Verse: Animal Dance

Why are you
so blue?

You told me
Love is the thing

The substance
of all conversation

The means
by which healing begins
daily, nightly

Look
it's only sleeping
let's wake it up

Verse: Will

I will sing you
a stranger's song
if I cannot
sing my own

I will call you
by the names
they dare not speak
for fear that
they are not yours

I will ask you
if these prayers
are parasites
that feed on my hope
like flies on filth

I will tell you
what tomorrow
promised me when I
complimented her
on her cologne

and I will lose
my nerve
my grace
and open my heart
to make a feast
of my love
for you

This is my practice
my catharsis
this is what I do

Verse: Escape Artist

And when
I awoke
I resolved
to take only
what is essential
from this moment on

To loose myself
from attachements
from need
from the tenuous
and the trivial

To cast off
the questions
the arguments
the stories
I had accumulated
and consumed
for so many years

To take nothing
with me but
this intimate skin
these intricate bones
and your love

They will be my constants
my consolation
when confronted
with great doubt
and death

Verse: (a lost item from summer)

(Found this while cleaning up today. I never posted it. Made a few tweaks)

The chameleon comes in
looking for a disguise
the lady in the corner
looks imperious and wise
and I can feel your fingers
crawling cool against my thighs
in this strange season

the poet at the podium
unleashing vulgar rhymes
the priest embraces the acolyte
absolves him of his crimes
your every kiss as stark
and bold as the New York Times
in this strange season

the guards walk along the gates
stroking a chain of keys
the doctors have been stricken
with some social disease
almost undetected we do as we please
in this strange season

The ingenue stands askance
she is half undressed
the protagonist finds intrigue
in things as yet unexpressed
your breath sings like hallelujah
and at once I feel blessed
in this strange season

The singer departs the stage
without any encore
the all-night watchman settles in
and wonders what's in store
your lips softly enfold mine
and shake me to the core
in this strange season

The sailor eyes the skies
and then consults his charts
the idle cab picks up a fare
and suddenly departs
and we lay waste to all the
acute longing in our hearts
in this strange season

Verse: Snowflakes

(Originally posted on Facebook in December 2008)

Is it so wrong
to be jealous
that they kiss
your cheek
with more tenderness
and consideration
than I could?

My sole consolation
is that they are as fleeting
as a sigh of relief
and besides
they are not as warm
as mine

yet I do love
to watch them fall
the way they flutter
around street lamps
like fireflies, and how
they sparkle in the
first rays of the morning sun
freshly fallen
making everything
appear as clean
and crisp
as a canvas might
or a blank page
unsullied by expression

Verse: Spot

We gave you
to December

Not to the tumors
or the infections

Not to the half hour
spent trying to stop
the blood

or the desperate cries
as we bundled you
into the tattered
blue towel

We gave you
to December

Not to the
concerned clinician

Nor the
cold reflective steel
of the examination table

We gave you
to December

Not to those
nagging fluorescents
at 1:00 a.m.

Not to the doctor
who carried you away

We gave you
to December

The warm purr
that rippled
your matted fur

The woolly paws
noodging the sterile
air

Did you know
I looked back
as I left?

Did you know
we were leaving you?

We gave you
to December

And no soft snow
to cover your head
or absolve us
of our guilt

Or to absorb
the wordless
silent cry
that took me
by surprise
left me gasping
for air
on Willow
yesterday

My heart
is sick
with sadness

My heart
is blemished

Verse: attuned

Wondering
where summer
went

We moved
cautiously
through the
adversarial
arctic night

And when
our dreams
were relieved of
their duties

we sang
our morning song
until daylight emerged
from the drowsy
folds of those
crisp white clouds

Verse: Thief

I took this
from those lovers
and I hid it
in your purse

And if they
should find us
my alibi
is well rehearsed

I took this
from the fire
laced it in your
fingerprints

If the embers
make inquiries
I won't give them
any hints

I took this
from the morning
and placed it in
in your bed

And if the night
should find us
I will improvise
instead

I took this
from the garden
and placed it
in your dress

and if the earth
should require it
I will not confess

I took this
from the rain
and sang it into
your phone

and if the sky
took it back
I still would not atone

I took this
from tomorrow
and I threaded it
through your heart

If tomorrow reclaims it
remember I wasn't trustworthy
from the start

Verse: Pursuit

I inhabit joy
where I can find it

and do not disturb
the sleepy sun

I gather dreams
that are discarded

And I transfer them
to everyone

I engage
the loved and lonely

the temporary
and the acute

I try to
make some sense of it

and that is my
one true pursuit

Verse: Accumulations

It's like accusations
at first
you can brush them
off

But they cling
as they intensify
And you
can't shake them

It's always cold
when it snows