liar

I was a fool

selfish beyond belief--to love beyond your capacity

to reach beyond what you can grasp with a firm hand

love, especially, is a hard-eyed goddess

she appreciates, above all, expertise

I will never lose myself in you again

but will walk with you and in you

heedless and rejoicing

one more bright companion

like the sunbeams--that shoot across your edges

ha!--I will be a liar

you cannot breach the film of my eyes

I love you still

edge

floods me
              the burnt sweetness
courses
       to the tips of my fingers
    I look up
and see a different moon

silent
           the flood-lit
intersection
    and a single truck
  lumbers by
and a single
 wrapper
     wanders in
the gutter

              the wind
under my arms
             rakes
    my hair
the leaves
         rushing
   above me

I stood
      up from the table
and the bare
sidewalk, the rippled sky

the moon smokes
              the clouds
      and the ghost
shakes my veins

each step
             on the gutter

at the edge
      of the world

in me
      a tiny chasm

             the chair
pushed back
      the empty cup
falling
            onto
the table
silvered
           the moon
sharp
           and high
over the
intersection

still
              and coyote
howls, high
         above us

flickers
             between
the leaves
           dances
along the edge
       of the shadows

I see it

still
            the moon
bright
                     over the
asphalt

diesel lullabye

... noodling around.

---

sing for me, sing me tonight

the axles' hum, the gears that grind

at the turning of the light

lay you down. don't you cry.

give me now the addled rage

the futile hissing of the fires

burning in a cage

the dull echo of the tires

give me now a thousand years

the howling, plant-ly hosts

rising up along the gears

rolling on the backs of ghosts

now that fall has hit the ground

under the bright, high stars

the leaves are falling. lay me down

to the flashing hoods of cars

.. (xi).

lightning flashes

and they said, "God is laughing

         and beating his hand

         against the clouds"

and the crickets clack

         and they say, "the night

         sings, the dark hums"

and the wind blows

         and they say, "the trees

         dance, and the world walks

         with me--slings its arm

         around my shoulders"

then the smoke might

         as well be my friend

         might as well be

         my companion,

through the clacking 

night, under the blurring

of the stars

          might as well

          be my brother

          we watch

us and us only

as the lights dim

and the highway lays

          it's head on it's tail

... (ix)

the most dangerous aspect of love

being: that it robs us of sense

that it renders us unable

to bear reflection

come now, you lovers!--knuckles dripping

come now, over what you have shattered

shards glisten in your soles.

come! you vast and shambling company

--who knows how far we might walk?

for your sake--

I tore out my eyes.

ash (ii)

one of the boys across the street

is trying to learn a song

                  hear the chords grinding towards ascension

       he falters, pauses

cannot master

                      the solo

I am leaving

a trail of smoke, only

I have burnt to ash

fluttering and cold

I pause at the edge of the driveway

the cat pauses, also

and skirts me, as always

        I hold myself, hard

in the soles of my boots

in the pressure

    of the sky on my head

the mirrors have throw

their reflections

                             out

      --in a heap, sprawled

the chords rise

     straining, against themselves

and begin to dissolve

         shedding notes, clatter

fall senseless

    into disonance, and the player

confused, a little betrayed

noodles a progression

like a sparrow's howl

        disjointed, melodic

rage--lost in the bushes

the song of an axel

        --a screaming, circling hum

I will fall

      behind myself

a scatter, and the wind

will sweep the pavement clean

     

  

... (x)

written awhile ago, before I left.

---

bury me under silver skies

fading to blue

under drifts of hanging stars

bundled nebulae rising shaggy

thick and green

edged in light

sink me when

the birds are clicking

bury me face bare

to the dirt

I leave my corpse in trust

the dust and heavy rains

and trickle from the sprinkler

will tend it

the winds will tend it

when I come striding the boulevards,

again

heavy, and in defeated triumph

I will see my ghost

peering brightly through the leaves

I will take the hands of the seconds themselves