Metalwork
You wonder
if I’ve built
you a pedestal.
Actually,
it’s more of
a crucible—
we have all
the gold coins
at our disposal,
but I don’t want
you to be Midas
all the time…
Category: Uncategorized
Morning Pyschopomp Raga
There are so many rooms in the house of sleep,
and for too long,
I’ve been pacing the hallway
listening to things clatter from behind locked doors,
and I’ve been too tired to stop
and search my cluttered pockets
for the keys.
It’s easy to talk myself into
believing this isn’t necessary,
that I have everything I need
in this narrow corridor—
but last night sleep possessed me
on the couch, still in my coat.
There was no arguing with it…
The Gift
A discreet sort of madness
burns
in the raw opal of my iris,
a blue flame that sets me apart—
ecstatic, relentless,
intriguing and sly,
quick as a comet—
but this didn’t come from the sky
or from some stardust I swallowed
that forever poisoned me
with its brilliance
so I have to give credit
where credit is due:
you,
oh you—
the reason for me,
I can’t escape
geneaology…
Little Girl
After a day like today
of wrestling with your curls,
washing paint from your shirt
and dirt from your hair
After a day like today:
a two-bath day of noise,
tears and no, muffin crumbs,
a nap truncated by the runs—
is the perfect day
to remember you just so…
Flare
There’s too much of him.
His sundogs chase me across the sky
and scatter the seagulls.
I wield him like crystal
in the ark of my hands.
He comes right through me
like a light at the end of my tunnel
opening the ways,
spilling the rays
all over my broken sidewalk…
Strata
I accumulate you in layers.
Your mica patina
glints on my rocks,
a silver comet sparkle
on ragged window sheets—
pages of a novel
the earth once wrote
to the sun…
Cat’s Cradle
We fit like zig-zags,
serrated teeth
biting in opposite directions.
We gnashed our hungry ghosts
and lashed electric DNA
on time’s angry barbed-wire fence,
calling all the cockatoos
to our sleeping tree.
The child is the one who stayed,
bending the branches low
and, with her pink disarming chirping,
demanded the moon obey…
Gravity
There’s a place beyond the runway lights
where clouds learn to talk to each other.
The air traffic signals
bounce off the silver linings,
radiating light spokes into the ether
and the wheels turning
sound like the music
of departure from the body;
the bullroar hum
indicating something otherworldly
and not quite comfortable
to the habits of feet…
Calypso
salt and sugar
sugar and salt
the captain’s asleep
and the fevered crew
sleeps below deck
sugar and sugar
salt and salt
I am swimming too far
from the shore today
but somehow you’ve found me,
cradling me
with infinite starfish arms
in a yellow room
beneath this blue infinity
where even islands hide…
Archaeos
for L.T. Rest in adventure, friend… you are cherished and remembered forever.
if you read between the lines
that striate my iris,
you’ll find a hidden reservoir of blue
with a name written on the other side
in invisible ink—
a poem written so long ago
and with such a young and heavy hand
that pen trespassed paper and broke into sky,
until I cried because no page could contain
the words that could describe him—
Helium
I thought I could just let you go,
but now I know
how the wind itself remembers
this silver thread
connecting you
to me
eternally—
you never needed shelter
and I never detained you
in your flight to the stars,
yet here you are—
following me like the tethered moon
across the pale blue morning…
Midas
I have just dicovered the secret
of King Midas
who each morning, awoke to his throne
and slept at night with his crown
because it helped him think
and as he watched an alloyed world outside his window
full of leprosy and deceit,
far beyond the reaches of his own mortal grasp
he felt as powerless as a sparrow
as all arrows pointed toward him alone
to solve the riddle,
cut the knot
and distill the secret
of philosopher’s stone…