Hear, Feeble Ear

This morning I was christened by snowflakes that flew
Crazed, across antipathy, shrieking and lewd
Towards a goal, painted yellow, yet never erected
I seek, but futile words are proving defective

In sleet and in worry, poured out and molded,
He beats like a drum, for his conduct is scolded
By internalized structure, borne of his mother
She subsists, yet he knows not one shoe from the other

In minuscule storeroom he hides his delight,
His source of consolation and unfounded fright
In the brawl for his freedom, he has forged cuffs anew
He is locked down and gawked at in his own zoo

To overlook solutions, that’s the heart of the beast
Tragic, but intentional- not in the least
Constructing towers of sand, just to be sure
But there is a delay; I’m caught in the lure

In genuine form, agents unearth the facts
A revelation on parchment and written in wax
Sedated, blood red, like flesh of a fruit
Dilated our eyes, bodies to follow suit

In infant glow, wavering beacon of light
You are coldly acknowledged in the heat of my fight
I am appreciative, and although you do wander,
Of such serpentine aura I shall grow fonder

These notes coil and scuttle, no matter the speed
Validation through words and her power to lead
I am ironing curtains, beginning to cry,
Learning to dispense with each reason and why

Tender the pads of long fingers on keys
Starting tomorrow, I’m bending my knees

1 April 2009

Elegy for Living

Professor of crackling life,
Spokesman of camaraderie and trade
You barter stability for solidarity.
You pace, driven, wiping your beak
On greasy feathers, soldiering on.
You scale twisting, white-washed bark,
And upon your arrival, you are free.

You juggle eggs, and allow
Each one to sink,
A lipid mess on the sidewalk.
Leave the multitasking to me.
You take the stairs in leaps
And trip, springing to
The summit, overexerted.

Your tenet of simplicity
A freeze-dried excuse
For equal and opposite gluttony.
The symptoms have been diagrammed,
Medically suffocated and immersed.
You love, practice duplicity,
Deface and devour me.
You prick lacy corners of me
Long-lain bandaged, for fear.

Your nape is cold and wet, sonorous,
Lips and eyes seal wet as petals
I read your couplet,
Erased but for the semicolon
That is dusk, a wrought-iron outpost.

You are but a madman,
A tightrope walker,
You trade the common need for love
For self-deprecation and sedation.
You have been coddled, roots-up.
Stop off in the lot and come to dinner.
I will feed you that which I cherish.

We are both scaffold and buttress,
Springing at the sky, made of stone
Avoiding jet-engines with lungs of turpentine
I am in rapid pursuit, taking this on.
Please, wind me and set me rolling.
Our brains are novels, battered textbooks.
For now, we suckle at the garden hose,
Cultivating green and waxen fancy.

We will curl underfoot, brittle, by day's end.