The towel I use to dry myself Smells of meat almost spoiled. Humid condensation leeches Brown ichor from wallpapered walls. Athwart an unsteady ignoble seat Ringed with grime and decay, I ponder the spider building his web, Then dash his life away. No small bird to peer within This dank windowless room, Sunk in miasma …
Category Archives: Poetry
Stupid, Stupid
Stupid, stupid, not so bright, Leaving on the lights at night. What masochistic fantasy Absolves my sin ‘gainst synergy? Killing dolphins in the sound With wasted oil clawed from the ground, Power purposed to gladden lives Instead spewed forth to darken skies. With every heedless step I make Scores of living beings break. With each …
Psalm
A Psalmfor the Master of Music, and Leonard, if he’s still hereWho can make fun of God?Is not His sense of humor apparent to all?The platypus, mucus, the big toe,Do they not proclaim the Lord’s laughter? Who can mock the vast oceans?Or belittle the mighty forests?If I laugh at the least of God’s creatures,Does the …
The Corpse of a Fawn
My heart would acheIf it started beating.The thaw is hatedBy the winter.Against the uncaring outsideA vicious coldnessForms its ineffective shield.There will be no spring.
A Suitable Balance
(for Jane, on her 50th) Life’s difficult path makes us travelBetween the weight of woes and insensate matter.Upon reality’s anvil spirits become gravelWhile pressing cares many souls will shatter. A maddening task, to navigate betwixt the twoAnd not merely survive, but truly live,For too sane a view washes the colors flat,Erasing the beauty that life …
The Gift
Everyone received a gift. On the wayHome from the hospital, you left yoursOn the bus. Or handed it to a stranger,While you buttoned your coat.When you looked up, it was gone.Or perhaps they watched after it for you.“We’ll give it to you when you’re ready.”But though you waited, are still waiting,You’ve received nothing. PerhapsThe absence …
Lethargy
Asking for help is losingThe game we played in past lives is presentFor a moment, although heartacheArgues otherwise Unprincipled babes devour the mother, the carcassReeks of boredom. Night severs the tiesOf day repeating the phrases givenBy angels. My flesh, so weak, denatured and driedLike buffalo skin in a matchbook,Files away the long silence and hopes …
The White Line
From spawn to that moment of clarity,The salmon lives in, through, and with the water.To swim thoughtless to the open seaAnd hunt and hide in the river’s daughter,And to wend its way back again,Borne by ancient yearning,Is fused within eye, tail, scale, and fin —To evermore be returning.Shining in the dappled sunOr nestled in cloudy …
Valentine’s Day 2006
The words will disappear,The memory fades.The eternal is fleeting — Catch it!And only the ephemeral abides.The deepest truths vanish when spokenTo unlistening ears. And if two gaze at the moonFrom far flung ends of the globe,They see different eddies of lightIn the ever-changing river.The orb moves on across the skyUnconcerned. And yet…The dark gathers round,Embracing …