for a single moment
perhaps that pause
between heartbeats
the sun shone through
the wings of a butterfly
and i understood
the reason for cathedrals
Tag: creative writing
anatomy lesson (20170611)
i have taken myself
apart like those model kits
you know, the visible man
he had transparent skin
and you could see his skeleton
and organs but not his state
of mind
[though there was a small
pink brain in the tiny skull]
i open up
split in half
my body
an invisible canopic jar
pull out the spleen
the liver
the lungs
put them back
the wrong way
see if the plumbing still
works
leave out the heart
or the brain
you can’t have them both
working at the same time
instinct [which boils down
to what you want
and what you don’t want]
or reason
[but the brain is already
rubbish at that–did you
see the gorilla on the court?]
spleen
who the hell needs that
leave it out
when i shut the lid
on this transparent coffin
this brittle, see-through skin
i have less to worry about
than the visible woman
with her alternate pregnant form
untranslatable (20170610)
al oom bakra
shto vor
nee ay nee ay salum
kala bat
shto vor
isram sankar
isram malkar
isram isram
shto vor
ivory (20170609)
my thigh bone covered in scrimshaw
each coffee stained line of human ivory
a thin memory of us
of incidents on skin
lunation (20170608)
the moon is a rabbit
keeping itself warm
on this not-yet-summer night
it doubles up on itself
in all that darkness
cattus interruptus (20170607)
copland on the stereo
the cat mews for attention
writing time is over
the life you save (20170606)
approach from behind
place your arms
around their torso
under their arms
[if you can manage it]
if they’re flailing
and their eyes are
rolling up
staring backwards at
frontal lobes
just go ahead
and encircle their arms
as well
[since it probably won’t
make much difference now]
bracing with your left
make a fist of your right hand
and a stone of your heart
drive one or the other
forcefully into
their diaphragm
force those lies
they’re choking on
up and out
clean their face liberally with
water and allow
to air dry
——
for
dVerse ~ Poets Pub
Poetics: Poems that could save your life
stormy weather (20170605)
i blow your house down
like an ill-tempered storm
or come down your chimney
some kind of psychopath santa
crowbar open your windows
with words both iron and soft
but you remind me
it’s not my house
if i can’t open the door
——
buying the ant farm (20170604)
i wave at you
separated by a thin pane
of plexiglass
and wish you would
turn my way
wish even more
that these chemical signals
i am emitting
could pass through
this see through wall
trapped in parallel
we dig and tunnel
and carry our dead
while gargantuan eyes
track our moments
tap on the wall
and collapse ceilings
as this while
you walk left
and i walk right
but separated as we are
we never encounter
one another
and i wish these chemical signals
were vowels and consonants
and i wish i could send a smoke signal
that would rise above this flatland
and you could turn your head
skyward
and read me
philosophical dialogue #7 (20170603)
–do not confuse forward movement
with progress, he says
he cleans a fingernail
with the point of a knife
i huddle in a corner
all of my skin
curled in ribbons
at my feet
but surprisingly
there is not a drop of blood
–why is that? i ask
he shrugs
–just forward movement, he says
–but not progress?
he offers a smile, the first in hours
—let’s see about progress
after we’ve cut your
eyes free from those sockets
Words and Feathers 