i keep my heart
sealed tight in a jar
so you can’t hear its beating
i put a blanket
over the glass at night
since it makes noise
while i sleep
i whisper a soft lullaby
the words your name
repeated like a heartbeat
——
floating and leaving no trace
i keep my heart
sealed tight in a jar
so you can’t hear its beating
i put a blanket
over the glass at night
since it makes noise
while i sleep
i whisper a soft lullaby
the words your name
repeated like a heartbeat
——
we complicate the afterlife
or simplify it
smoking shadows or blinding light
always some kind of
inflated vision
of unimaginable prosperity
like a costco with free samples
in every aisle
no lines at the registers
and they take whatever credit card
you have in your wallet
of utter misery
processing travel reimbursements
with unclear reasons for changes of flight
destinations not approved
and receipts so crumbled and faded
they may as well be ancient greek
palimpsest
as for me
i will take peace and quiet
some kind of eternal stillness
as long as i can get
netflix
——

cry, luscious goddess
lather us with sweaty summer worship
these breasts–smooth, languid, meat
–no
a thousand frantic lickings
the fast water must bare you
mad blood
red chocolate
crush my lust, my storm of a need
——
for
Elusive Trope
Magnetic Poetry Saturday Challenge
And a bonus line:

there must have been some magic
in that old silk hat they found
a thousand dark-eyed sins burst out
and began to plague the town
Well, that was fast. Pleasant Street of Are You Thrilled delivered a fantastic little poem on a recent near-death experience. You an hear it/read it at her site. And as promised, I have added two readings below.
Click to visit the Open Mic for August page.
Click to read these are the angels.
Click to read carousel
So, in this post, I asked some of you to pick a poem for me to read, and some of you did. And I do very much appreciate it. I had three poems suggested and I’ve recorded all three. I will post one tomorrow.
I will post the second IF I can get somebody else to post a link to the August Open Mic post.
I will post the third IF I can get a second somebody else to post a link to the August Open Mic post.
And so on. I’ll go back and eve re-read some of my old posts, as debilitating as that may be, and scrounge up one reading for every post that you, dear poets, link to on your own sites.
Come on, make me work. Make me dance like your puppet. I like it!
looking in your eyes i can measure
how much distance has grown between us
you took such care in planting the seeds
you split my bones with all your regrets
wiped me from your shoe like something foul
driven mad like apocalypse steeds
and now–i’m dust, some blood, little else
mere memory of a summer breeze
shadow moon your tide no longer heeds
——
I want to do a reading of one of my latest poems.
But I don’t want to choose.
Will no one rid me of this indecision? (That is your cue to leave a comment and tell me which poem I should do a reading for.)
i want to turn
my hands to stone
let them harden
the way my heart
slowly becomes
a smooth orb
of cold marble
there is a world of mirrors
that needs smashing
and my hands
won’t cease
won’t heal
won’t quit bleeding

the moon can but watch
these winds raw my sky
shadow-drunk and frantic
my bitter skin screams
language is a diamond
crushed to rust
like milk
shot through with summerless blood
whispering is wax music