Verse: Constant

Idle idolatry
did never satisfy
such casual gods
as we

we sought hunger
rewarded fear
courted danger
with our teeth
bared

not even
in our image
could we have
imagined the
dark transgressions
that transpired
between us

our confessions
were conferred
not implied
or pliant
but they
were a constant

momentarily
immortal, but
we grew dull with
faultless fatigue
we inched
toward increasingly
milder intrusions
wearing music
like a mask

until they
intruded
extracted you
just as a surgeon
would excise a tumor
they denied me
any comfort
and would not
help me free
this song

I was not pure
when I began this
but now
I am innocent
and I am on fire

Verse: autopsy

Why would
you judge me
by my kisses

would you
be so bold
to deny me
your lips
for never once
having brought
you the sky

I told you
I could not
reach it
that it was
too vast for
me to embrace
and that I
could not
douse the
incandescent eye
of the sun
that seems to
follow you everywhere

if you
would only kiss
when you dream kisses
then do not dream

Quick,
dissect
my eager heart
collect the blood
that flows through
my veins
and you will know
as I do
that I love you

Verse: acute

Your hands
are too small
to embrace
the sky
fold them
like laundry
and prey
upon hope

your mouth
is too wide
to kiss
the ocean
and not leave
a permanent
scar with
your ivory teeth
your siren song

your truth
is too lustrous
to be obscured
by clouds
tend it
as you would
a flower and
heal its
broken blossom

your faith
is too precise
too unyielding
to project
in an empty cinema
it wants
your lust
not your dreams

your stories
are too long
for silence
to consume
they are like
confetti tickling
the bride and groom

and I
am little more
than longing
in an old
man's heart

Verse: Reverie #4

dreams
came in waves
before I'd
even learned
to sleep

I dreamt
that the moon
was a pool
of milk
that the sun
was a scoop
of orange sherbet
and I was
limned in anarchy

I dreamt
that I was dying
that I was
someone else
not yet lost
to inexpressive
vacant sleep

I dreamt
that I was dreaming
curled like a feline
on the pregnant pillow
of a bucolic breeze

but never
did I dream
for certain
until at last
I woke up
beside you

Verse: Reverie #3

Dust off
those stars
and let
them play

hang your kisses
in the trees
and listen
while they bray

cradle the remains
of the day
in your arms
as its breath
subsides

throw caution
like a garland
to the abrupt boys
so smitten
with their pride

wring those
caustic notes
and hang them
on the line

that rock and roll
that you trade in
is much too much
refined

fill tenderness
with the patience
of Job and a thousand
bold bouquets

do not acknowledge
that nomadic moon
until it falls under
your sway

parcel out
those garish neons
the city is not
so discrete

that you cannot
see the love that
covets you
on any given street

it's the ragged
jangle of your keys
it's the jagged tenor
of the times

it's soporific
and sensual
a discourse
meted out in dimes

you intoxicate
the wine
with your lips
in full bloom

but if you think
you've come for me
perhaps you are
too soon.

Verse: Nightingale

After the rain
in the drowsy
night garden
when the air
is drenched
and diffused
with the delectable
scent of sleep
That is when
I will sing

If you
should hear me
over the yawn
of the traffic
and through the
vagaries of
dulcet dreams
do call to me
and I will
alight upon
your moonlit
window sill

but if
I should awake
and the air
is not charged
with my name,
and your voice
I will know
you did not
hear me
that you do
not seek me
and that it
is time to go

Verse: Reverie #2

I dream of sleep
In open fields
And summer crying
Soft, refined

I wash the rain
And let it dry
In morning's warm
Embrace, content
Confined

I parse the silence
Unfurl the eager light
And watch as it disperses
Like watermelon seeds
Or dandelion wine

And if the wind
Intrigued should
Deign to pause
It surely will not
Opine

And those clouds
May spark and covet
the quiet intimacy
Of eternity uncompromised
And divine

And if I did awake
And leave this bucolic
Reverie too abruptly
behind

Please know
That it was not
By design

Verse: Process

Start here
it's as good
a place as any
to begin

Really, you
could start
anywhere
an observation
a memory
a confession
it doesn't matter

Once you start
it's easy
to sustain
much like
a musical note
or a crepuscular
embrace or
like a dream
seems to stretch
beyond the imprecations
of the night

but the trick
is knowing
when and
where to land
before you
run out of fuel

Verse: Wonder

was it
the first time
I heard my name?
or the joy
of a toy?

the silent sway
of gravity
or the way the
unblinking sky
is ever poised
to swallow me whole?

the mystique
of lilacs
or the myth
of snowflakes?

the watery
countenance of
the new moon
or the acute
propinquity
of summer?

in the triumphant
notes of Coltrane
or a furtive glance
across a crowded room?

the triumphant
spark of inspiration
or the concomitant
afterglow of expression

how did I
come to understand
joy?

Verse: Prospect

In another time
we might have been
explorers
like Vespucci
or Denys

I often wonder
what is there
left to discover
we found this
place not with
compass or sextant
but with Google Maps
everything has
been documented
and surveyed
so it seems
but not everything
has been revealed

my younger brothers
the chef
the forestry consultant
and me
ten years
and a day
separate we three
and several thousand
miles now as well
how odd
when there are
so many forests
so close at hand

and occasions
like these
are increasingly rare
like grass that
comes up through
the cracks on
the sidewalk
like a comet
illuminating
an onyx sky
like insight

we will be talking
about that weekend
for years to come
the boat we rented
the island
we found
the bald rocks
where settlers dried fish
the dolphins and
the whale we saw
the nights we slept
with the dog
on the soft beach
beneath the stars
a lambent canopy
how fluid
and connected
it all seemed
in the moment
how fragmentary
it seems
in retrospect
and distant
somewhat like photos that
belong to someone else
but not someone else
just a different time

that weekend
will become legendary
in the retelling
more colorful
more profound
in years to come
that's how it is
with memory
you embellish

and if there is
no sea nor land
left to discover
in any remote corner
of this finite earth
there is the discovery
that occurs
in those increasingly
rare encounters
between the memories
when we are brothers
in more than name
once more