Drown on, my love

Her hand links with that of the storm

For the great drowning begins with one swallow

Only nimble fingers can reach down her fragile throat

And wrench the former firmness of her depths

Yet on she trains and teaches "how to slay me"

As if murder needed to be taught of one so weak

Her voice is eaten by the gluttonous whirlwind

And the grins of greedy men prevail upon her flesh

She is soft, every inch of her drips with the sensual

Beauty possessed by nocturnal predators

Her love is a sticky mire of her own creation

For the stars within her a silenced by her filth

So that none may ask to hear her silver song

Pliable clay path bears timid foot-marks leaving

A trail and guide and hiding flight

To stranger lands and emptier loves

Drown on, my love, and sing no more

Cry out for want

Cry out for want of light, O child

For upon this hearing he will come

Drawing you into his embrace like tender petals, closing

Cry out for want of love, O man

Knowing it shall find you

In bewildered oblivion he is there

In utter placefulness he is near

Cry out for want of breath, O maid

For the warm and holy wind will fill your lungs

Inflating song-womb, puffs and heaves

To carry every desperate hope

To usher every desperate plea unto his faithful ear

Cry out for want of tears, O earth

That salt may quench your parche'd mouth

Whimsy fills the eyes of him who always was, the craftsman

He dreams you up as you, continually born, arise

Awaken every desperate love

Arrest from sleep all old affection

Cry out for want of nothing, O soul

Yet ears full of stars and liquid song clear out

To heed your cry, and live and die

He sinks his fingers into you, and scoops out all the pain

For you are home and not alone in desperate hope

In desperate plea for light and love and breath and tears and nothing

Every cry made silent, sleeps in his arms forever

(4/16)

Wednesday

The familiar drone

Of worshipful elevator tones

Lulls us into bored stupor

Big eyes think as

White symbols conquer walls

And we are lost to blinking

For moments hung in shrinking

Starlight

(4/15)

[Untitled]

Blades of grass quiver

Like virgin lips from love's first touch

Lavender winds sway from

East to west

Enchanting every wayside wand'rer

(4/14)

(work in progress)

"Yet the sea is never full" Ecclesiastes 1:7

Flood insatiable endlessly flies

From peaks of mountains and tears from skies

A cup through generations passed down

Spills its wine on sacred crown

(4/13)

The itch

Heat, the boiled blood surfacing

Tender to touch, silly shade of pink

The sun sponges pallid ticket

And the sighing wind rolls her eyes

At the itch she cannot quench

(4/12)

The simplest song

She sits with the black tabletop

Gaze drifting lazily around

Chin in listless hand

The sun's the light bulb in her head

She sees his brown eyes wink away

All her memories of the pain

Clasping hands so near

The sun's the light bulb in her head

Pre-chorus:

And she says...

How how how can I tell him

He's un-un-unforgettable

Lovely, kind and new?

Young face, old eyes, everything

Chorus:

It'll take the simplest song

No complications

Chords like water

Words like sunshine

To tell him

"All I want is you!"

She gives him every song she knows
Her heart's full of joyful chirping
His smile always glows
And the sun's the light bulb in her head

(Pre-chrous)
(Chorus)

(4/11)

"Not in the sequence of the metronome"

Willing plastic feet melt into the asphalt

And we are undone

(4/2)

"I'll see you to your end"

Clinical, white glows taunt me

"Your tears are not our wage!"

I rot from within, and

My maggots cannot be helped

My body has been murdering me

For years now

So it is no longer a surprise

Like a raucous and debilitating

Windy roar

But a tender, whispering caress

"I'll see you to your end"

(4/1)

Pomegranate tongue

Inky tendrils raised skyward

In anguish and lack

The great parasite

Buried in murky blackness

She beckons youthful sun

"Descend!"

