Posts
Picnic
Step from new from
picked peeled baked
from honeyed spiced
and half-swallowed
to paper-thin secrets.
I need to be
at that beyondish
tree you see tower
inside your mind
as a new poem
pulls your trigger.
Like going out
from cooped up
from steel light
to a hole in the head
from grape to wine
and back again.
Did what I was told
couldn't do it without
a mast of fascination
a hull full of hesitations
a cabin where eyelids
could not be sealed.
Falling into that place
where short-sighted
meets far-sighted
it went by before
many times actually
was that supposed to be?
Who is the fisher
of the bare-chested facts
the bottom-feeding hints
who is baiting the hook
that will pull me forward?
Far from death as possible
will you bet your life
bet on our mistake
too impractical to stay
going to take a break.
Miles between nostrils
a glancing blow
the mouthful of babes
hair all chopped off
between ears notes.
In quietude of picnic
I took all the clothes I ever wore
burned them in a dumpster
sacrificial mathematical
what's left is whistling.
Barnstorming
balance requiring lobed silence
taking off greed left apexless
between strings left echoing
my folly
waking and tossing out a dare
day's end before full rising
interestingly tugging at the ear
hysterically
like blossoms in the dark days
shortening and concentrating good
dried and potent in our centers
insensitivity
hymns too fast and too loudly
overwhelmed by piano and organ
amplified in frantic answers
assuredly
firm and artfully thoughtless
the beams in the walls and roof
of the day's sanctuary of conscience
commonly
standing in the doing of holding
heartful conquering of an angry
purpose dug into even hands
dug into even more even heels.
If what I said
was what you expected
then there is no fun
for either of us is there
and we might as well
sing.
This day more than others tired
did not grasp the swinging door
entrance and exit nose to belly
tried as hard as a door can try.
Can't breathe for a moment floored
the cook sweeps the broken dish
I am the cashier forcing a smile
another bowl of pasta on a new tray.
Can a whole deck be lost in a card
a meatball lost in interest
can the actors act so silly
the play is done behind a curtain?
Our pot as yet unglazed unfired
will not be shaped by any past
pair of hands on any past wheel
but is a future form of learning clay.
20 November 2009
Hyannis
we thought
doubt not.
not finished
list the hours of the day left unlucky left
famished.
can't start
squinting more us than the moon being missing
in the dark.
and not
whose cold bed is this anyway mine or
the cat's?
will live
the title of a book we both will write someday
is Give.
oxygen
for the length of a traffic light we were both
there again.
20 November 2009
West Barnstable
Beautiful with just a few
shifted shims and erasures
pretty much excellent
fill in a wrinkle find a rhyme
right unto another direction
push aside need for return
bettering the nearly.
Very specific as to gender
security crew picking up
the carryable with rings
and braceleted grin transmitting
bitter bare possibility
but only one she's afraid
it's plaintive like his.
Tracking a sewn streak
truthseeker bending down
digging it up out of the dirt
of the infield got it
know what to do with it
then as quick as a window
it's bobbled.
Be eager to measure
ratchet up with clicking
accuracy the tongue can't
stand up to or argue with
swell up statements
dressed to kill
gut the eel.
Perfect the instant
try and patch it up
make consistent corrections
make the endless fix
make more fixes than decisions
for every action both hands full
of bettering the nearly.
North Attleboro, MA
24 October 2009
and
SLC, UT
30 October 2009
and
Brewster, MA
1 November 2009
Snake Pond in the dark
were you home I called
left a message feeling small
my own medicine
swallowing itself
in my feet and hands.
Hand around a pistol grip
better not give me up
better not be a slave
better to maintain distance
looking for a miracle
trigger happy for the best.
Best little long evening
separating flowers and herbs
differences leave us disturbed
exuberance hardly possible
under black about to rain
but it didn't wouldn't.
Don't know if you were there
or not while we sat
chatting about this and that
you had to go to sleep
before possibly
saying anything.
Nothing said hit the road
Snake Pond was invisible
the other cars going ninety
I crept along
to my old school
tired jazz.
13 November 2009
Sandwich
Slowing down perhaps unmoved
kick the tires
no tread left no air either.
Young bravery in light of life's
recipe for disaster
is cooked before the heat's on.
Opinions grown in petri dishes
the louder they get
the emptier the mass.
Above all else all evidence
who trusted the self?
The killer the rapist the general.
Chairs strewn like limp leaves
nobody sits anymore
why watch the old sky turn?
13 November 2009
Grumpy's in Falmouth
My old old darling
we entered into a dance
I don't know the steps
does it go or come around
does the lead lead
and who would that be?
That R&B honeybee
keeps singing therefore we
return the future.
My old old darling
started up a new song
lyrics like rocks tossed
flat and skipping
from shore to deep
rhyming like sheep.
My old old sweetheart
waves altered the coastline
where were we last time
here where the bed turns
green to blue to dreams.
That R&B honeybee
keeps singing therefore we
return the future.
13 November 2009
Grumpy's in Falmouth
There is a woman coming around
in competition for my affections
her name is creativity
she whisks me off weekends
to her ice castle in scotland
and we burn it down.
You say you sense
and have for as long
as gray's been growing
while want is strong
the need to be sowing
seeds seems stronger.
There is a woman coming around
in competition for my affections
her name is independence
it's begun before it begins
we kick each others' shins
and we burn it up.
You say you sense
and have for as long
as gray's been growing
while want is strong
the need to be sowing
seeds seems stronger.
There is a woman coming around
in competition for my affections
her name is knowledge
no lace no heels no perfume
at least as demanding as you
she burns me every time.
November 2009
at Grumpy's in Falmouth
Three leaves left three years ago
swirling
falling through oak maple evergreen
not down but
where all the plans go all the work
unrequited.
An artist never knows where to go
next
an artist's lover will never tell her
or him
where the next next is
underfoot.
After being underfoot
he knows she knows
the wild ride to the other side
come with me to see left of right
swell to smell the briny brim
sure to tempt the stony sight
of the room where all dust blows.
Smarter outside than it is in the house
facile crisis
rather do than think about the doing
sleepwalking
another day another bowl of habit
for breakfast.
What can the birds and plants and bugs do
to cut through
how can the prey and predators get to your
green core
when will you bite your lip when will I
plant blood?
After being underfoot
he knows she knows
the wild ride to the other side
come with me to see left of right
swell to smell the briny brim
sure to tempt the stony sight
of the room where all dust blows.
To build up your elevating capacity
kiss the blind
to find beauty where it hides sipping
hot drinks
french kiss the stranger you thought you had
underfoot.
