Absinthe II

Before the door to the sun
lies the street of the virgin of dangerous things
cluttered amongst an obstacle of particularities and
temporal limitations that only planning and
less superficial presence could overcome

The pirates of our present day have begun collecting tongues that
speak of air and all things generative

A body too delicate to touch nesting within
the ashes from the phoenix of our last, temporary resting place,
where autonomy is snatched and coddled for
it’s preciousness and hidden monstrosity

A purple haze settles under my feet with
it’s sheen of chemical interdependence
I blow softly as if into a child’s ear…
temptation as a symbolic exchange
for all to see but few to understand

Folds in a space/time continuum where
quantum computing can represent
thousands of women gathered to build a temporary kitchen
for presence and protest upon the steps of a courthouse
they understand the force of a listening
expanding out to encompass an entire community

Pausing only to swallow the stars
she turns to hear her voice has changed
no longer a child of her age but a woman
gently wicked and unearthly pale

A savage beauty whose visitations give rise
to what would have once placed her
in certain confinement to contain her
chaos embodied

Under the asphalt lies a garden of the avant-garde
with flowers for the anti-optic
we step to a stillness that only noise and
speed without examination makes possible
opening drawers buried deep
to find a multitude of tiny, tin arms and legs
made to carry away a critical mass

Milagros crusted in the walls, embedded in the curtains,
armies of milagros to march upon the bricks
building the engaged withdrawal of an invincible summer
that same summer melts into an arctic past
in the haunting radio waves of low frequency.

If Then Else

IF

cold and damp white mornings together, behind and before

a root queen looking for redemption from finding romance in the mundane

showering the dime store nation for the motion of your soul

like this people are the sum of their biographies

THEN

how do you press your life onto the page

carefully and with great relish

under the same sun as

a world tree that connects 

water with the earth and air

ELSE

she couldn’t be a daughter of the sun 

so she became a daughter of the moon

in a war of wills and will nots 

where will represents a geometry of faith

and will nots wears out the breath of life

age is responsible for sitting on a threshold unspoken 

while I stumble on the way to your shore

Full Force Fear

I laid bare

plaid patterns in full force

feathered like a summer snow

reaching beyond the 

ball bearings

bringing about a time honored trait

sweat and furrowed brow

urban blight

giving rise to

urban flight

it registers 

light and forlorn

swigging down whiskey

in place of wine

brandy is brought to

mark the gap between

two bridges of light

bearing cables to rage

galloping through

smoke and whispers

a sky uncovers the 

dust baked into the 

asphalt a thick acrid smell

unlike dust from rain on the east coast

where the rain is more frequent

I find a memory that the theater burned
with all my lips have kissed
a savage beauty, larger than life

Launching ships to sail on seas of ether drenched strawberries
worn and mumbling along the halls of shuddering poets in mourning

my tongue is not made of bone,
my tongue is not made of air
my tongue is not silent
it holds the salt of the earth in the hands of a multitude

It was made to clean waits to be washed by your mercy
In launching the edges of an east coast
with hunger as its own mistress
I forget the chapters that were knotted by complexity

There remains a gleaning
around the edges of galaxy from my future pages to roam
glancing to grace and pushing past stars far from
the basket of phrases sought by a general intellect
growing and accumulated in a city
that swells with darkness and shadows
so far is the ocean
so far is the light of unwavering solitude

stories of giving and foam
run rolling across a surf that changed to a stormy sea
and in that storm I will remain
wiping its breath from my eyes

Flutter Sink

To polish the night
In patches of memory
hints of a past

Fastened like dried fruit
A dot of fire swaying around
a cinder of string
flutter sink sultry sugar crust

to polish my skin

a rest-bit for temperance

passages of power spaceships
lines that indicate “lift-off”
silver and gold leaf
gilding and lilting a steady rain

all revolutions exaggerate

relinquishing my sense of purpose

light and volume weave an ambience

while holding the love of someone
gentle, egregious and forlorn is a key
to an alternate universe

Oscar Wilde I

Paper kites intentionally blank geometry on my fingers
a girlhood with three languages

“…and you are beautiful in every single way
words can’t bring me down‚…”

salt and snow
in winds of mysteries love comes and goes
blessings of a rain that was promised but never came

repeating a will to power
much softer sounds as they receive the offering
of generations that speak a language less popular

“…and won’t you ride with me
tonight lets not talk of next summer‚…”
blind spots on the periphery

forever sailing to a wind that is rising
repeating a will to power
much softer sounds as they receive the offering
bolsters a fear that is gone today

You are the sea that sings
We are the river that runs
Seen the days when roads were dust

new mermaids bring about the language that he wrote
a woman of no importance bespeaks the woman of the Victorian Age

my morning jacket will meet us like a dream
spending the day looking for language
another couple of stars in my constellation

“…she is exceedingly handsome‚…”
“…and she reads a good deal i suppose…”
“…she has many resources in herself, many resources…”

and you outlived him because the time was different
in the theatre as audience instead of author
in the days when the audience is the key to a larger drama his words bespeak