Into her silky, sumptuous embrace

His shining eyes made wide

From wonder and gravity of her

Melodious voice flows

Like cooling silver

Into his fair eardrums

She blinks hypnotic, icy eyes

And he begins to melt

Into molten waterfalls towards

Her place devoid of light

Her grapefruit lips curl into

A ravenous, intoxicating kiss and

She swallows him drop by

Dropping into the vacuous cavern

Of her belly, the Sun swirls towards

Hell, the most unreal reality

Whose arms are sweet like

Juice from dripping, pomegranate tongue

She looks to the eyes of every

Sun and vibrant, holy star

For they are her endless delicacy

(3/31)

Violet dawns

The deep boom of great man's throat

Chest like a drum grows tight

Like lips from fright purse in frail line

Battle cry born in mountain's womb, now heard

In hammering of curve'd swords and pikes

Grow long shadows; sharp the battle cry

Emerald oceans and swimming wheat dance

Beneath the metal-clad percussion feet

Black dress flows like water as she spins

Her centrifugal motion drawing eyes of

Daffodil and dawn, rays alight in her

Drops and onyx crystals of war scatter

Wild trees spring up gnarled and dark

And they dance like men to beating drum

Purple, misty chaos stretches, repsoseful

Across fetal forest, and the light will die

(3/30)

The weak crawled out from among the weeds

The weak crawled out from among the weeds

Ragged breaths rattle. shrill, in bony cage

No eye nor ear found worthy cries to heed

Pine-footed forest ne'er a man has freed

Until the gasping fires come to rage

The weak crawled out from among the weeds

Rusty palms and fingers shake from greed

Dear Shame, no stories spill upon the page

No eye nor ear found worthy cries to heed

Shadowed knees shake and knock and bleed

Begging for a word from earthly sage

The weak crawled out from among the weeds

Sin and filth are now the only seeds

Of any throne of prince or king, this age

No eye nor ear found worthy cries to heed

Noble line broke his back among the reeds

While lonely women forget their timely wage

The weak crawl out from among the weeds

No eye nor ear found worthy cries to heed

(3/29)

Green flutes

The jagged edges

Jutting outward, reaching up

Praising yellow sky

Winds tickle branches

Makes green flutes from every leaf

Sing sad melodies

Crunch! Apple's crisp flesh

The sweetest blood dripping down

Waters thirsty ground

Bumblebees dancing

Lost in loving, violet blooms

Nectar fills the cup

Wave's foamy fingers

Grip the coral throat, lifting

From the seaweed depths

Dewdrop crystal orb
Slides down wayward blade of grass
Brook giggles, rippling

(3/28)

Saudades*

The scent

Travels on the listless breeze

Transporting my soul

To another place

Distant, yet closest of all

(3/27)

*Saudades (sau.da'.jeez) - Portuguese word;
the feeling of something reminding one of home
or invokes the missing or ache for a known
and distant place

Overlooked

"Maybe," she said,

"But probably not."

Icy emptiness poured over

The jagged outcroppings

Rent from the former

Wholeness of her mind

(3/26)

Stolen walls and ceilings

As teeth sharpen Earth’s crystal dome

Tears leak from orange pots of clay

I crumple under sighs for shattered home

Shackled to my heritage, I roam

Underbrush and thorny roots shall play

As teeth sharpen Earth’s crystal dome

Nighttime wonders swallowed in green foam

Forgotten warriors drown in friendless fray

I crumple under sighs for shattered home

Furrowed, shadowed foreheads groan

Ankles pierced by snares roll stones away

As teeth sharpen Earth’s crystal dome

Black eyes relinquish rivers, chrome

The backs of sun-dark lost ones sway

I crumple under sighs for shattered home

Weep and scream with the forest, alone

No home in love or sight or day

As teeth sharpen Earth’s crystal dome

I crumple under sighs for shattered home

(3/25)

