She Is Not To Be Imitated

Grating away at churning asphalt
Heel bleeding through my sock
I am counting minutes, eager
Like a dancer in the wings.
The weather has discouraged me not,
For I’ll be escorted by thunder
Weaving trails of synthetic cotton.
I am committed to attitudes of strength
And productivity in this cavity.
We coexist in congruency, and not at all.
My heart, detoxified and overly rested,
Loves the solitude.

I had forgotten my penchant
For Zen in my youth
Battling discord with the piano.
I was the last to run through the fields
Lying about new jeans
In shambles and desiring collagen.
For a blanket I traded my childhood
And it placates me still.
I was concurrently raw, far too adult
For most of the establishment.
This is all quite subjective.

I expedited and distilled love,
Not by way of application
But through the recognition of art.
In the face of waiting sod,
Knee socks and pneumonia
I wrote and chased men furiously.
We could publish the manual-
How to develop, escape,
Grow like a vine in the suburbs
Where every thought fits the grid
Besides the roads.

Haven’t we met before?
On floors of painted rubber,
Allegorical flowers in my hair-
I will compose the myth as it suits me.
I prefigured a morning, a decade past
In morning heat and shade of pine
Where cares were expunged
By vinegar and the need for rest.

We are more elegiac than the roots
Snaking beneath our tousled heads.

26 February 2009

All That Is New

His eccentric highness pursues me
In wailing silence- I perceive,
Logically, his inadvertent sermon
With new sunglasses and a cup
Of spiced heat and milk.
This reassures me.

I know you, you dreamer,
Reduced to survival on many planes,
Dissolving, hopeless.
But I’ll use my muscles,
Extract you from the mire,
Embody a chorus,
Hum your favorite tune.

However distasteful, I sleep alone
Betraying creed and tearing
The shrinking world asunder.
When your pages flutter by,
Anxious and sinking, my sight
Follows them into the mist.

Bathing in swampy, iridescent waters,
You will be fortified, I know-
They are for us, and
I am all for you.

Baby, we’re filthy rich, unconventional,
Healthy and brilliant when we choose.
My compass vibrates and cracks,
But I have a yellow sky.
My soul is engorged, devoid of fear.

25 February 2009

Medulla Oblongata

Sweet darling, I rapidly learned
Of the erasure of your bliss
The appropriation of youth
I catch sight of his
Tousled hair, runny nose
Life snatches breath, without regret

He seethes in her treasured presence
Hating you whom he does not know
You, who carry more hindrance
You make waves without swaying
You exert, compute and emote

There was a surge in me
Not in splendor but in seediness
You, lacquered gold under a bulb
Of halogen, constructed beauty
I spilled tears at wasted days

You exist, in this space
Wandering your room or
Lying in bed unengaged
What I know,
Verboten as it may be, has
Stirred up inestimable aching
Tales only worms may tell

You are happy and handshaking
Eyes rolling backwards unstoppable
Are these walls of flesh numb?
Like a child, or a drunk,
I forget yesterday and
Put faith in what has failed

It is early spring three times over
And neither of us appear to be abandoned
We function on levels considered normal-
But for you I desire existence beyond bliss

Please love, even at the end of the world,
Never stop playing

The Mystery of Technology

My pupils spin, marbled, appraising
Carefully both slumber and wakefulness

We compose our love in zeros and
Ones that glide soundless and timeless
Through the crowded stratosphere

I'm bundled alone, seeking attention
In all the wrong places

There are smoking glass
Jars in the dark and pigeons
Fluttering down the hallway

Excuse me, you must be mistaken
I saw him, traveling backwards

In time down the fiber-optic cable
I was temporarily willing to
Purge myself of material attachment

But being poorly adjusted and
Fruitful is far more graceful