before all the begetting unending
nothing not even dark then through a
gap the fast light she can’t hold back
and soon everything that ever, but
no there never was some big brooding lord
of death quaking across the land
looking for ladies to lift. She
wanted company and the boy seemed
eager enough for her delicacies
and so stayed a spell while Earth was
breaking with cries over her love
lost while the fruits drop dry and brown
so what could our sweet dark sister
do but share a small part of the year
Tag: light
-
-
What do we make of our song-free Orpheus
fumbling Odysseus almost Lucifer with
fingers of flame Perhaps he remembers the light
from that distant place and justice so a gift of
grain and cocoa for the amazing muses ofthe mountain top and the other women, dead
imprisoned tunneling, then old Ouranos grows
a pair and loses them and him in waves with no—
Though our Prometheus believes no one of theunderworld and darkens his face before they lie
about his friend not yet dead—they don’t get the joke
but the shadow brother did break the rule so thesea again and driving back half a Eurydice
reversed—so eyes forward or you’re back in it, baby.
-
with luck and a sweet incept the rest may
flow just don’t get too obscure or you may
trip in your light and don’t worry if the
end comes first or pay too much heed to that
needy voice from the middle or convinceyourself that you know about conclusions
though yes each belch is yours and yours
alone as a clutch of eggs or
the slowly unfurling limb of a pre-or post-historic forest the
teeth of which I have long loved and
please accept this apologyI never meant to and never cared to
make puzzles though I play one on TV
-
But how can I talk about it my
images veiled and the word I want
grows small in a mouth while no one waits.
The waves haven’t stopped for a minute but
amidst the churn there’s a still bubblereserved for you and one other though
there have been so many lost packages
and delays in dreams in which you slowly
suffocate while delivering the speechthat could have saved you and in the back
of the room that talk that you wanted to
have with her maybe just a few words mightdissolve the dam but I think too much
of the poison hows the light escapes
-
But when you’re young and dream of
escaping narrow Westchester
for exotic New England. But
before summer was over we
were. I returned carrying somecigarettes, Sometimes I Wish I
Was a Pretty Girl, your hand-drawn
map to the clitoris, and when
I think of your face that one dayhair bright honey light your smile our
world holding your hand through the years
hoping something might fit like thatonly better. But the dusty
manuscripts, the unicycle,
-
From as safe a distance as
possible and with the best
of what was left in those days
we stared into the center
for millennia blackholes combined coalesced
larger repeat larger
and the news sites with
a fresh hope each day butwe knew and couldn’t stop
staring into the all-
eating mouth where a fewstrands of light wove a final song
through empty stars already gone
-
some have based entire criminal careers
on the principle that one must leave the
hive after a few too many uninspired
meals and wend through the retail desert to
a favorite vending machine hopingfor once it will be well-stocked and that the
still-glowing seeds we gathered under a
not-too-full moon remain legal tender
though I admit it was better in thatfuture we tried to retouch as the meds
started to work and why not after all
our contracts are clear on this point so wehardly need to reheat all those old gripes
for a light whose warmth we so seldom feel
-
in dark before dawn just above
a little dog green yellow light
off on again in corkscrew paths
over hosta and brown lawn blinkbefore
these small legs running from light to
flying light in summer’s sleepy
sticky arms didn’t know why I
needed this brightness in my hand
-
Sonnet
but what we got was some sequel
made for the merchandising rights
so let’s instead unpack this strange
light after a summer storm near
evening with its light bouquet of
back pain—in those glowing clouds you
could believe the benevolent
aliens might pop down for tea
and cake and perhaps slip you a
few space-time secrets but they fail
to arrive again so climb to
bed and nudge the little dog from
her pillow throne and sink and sigh
chest collapsed but eyes on the sky
-
though my eyes blur in this light there is a
certain after-cataclysm path that
feels as though you were walking upstairs
but maybe I’m not explaining it right
it’s like now that sex is out of fashion
how do you explain movies from the 80s
but let me stop you right there before I
need to write a ticket though you are my friend
-
before the day when the day if
but today
let a song slip through your fingers
find that last breath
barreling toward some release but
the sand in your
shorts the ice cream begins to melt
for a second
you forget that this is the way
the world moves and
that’s not
quite it either there was a kind
kind of light maybe
it falls and smalls and
smaller the world
spins people go
to parks interviews
you hear a voice
but the words garbled
maybe with a
little work but
that’s how it all
starts again freed
from one hole
you fall in another
-
-
I say the name but hidden in brown fields green peeks its head around the corner. She lets the light back slowly as ever. We are heavy with eggs. Nests being assembled. The wide water is clear and dark and deep inside something undeniable stirs.
trying to hold on to one thing in the mind with hands too small
other animals 