Mistress Rain

Ivory knives pierce the skins of reddened grapes

Juices burst, Earth's fertile life-blood

That intoxicates caressing fingertips and

Slips down the sides of her marble waist

The wild grass and wheat braid themselves

Into her dark, lustrous tresses; bold and aloof

Her eyes are inescapable pools of honey

Cotton-white blossoms, plucked from

Verdant forests, bleed endlessly

Viscous and hearty drops of crimson dew

Brave saplings, clothed in ashes

Peek out from with the frosty womb

Like her snow-kissed cheeks above the

Early morning stirrings; the bluebird and

Finch make their nests amongst the dry

Bark and tender spring stars

Narcissus wave lazily, beckoning her

With golden arms and silver voices

And she begins to laugh as the fawns

Scamper across the lines of her nose

Leaving careful, acorn hoof-prints

(3/24)

Knuckles

Rounded knuckles

Make soft indentations

In the black soil

Carrying with them

Beautiful smudges of

Earth, stretched across

The edges of rough fingers

Rounded knuckles

Toss, squish, and flatten

White, buttery dough

Imparting the strength

Of wizened hands

Into life-giving warmth

And soft, crackling loaves

Rounded knuckles

Crack the cheekbones

Pound and pound

Merciless and airless carnage

Faces torn, bloodied eyes

Stinging tears, hot, scalding

Another's flesh adorning

Rounded knuckles

Pink from rapping

On the slammed oak

Door, impliable trees' flesh

They come to bleed

Weeping and dry from

Desperate lonliness

(3/23) -- Work in progress

Hope like fury

The spirit is the heartbeat of love

He is a shield from the fire

Until he starts a childlike flame

Inside my rib cage

Where the orange light smiles hopefully

(3/20)

A reflection: the pain was swept under the rug so she wouldn't feel bad about herself

Out of fright

She makes light

Of the plight

That other children might

Fight in a far away place

Because she cannot face

the suffering, no space

For smiles or faces

Filled with kindness

(3/19)

Dancing with fire

I tear the corners

From priceless paintings and

Place them in a

Basket laced with gold

To celebrate

The destruction of something

Precious

(3/18)

Jeito

Peeking out above

The dugout's edge

Lovely ire beckons

Chilled breezes stir

The waves for miles

Flutes sing from

Far, forsaken cliffs

And forgotten fields

But stay in the wrought

Carved in earthy safety

The way is known,

Ever narrower

To the leaves

Bellowing adrift

Teasing the hardest

And most honest

Borders

(3/17)

"Go back"

Blinking back lost tears

He reins in the bucking, whinnying stallions

Of fear

Stampeding in his chest

Around him he sees a foamy sea of white

He is no longer just dark, but he is also dirty

Seeing himself as a mute speck of brown

In the vast expanse of bleached walls and

Harsh fluorescent light

He opens his mouth to cry out

For he is drowning

But the melodious and rounded edges of his

Mother's language fall, foreign, on deaf ears

Choking on words and water, his silence

Bereaves him of home

(03/16/15)

