brokejaw ice like
teeth in crimson’d
drink
one glass [milk of
in halfdoze many jawgum
left choke-spat
sparingly to crystal
as though by fresh-shined
child and smiling]
in LEGO’d fever
Posts published in “Poems”
age’ed jack o’ lantern,
your ash-caged jagged grin
finds reflection: me–
awakened in
smile of throat,
cross of eye
to eye
to close
to smile again–
to
smile
to
flint
again
;
Once again it was that time of year,
To plant, to mow, to set the dogs in rear.
For a month or two we would be gone
A time too short, but for Mum too long.
“The maid,” she’d say, “will care for the dogs.
I hope she doesn’t feed them like hogs,
as you’re so prone to do.”
With that, we packed and scattered through
To the truck left running in the yard.
Before noon we were a third there.
“Oh how I hope to see it soon,” I stared.
Out of my window were the grasses so well known
That each blade had a name, like Matt, Tom, or Joan.
And that sign still hung above them all;
“Welcome to Milburn Place: Closed for the Fall!”
It had been up since the early Twenties, or so Mum said,
Left there after the great man himself lay dead.
“Why do they not take it down?” I asked for the hundredth time.
“It’s their choice, Hon, not yours or mine.”
It was sad to see and worse to know
That Mrs. Milburn couldn’t let go
Of the only one her heart would know.
Yet, every year, with loving arms, she’d welcome Mum, me, and Flow.
We’d go camping, riding, even biking off road
In nothing but our trunks, something special Grandma sewed.
Even with the adventure we’d take,
I could feel Mrs. Milburn’s life begin to shake,
To tumble, out of control, until a smile creased her face
And we’d have our last summer at old Milburn Place.
spin me
and watch me fall–
top-heavy with dreams of you–
this pounding in my chest
could it be
from you?
your only gift to me
without knowing i exist–
rash, but not completely clueless
to the ways of love
and everything that comes with it..
i know
a look
can’t be enough
to wrap me ’round you,
but can a thousand?–
each second
of every forever
that you go walking by,
turning slightly–
are you noticing me?
..hopes too great
to let them be right–
i’m always wrong
so nothing’s new..
except
that now
it’s you
that is right
without knowing
what you feel like
against me
in the darkness
of a candlelight vigil–
maybe tomorrow.
spider’d legs
smooth-tapping in consistent beat
of eyes turning
falling by–
tap, tap, tap,
tap–
first finger figuring rhythm of own
i
peaked
last night
as
you
slept in arms grown numb but
warm;
i peaked at
your lips,
pucker’d in thought and lost in air;
i peaked
as
your lungs
rose breasts,
drew back,
rose again;
i
peeked
at your darkened thoughts
as lids played host
to
eyes
gone rambling;
i
peeked
in to see
heaven
adorned with shadowed-sheets whispering
‘do not leave us
once sun returns;
do not cast us from
your hips
a mountain of us made’
the center of my universe,
but still surrounding me,
that gentle harmony
of Beauty
sings against my mind,
hinting at her existence
but still silent to my heart
until–
her eyes,
throwing their veil
of twilight
crashing into my daze,
shatter every picture of perfection
and rebuild them to fit her ways.
stuck between shelves
of history—of romance–
she stares beyond me;
I can tell by her glances
of reality, short, but there.
a thousand words an instance
each falling from her lips/her hair
as if to say
“I’m here, can’t you see me?”
And I do,
with eyes wide
to try,
desperately,
to hold onto her brilliance;
the brilliance of a never-darkening eclipse,
halo’d by those rays of thoughts
that,
somehow,
leave her beauty
to be put,
unheard,
in my ink.
“A rose may wither,
a moon may slither,
a sun may fall,
and the stars may dither,
but constant are these words
that will never live up to Beauty.”
take with you
every memory
of whispers, of
wishes, of
movies let run
while we focused on..
other things.
take from me
every memory
of the days we shared
out of the snow,
in each others’ arms
without knowing
today would arrive.
take with you
every hand we gripped
to bring us closer
from eternity.
take with you
all i see
for it all reminds
me of you..
our time together,
morning to morning,
is too much to bear
on these
simple shoulders
of a
simple man
not worth remembering.
when the time comes
i want you to know
i never walked out
i never said goodbye
i never cried
since you passed on..
too many smiles
haunt me daily
to know that
sadness
could be
with your memory.
trembling,
i can’t see tomorrow
without you before me,
without heaven with us,
without the sun to shine behind us
on our way
back
home.
they said once it passes
it passes..
leaving me here,
you there,
and loneliness abound.
i watered your
roses
tonight,
hoping you’d stem from them..
remember
when the night lasted till day woke us?
remember
when the day stood
till the moon guided us?
remember
every second past
the dawn we grew old
and finally
let the world in
on our infinity?
riding
on the rays
of yesterdays
see through the clouds
through the rain in the distance–
passed us by–
laying beside Forever
i see your eyes
seducing Infinity,
reaching out your smile
to let me hold
on to the only thing
keeping me breathing,
that kept us immortal
before mortality caught up.
wrote this some short time after september 11th, 2001. not really for that occasion.. more of a tribute to the one left or leaving.
to be told i am worthless/
useless/
unloved
is liberating.
without those
cuffs of roles unfulfilled
i can
be uncaring–
that
cold’d wave of wind clinched-less
in palm
and
belly of fingers.