I think he had much to say
About the parts for which I
did not care. The price of bananas
in the spring and the neighbors’
daughter’s boyfriend’s brother.
The smiles were kind and crisp
and new with handshakes to match,
a dress to don, a dish to wash. Perhaps
the trying melted cold while the cracks
they would not mend. Or rather shattered
with a baseball bat, their insides sticky
and oozing, a bone or two split open wide.
And the words came plentiful
and placid with too much to say
and too much to do
but the words
they would not stop they
flooded.
they
broke
past
what was
fair and
what was
decent and
allowed and
expected.
but
I
did
not
Care.
Wasn’t it, though?
When the sky breathed and
there was the sameness of
the greys patterned in tea
cups and the layers of book
dust sleeping in moldy caverns
blazing dank and dying while
the clouds carpeted eternity and
there was waiting.
We were for that brief in
hale that doorway of possible
—our “ility” sagging behind with
patient luggage, too clean—the Scavengers
of the Dawn, riding harsh and fearless
in the gentle golds of the blessed. Our
Tomorrows lines on our palms and doubts
in the light.
If I were a letter
which one would I be?
Precise and kind like ‘A’
or awkward and gawking
like ‘K’? Or am I the
ones that are in themselves—
the ‘I’s, ‘O’s, and ‘U’s? Or ‘C’,
am I sight to you? Or ‘Y’,
Perhaps a quest or a question?
I think I will be ‘X’:
Hi, my name is—
No that won’t do.
Hello, I am rising and
falling simultaneously with
perfect balance, if I do
say so myself, I may be
somewhat neglected
but there is certainly
a twinkle in my eye
and a sharpness in
my smile of course
remember I show up in the
most unlikely places while
asked to dance sparingly
with that perfect hourglass figure
all the other letters want so yes
I realize I am your
Glorious Contradiction
I think I will keep it that way.
I don’t know much about lasting
When is permanent or together or one?
And how does it start—an “I think”
Or “I know” or “I am”? And who
do I find and where shall we go—
And what does it mean:
You and I?
Me and you?
Are we what is constant
and full and brimming
we, complete?
Sometimes the glue is more
to me than the brick or the wood
the sticky places are in the grey
their eyes clouded and yearning.
Let me be paint with shades
of light and dark turning within;
I don’t like boundaries:
I shall make lovely what is confused.
They fed me ambition
for breakfast sprinkled
lethal and razors in
my cornflakes
within a week it has
festered and spread and
now my lungs demand praise
not air
throat cut by cut throat
as they love me while I wave
wishing mellow upon
my enemies
now
I WANT TO CHEW
ON DREAMS SWEET
AND COLD
they sting my teeth and
kiss the raw spaces
orphaned the pink and
under-bellied
chanting shrill and
blind until what I am
aches with rage older than
the Romans
They cry
You are wrath and fury
You are loaded and waiting
You are silver dollars a
lonely ear
We will make you Tough like
Leather Boots and your Father’s
Smile We will break you until
you freeze.
what defines
the definition
those words
in each
that mean
things the
kind of
things
that are
ambiguous
and
uncertain
give me a
Certain Thing
and I will cry
as it will
rest, a snow
flake in the
palm of my
hand turning
my fingertips
first red
then blue
before the silence.
I think you are my antonym
we kissed and our adjectives
were suddenly kissing we were
kissing
freshfrankflatfierce
flakyfunnyfeistyfussy
fragileflammablefaithfulferal
flippantfeverishfrigidfragrant
forgedforcedfrightenedframed
then we were essence-til
lay essential lie essentially
fucked.
I split my synonyms for you
sliced them love ly
and ni ce
and pre tty
so pr et ty
pretty lies when
whole and standing
they were unattractive truths
what did you do for me
to make healthy
and bearable what
is a run-on sentence
which we are running
from our modifiers
d
a
n
g
l
i
n
g