The tryst says "access denied" which doesn't mean what you think

ta-tat ta-tat ta-tat

blood rushes, red, she blushes

frightened by the hushed tones

of desires unadmitted to the mind

blind

to what is wholeness

she breaks herself in pieces

so she can share

her focused and strange beauty

twisted into the knots of her spine

Cracked vertebrae drip with wine

Crimson with dread

She eats the bread leavened with dead yeast

her tears yet remain in the deep, hidden pools of her

irises bloom late when left in vacuous beds

so it is her fate to find strength

from soles atop pain buried six feet underneath

every wanton drop of saliva and hot breath

and her breast heaves from the suffocating weight

Of her false, wheezing hatred for weakness

Fallow

The sky weeps when it sees, helplessly

The browns of forests who wish they were

Evergreen

Hope can never grow for the apathetic shade of

The dead leaves on the soil

Perucho

Su voz, fuerte y dulce me llama

Castigando las olas y el viento

Mis ojos encontraron a suyos

Mandandome confiar, rezar, y morir

El verde del mar enojado entrapa mis pies debiles

Pero una cuerda de luz y affecion me protege

Hasta que la corto con miedo

Ahora, no veo nada mas que la muerte

La tumba del agua negro

La sombra llena los valles de la tormenta exquisita

Y grito, desesperado, ahogando

Entonces, la mano, su mano brillante

Me agarra, me arrastra

Nunca faltara, la mano de mi senor

You, I Name

The lady clad in white and holy cloth

Descending forth from her bright home aloft

Where she treads all new life begins

Her purity erases sins

But what now is seen was not true before

The shining lady boundless burdens bore

From shore to shore of vast expanse

She wandered, trapped within a dance

A way of fears and chaos full

She spun and tumbled, ever ill

The wickedness of other men

Ever imprisoned her within

She, the sacrifice, the scapegoat for all

From within eternity heard a call

“Come to me, for I know your name!”

To her side a rescuer came

“To your heart I will speak e’er true and free.

I, the Name-giver, will your savior be”

He endowed her with a banner, her crown

And in his love her purity is found

El Amante

El Amante, del cielo, grita,

“¡Yo soy El Único, soy lo todo!

Cuando miraste en tu espejo

Me viste en tu reflejo, Mija”

Su amor fuerte llena las vidas

De todos los ríos, ahogados

El perfume de su piel rasgado

Conquista almas de estrellitas

Desde la eternidad muéstranos

Cada piedra del viento bailando

Veneno azul huye sus ojos

La perdita sus brazos buscando

Encuentra; vida en aguas rojos

Que cubren montañas, abarcando 

"The Lover" (English Translation)

The lover cries from within the heavens

“I am the only one, I am all!

When you looked into your mirror

You saw me in your reflection, my child”

His strong love fills the lives

Of all the rivers, drowned

The perfume of his ripped flesh

Conquering souls of little stars

Within eternity he shows us

Every stone of the wind dancing

Blue venom flees his eyes/sight

The lost woman for his arms searching

Encounter; life in red waters

That covers mountains, encompassing

Reflections

Turning away from un-faceable, angry mirror

Hunted, hated reflection in tainted mirror

Someone else is loving him, touching him, I blame

Them all – “the glass points in my direction,” O sainted mirror

From enchanted wall you cry “Fairest of them all!”

She is in far-away land and I have a painted mirror

Imprisoned soul within, O Narcissus, you weep

For love of the man you see in rain-filled mirror

Cold, unfeeling and naked liquid sings

“Truth shall set you free” only in haunted mirror

Yahweh, with murderous beauty, veils and covers

His kleos[1], lethal, from sight of mortal, faded mirror

The ancient tree hungrily imbibes his crimson Holy Water

And dewdrops slip sensuously towards green, veinèd mirror

I see myself only in hues of purple, it is cold

To hold hands with death and gaze into fainted mirror

Marble and clay and silver and pearl

Topaz slices the finger of earth in beautied mirror

And I, Liria, tell you to be only seen and known

For oblivion waits patiently in this prison of tainted mirror

[1] “κλέος” is the Greek word for “glory;” the connotation is, “what people have said about you.”

Selfish voice, forsook

Translate my being onto paper

Volumes of fractured beauty and murky identity

There's je no sais quoi

Grand untranslatability

Of my soul

Eating forests of innocence

So stop!

Hold the hands of man

Squeeze life into those rejected

Babies with tear-streaked faces

Bellies round and full of emptiness

Scars from skin ripped open

Broken, bloody flesh inside

Wounds too fresh for scars

Better to be poured out

Than to be written

With inky dewdrops and sweat

Sliding off the backs of the oppressed

Into hungry soil, forgotten

The story of their tears

Remains silent

I must give them my voice

So they can sing

Don't follow the wind

The spark grows to a roar

Flames leap and lick the edges

Of my depths

The wind whispers through

Oxygenating the deepest longings

And I am carried away

Israel

A people freed cry out for bondage

For the familiar feeling of metal

Shackled ankles and striped backs

Noses hunger for the scent of

Earth mingled with blood

In fear their eyes are blind to the desert lily

Ears deaf to the churning wind

Filled with the beating wings of quail

Souls long deeply for paradise unknown

But the lost island of dreams. yet immaterial

Does not provide sufficient memory

Deemed unworthy of trust, its beauty

Is thrust aside, forsaken for the comfort of the slave

We are the slaves whose weakened contempt

Strengthens the chained muscles of our arms

Whose eyes, blurred by tears of despond

Blink forth rivers likened to the bloody Nile

From which we have been freed

"How can this promise surpass all

That we have known before?"

