Verse: Reluctance

For @_peanut_

I wonder
where the stars
are tonight
I miss them
and their soft
reassuring light

I looked for them
but I don't think
they want
to be found
and darkness
like a cancer
slowly consumes
the arteries
of this town

It's not something
that should
trouble me
I know
any more than
sainted summer
curses the
heresy of snow

I would be wise
to just let it go
after all
it's only time
it passes painless
like a notion
and as silent
as a mime

I hesitated
to tell you this
it seemed too simple
and plain
as everyday
as morning is
as obvious
as rain

And the stars
that I was looking for
not one
do I see
they burrow into
miles of quilted clouds
exhausted by
the likes of me

There's nothing
about them
I can tell you
it does no good to try
let them be
unburdened by allusions
let the stars
be stars
and the sky
be sky

Verse: unmerited

I wake
in the city
and the night
has forsaken me

I try to catch
desire unawares
but I think
it has grown
tired of me

I look around
the room
and leave my mirror
unrequited
intrigue
consumes me

I go outside
and see myself
in the eyes
of a thousand
idle strangers
but never
on TV
it's not me

I crave
any kindness
someone to
take my place
or imaginary
lovers who would
to swallow me

I cry out
on cue
the lights change
and a wave
of motion
engulfs me

I wake
in the city
I can always dream
but that's easy

Verse: Lucubrations

Would you be
so bold as to
remove those
broken embraces
from your sleepy sofa
they are bereft
of lust

I hunger
for no kiss
that cannot first
compromise my
conviction or
my composure

just look how
subtly the day
is threaded with
the slender needle
of invidious night

it has loosed
the sirens
that urgently
serenade us

they are obscene
insatiable
in their yearning
covetous
they will come
for us
one day soon
but not yet

in the meantime
we could reconsider
and conspire
help me sweep up
the dust of
this meagre meal
to extingush
the candles
and we'll listen
for the ocean
it is not
so far away

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