Air pollution

Peer between my breasts and through my sternum

And you will not find a heart but a furnace

A massive, ominous, belching furnace with an aortic valve

Made of sturdy iron, atrium walls of char and black

It's a storehouse of un-meltable, plastic spines

Strewn in yellowish, mangled globs across the bottom of the bowl

Non-committal destruction, polluting the oxygen that it breathes

The fire, that is, hungry and full of mischief

5.10.16

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)

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)

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)