Escondido

Run, run to the safety

Of all your ornaments

And masks

Hide the twinkling jewels

Of your smile

For you will never be

Wanted

On the current contents of your

Account

Oda a la Luciernaga

En las noches de veranos muertos

Cuando el viento fue agujetado con miel

Estabas conmigo, trayendo luz verde y dorada

Tus promesas se colgaban en los árboles embarazados

Que silbes de nuevo, la canción estremeciendo

En los bosques oscuros de los reinos antiguos

Nadie te notó hasta que desapareciste

Amigo de los niños y abuelos

El calor huyó antes de la luna

Y te encontraste entre mis manos ardientes

La prisión de cristal te hizo una lámpara

Gracias por volar en las olas de mis sueños

Desde paredes de papel y oja

Llevas nuestra esperanza en tu pecho duro

Te mendigo, tráiganos hueles de tierra e hierba

Nunca nos dejes de nuevo

February Night

Eyelids droop

Weighted down by memory

Polaroid tears dangle from the edges

Of eyelash forest

Wine drips from lips

Drops full of questions

The future is held, teasingly, within

Misty and orange

Surrounding all hopes and fears

La maravilla

Dizzying height and misty wilderness

Two leather-shod feet rest upon the precipice

As far as the eye can see

Indecipherable, breathless winds tickle

The tops of the soft evergreen tufts

Fear, the friendliest emotion

Shakes the hand of the sojourner

With firm, sweaty grip and

Brief and knowing smile

Down!

Diving like a sea-hawk, glimmering with salt

Crystals form around the corners of her mouth

Leaving faces living in the light of all but rainbows

To know the way is an unbearable weight

Piles of shouldered boulders follow the path

While the lost float away languidly with the clouds

Ay!

Conociendose es mejor

Que ser anonimo pero

Todas se pierdan una vez mas

Los numbes y los rios juegan, una cancion

De dolor profundo y suenos llenos de agua

Y nunca me voy a conocer

Un barco me arrastra

Hasta el trono de diamante

La silla, la casa

Encontrando cuerpos muertos de

Estrellitas y sonries

We are the bridge

The bridge stands, vigilant

Erect and beautiful it waits

For feet

Furrow-browed face of stone

Sun beats down like butter

Melting into the mason's wrinkles

Limerick

Whimsy is flimsy, oh no!

