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
——
Tag: poetry
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
lizards in freshly tilled earth (20170602)
i become a slight movement in the earth
a ripple through fecund soil
crawl with my belly against a warming mother
so warm i hear my pores open
welcoming the sunlight like a friend
long-forgotten
futility (20170601)
there comes a certain
satisfaction–i will not
call it joy–in futility
not in the inability
or the inevitability
but in the finality
the having an answer
of their being no doubt
shadows at their darkest
at their hungriest
yes, and stars, too
too hot to approach
and yet the calming whisper
–so it goes
no new skin (20170531)
i have nothing
left to lift
not my hands
not my eyes
nor raise my ire
peace is all
overwhelming
turgidity
slowness that is stillness
unmoving like summer rain
or heavy syrup
heavy as the earth
beneath my feet
i shed my skin
one last time
with no intent
of emerging clad
in a new glistening
sheath
belly (20170530)
no swelling music
just a swelling
of the gut
survival tip #4 (20170529)
i meditated until i couldn’t feel
my toes and succeeded
in reversing my skin
with my bones
it seemed such a shame to keep all
that armor on the inside
on arriving unexpectedly at the pearly gates (20170528)
i try to turn and make my way back
the hands are firm on my shoulders
and pull me toward clouds like columns
drag me, really, but my feet
rip through the cool cumulus
like it’s cotton candy
i swat at the hands
but we pick up speed
soon we will be through
those gates
which will close irrevocably
i imagine all those people
i spent so much time avoiding
and now they’re all in there
my shirt is covered in sins
like stains from every
spaghetti dinner i ever ate
every misstep plain as day
written on me
written on my clothes
tattooed on my face
a small greek chorus rushes behind me
trying to keep up
strolling left to right to left
listing
listing
listing
everything i have ever done
i am convinced the same thing
happens in hell
but everyone there refuses to hide
their disappointment
but here they will make excuses for you
you won’t have to defend yourself
but the damn greek chorus
refuses to shut up
and my mouth fills with clouds
heeds tails (20170527)
i have ceased to trust
the sound of the wind
as it whispers in the pines
the wind lies and cheats
a dirty fighter
it has thrown dust
in my eyes
my tears run
filthy and muddy
and i am blinded
ignorance is bliss
you say
let me tell you
there’s a pragmatic kind
of not knowing
that is better than knowing
where you can convince
yourself that you do not need
to know
what you do not want
to know
a lizard scurries past
on the sidewalk
sans tail
and i’m happy for him
having evaded a predator perhaps
or possibly just a kid
on a bike
but he must feel that loss
off balance
without that weight
to anchor him
for when the wind
picks up and whispers
Words and Feathers 