uneven rocks in mist stay quiet about destiny
-
Remember to
Forget what you know sit softly
lulled by the sound of hundreds of
pens simultaneously writing down
your mistakes think of clouds
over that chasm you loveForget the ad that is following you
keep sharpening your teeth into points
we’ll see if we can find a knife and a fewlayers of breathable fabric as you
start off stinging wind your boot brittle
grass bright crunch beneathForget it and start again don’t think of pathogens
the tickle in your throat give the pills a chanceoutside flashes of red flowers one ant
carries his scrap of stone down into the dark
-
the difference between scrap and fragment wind
in the rain in the trees but once I’ve walked up to
this cliff then what maybe later in the day an aching
back full of whisky isn’t the best time to start but
well this is getting too prosaic so get the clipper &
the magnifying glass there’s only one place you or I
can start and that’s with these badly drawn feet
bleeding into the stones of the sharp here & now
-
the right eye, even after graduation, and at the start of a successful career, produces worms, which
-
And Again And
Cold words in winter.
.
Fleeing, familiar.
.
No
leaves falling.
.
in an unlined notebook thoughts
downhill
.
gods of our youth now chicken salad
.
What, do I have to start again?
.
Happy there. Though the
smoke. Through?
.
Still
strings. A glimmer in the
sky. Awful.
.
What she
said. What she meant.
.
No, leaves falling. Earth spins.
.
blossoms
.
in the prison
of the rib cage
.
nock
.
on bars
that
aren’t there
-
Traffic in town
like your thoughtsheavy and slow
curse honk squeal why can’t they justyet some come and go
so
easy nothing to improveand you are
the gears gas leatherette
going somewhere
very important or
back from
you forgot wherebirds follow
the breezebut
stopped
on the road fluids
leaking
crackedoh no
not again
-
Sunday afternoon while light won’t stop streaming past the sudden silence of unbroken bare trees and what apologies to make while the ink dries and the thinking machines reset in the year of our lady redacted
-
in the forest where they planned that nasty surprise tiny flowers try to take over the world fish look surprised and sure he was never one to
and what could we do but invite him if we were going to the summer house as you waited with the light straight down from the clouds in planks and the ducks looking like they’ve lived through worse though
the party that night with everyone still feeling a bit raw from the afternoon staring into their drinks waiting for someone to mention going to bed so we could say oh yes what a good idea me too
-
we’ll call glossolalia. But we heard the true story before the wake whose skeleton, preserved in lucite on three continents, is a beacon for the new converts
-
it’s difficult looking for words to force into little gems (jams?) & not look out the window and write something about this shade of blue sky just before spring
weeks of precious concentration later how to know if there’s anything or a tunnel that collapses with the slightest shake
you want to go back even as you put one foot forward and choose a different color sock hat excuse though it’s best to keep walking and say you started differently
in the end if it lets you step into the dark more easily what would it be like but never mind get back to digging or we’ll never get out
tomorrow is the word you’re looking for which means both hope and hopeless the black of space the restless sun
-
some cloudy mornings it’s the feel of the favorite pen in your hand you charge off not caring about a cracked phone screen the band-aid covering bone the stomp of the neighbor through the ceiling hope and calm caught in little chunks we string together to make a necklace though perhaps even that was a way to dig down to the level of the excavation you needed to see with its as yet untranslated script and inscrutable editorial cartoons which they say
the flowers this year will be late and unequivocal
other animals 