It cannot withstand

The stub of a toe

The ripples are tripled for show

For my brother

It is good to know you, friend

In your broken, olive-skinned smirk

You whisper hope crying out

From within your prison of

Reasonable, Rationalized

Heartache

It is good to know you, friend

With your dark eyes that

Smile your impish utterings

Into being: you bring grins

Forth from the reticent and

Willing

It is good to know you, friend

May we never be so far apart

That geography cools the warmth

Of your steady, encircling embrace

You are my brother, I'm always

For you

Fortify

I am a beating heart

Exposed and bleeding

Oxygen outside my river

Burns and dries my flesh

I pour hot plastic into my

Aorta; hardening arteries

Making them strong, depriving

The choking, blue veins of

Inward breaths, pulmonic

Ingressive, aggressive suffocation

Blacksmith

The crafstman defined by his craft

Begins to look upon it in loathing

Because it is a fire-forged mirror

That forces, draws his gaze

To see himself in truth

Prism

Glass catches Sun's rays with nimble hand

And flings it towards the floor

Newly painted and alive, it's lighter than before

Ser mujer

Ser mujer es tener poder de

Liberar o esclavar

La mujer da vida al mundo

Y continuamente agarra

Agarra los rios y las rayas de la luna

Escala todos lugares altos

Con cuerdas hechas por

Luz e hierba

Repose

The clouds lower their crystalline ambassadors

Gracing the surface with liquid purity

Uncountable, lacy marionettes dancing

Repose

The moon casts its pale grin southward

Towards gravity, sparkling, tragic and bloodless

Caressing the earthy curves with tenderness

Repose

The darkness of sleep is a kind escape

From the whirling madness of the day

Dreams infiltrate the safety of the mind

Repose

Water trickles stealthily down the mountain's face

Trails of snowy tears have carved themselves

Into the reluctant history of the rocks

Repose

In any lover's arms it is dark and warm

Suffocating; the embrace of his strong body

Safe, I slip into desperate sleep

Repose

Surrendered yet unwavering, we withstand pursuit

Of the midnight beauty, mysterious and impalpable

Denying desires that magnetically throb us inward

Repose

Speak

My voice moves with the motion of my arm

When I am still, silence falls

The stillness settles the flurrying dust of memory

And through the light rays, seeing

The floor is blanketed with soft, enduring greyness

Twitching muscles begin to flow in an intricate dance

Words, utterances, mutterings

Grow up from the dust, molding and twisting into melodies

Of light and air and earth

Willing themselves to be heard and seen

They cry out from within my trembling fingers

To be weighty and empty is a grave duty

My Hope - A Haiku

His holy water

Fills the chasm between us

Drowning the doorway

Trust the night

Surrendered trustingly to the foggy dreamworld

She drifts, bobbing up and down, on the river of memories and

Imaginings stirred lazily into one entity

Her deepest longings and greatest fears smile at her

They caress her and embrace her sturdy, ghost-like frame

Fear's embrace, the sweetest, is full of tenderness

And turns the swirling silver world into vivid colors of trust

And all that remains of dreams is a shimmering mirage

Of Hope, the guardian of fantasy

Undaunted and confident, Hope waits patiently for Fear

Finds his power only in the false land of darkness

En voz alta

Cries of longing slither forth from every open mouth

Alike, the lips of whores and virgins

Find utter homelessness a home

The heart palpates ever too weakly

To convey the deepness of the pain

Afraid to shed the armor of cotton and silk

Tongues are bitten; epicardiums fortified

Silencio las conquista con fuerza maxima

Pero las calladas gritan mas que las locuaces

En voz alta

"Be seen and not heard"

But they are denied the pleasure

Of being known behind the cemented visage

Trees planted for those uprooted don't make

Sufficient penance for the bereft oxygen

Haplessly halved hornets' nests thrive

In their be-splitted state of lobotomy

The connective tissue contains the buzzing tales

For woe and glory promise wholeness

Oblivion of Dying

Twink’ling with the eyes of stars

It beckoned me, “Peer within!”

The golden light danced on walls

Of dark, wooden panels thin

Crimson poppy on his breast

Hunched and ragged, languishing

Tears soon came in gravity

He gripped his papers, trembling

Dexterously, he plucked petals

Of the bloody poppies free

Inhaling the earthly core

He begged for rest, “Come to me.”

His words were lost in liquid

Misery, his face lines spun

Volumes of tactile anguish

His drowning eyes met mine, stunned

The crystal glass his prison

Impenetrable rampart

Unraveled threads between us

Leaving him with shattered heart

Breezy fingers mussed his hair

And to the floor his papers fell

With a weighty final flutter

And his tears drew him towards hell

Aching alone in agony

Oblivion of dying

Stars, that watched the corpses dance

Of crumpled poppies flying

Crackling hardness encircled

The window’s edge and creeping

Fractals, icy, forming frost

I watched: lost him to weeping

Death’s grip found his marble throat

Window to ice surrendered

The bloody fingers, poppies

His riven eyelids conquered