slide beneath my arm,
to never slip away into a lie.

I’m waiting for you
on a barstool in Philly,
a bourbon poured in a cut crystal glass.
I’m waiting for you
to ease next to me
all kitty tease and Jersey sass.

I’m waiting for you,
with a soft smile in the darkle,
sweet promises deep in my jeans.
I’m waiting for you
like a burgle in the stream,
that anonymous shadow that tugs at your dreams.

I’m waiting for you
like a zealot waits for Jesus,
free of your pains.
I’m waiting for you
Joplin’s ‘Piece of My Heart’
humming, cumming in my veins.

played out


nothing says we failed
          like the silences…
those quiet longings,
for the sparks that surrounded
                        each morning we rose.
           the anticipation, the replay of moments,
the hopes played out in a blur of a billion unknowns.

nothing says we failed
           like the darkness in this room…
the sole light, dim in the corner,
                       absent of your shadows,
           empty of your voice,
the hopes played out to this moment,
my hand open…
                                     empty.