Pope Frances
always dances
on the tops of chairs
like he did
as a kid
down in Buenos Aires.

Hearts that wrestle
thump
And strangle
so if you are the heart
that beats
I am the heart
that is beaten

Red wine
Soft wind
Full lips
Music
And magic
In the mist
Of a morning
When sleep
Is all that is left
Of a night
with you.

Some nights I sit here numb, my fingertips on the keyboard, tapping
frozen words onto a virtual piece of paper.
I am clear about many things but I am unclear, too, about other things.
It’s all too much work to figure and nothing about it is warm.
So, I sit back and imagine a moment when you are under the covers
next to me and you get onto your side and rest your head on my
shoulder.
You sigh and I feel as if all of the unknowns have been poured into
the empty spaces of misunderstanding
and I am certain that I don’t ever need to know any more
than I know when you make the approach and settle so peacefully beside me.
All we need then is to close our eyes and
see each other in our dreams.

Today the sky was wide
and the clouds thick
like a blue painting
in 3-D
Once I drove a thousand
miles to get somewhere
that I thought I belonged
and the same sky
hovered
West of the great river
and through the dusty plains
where pioneers
died
I traveled for love
I drove on to get
somewhere
but I got nowhere
Except the sky was wide
and the clouds thick
like a blue painting
in 3-D

Today the sky was wide
and the clouds thick
like a blue painting
in 3-D
Once I drove a thousand
miles to get somewhere
that I thought I belonged
and the same sky
hovered
West of the great river
and through the dusty plains
where pioneers
died
I traveled for love
I drove on to get
somewhere
but I got nowhere
Except the sky was wide
and the clouds thick
like a blue painting
in 3-D

There is never a trigger
in these verses

I load the words
but none

have the power
to explode in you

The sight of you
takes the breath from me

Walk away,
don't run
                 keep it

it belongs to you now.

you are the brew
        perking
        steaming
        
morning mix cuppa java
dawn that pours on you like lava

Your broken English
is a prayer if you
whisper it in my ear
and say you want me
anyway
all ways
in ways no words can describe

'Your love has given me wings'
is the answer to
'No wonder my happy heart sings'
I know this because
on hot, sticky days
and bone-biting nights
I would croon the tune
over the sink
with my hands lathered
in detergent
and she would smile
because the old Italian song
gave her wings

It's getting cold,
November cold
and the shoulders shiver
But the ground is not all
that gets hard
the body stiffens
the danger of cracking ensues
as winds blow
through the crevices
never entirely sealed
And that is my soul

Bring me warmth, friction
|and fire

These days that come like
a circus burning to the ground
and leave with ashes
on a clown’s lips
when the hot air of sunset
smells like smoke
and then there is a stillness
that rivals death
with an evening that is
silent because the
crickets dare not mate.

Together we killed the spiders
that wove the webs
in damp and sad parts of you

What will the little girl once
afraid of spiders do now?

I got a text
from you
that called me “dear”
and I read it
over and over
again
and imagined
the word as it
sounded from
your lips
watching them move
to form the word
for me
whom you called
dear

None of us write poetry
for anyone else to read
we write it to purge the pain
personal and private
others could like it
but that doesn't matter
then again,
neither does it matter
if we write the poem at all

It's deep
it goes deep
and sometimes
it feels it won't stop
deepening

So where does it end?

Don Quixote's

defunct

        who once

        mounted a stale

                                  stallion

and pontificated theimpossibledream

                                                  Christo

he was a ragged hombre

                      and what I have to say is

how do you like your conquistador kid

Mister Muerte

It's sad
the empty holes
forming in a heart
cannot be filled
with anything else
but what was there
before they were
empty

They point at me
to all
parts of me
and present themselves
to ponder
upon
me

As the spring rain falls in sheets
across the edges of my windows
I can hear the distant honking
of Canadian geese
They must be flying, gliding,
searching afar in the grey sky
far off, maybe somewhere near you,
making me wish I could fly.

There is a photo of your leg
and it is so smooth I want to
see it stretch from here to
eternity …

Maybe sometimes
two of us
see in each other’s eyes
the chance
that romance works
on a level that
only the two of us know.  
And we are so frightened
this may be true
that we make excuses
and walk into the distant
shadows of lonliness.

Souls are blind,
shapeless dreams
we invent to accept the darkness

But we find out they can dance
when put to music
which is a shapeless dream
we invent to accept the darkness

then there is harmony

Place your hand upon my chest
pound your palm
to pick up the pace
and put the pieces
                                 back

I felt the weight of the world
and carried it through a tunnel
with all my might
and there you were,
a bit beaten, a bit frightened
and yet ready to set your senses aflame
so I dropped the world
and embraced you.

I felt the weight of the world
and carried it through a tunnel
with all my might
and there you were,
a bit beaten, a bit frightened
and yet ready to set your senses aflame
so I dropped the world
and embraced you.

A secret is worth
a thousand words
A picture says
nothing

the world had moved a bit more slowly
and paths were crossed
differently, paved through
a sky less clouded
and if the rivers had flowed
with warmer currents
following the winds that could
have blown more slowly to the west
and that butterfly in Singapore
had flapped its wings three or
maybe two times less ...

you would be mine.

If the morning turns to carbon black
And you feel your faith about to crack
I’ll move the wind to be at your back
I live inside your heart

Should the starlight make your memories burn
Or a lover’s pain suddenly return
I would satisfy your every yearn
I live inside your heart

There may never be another chance
For me to serve you, dear
I want to whisper words I never spoke
That only you can hear

Show me a mountain and I’ll climb for you
Ignite the flames and I’ll run right through
I don’t need reason or point of view
I live inside your heart

Life is getting shorter every day
And though a heaven may await
I want to live right now with only you
That’s all I ask of fate

You have been waiting all your life and more
To be the one that only one would adore
So I stand barefoot on the burning shore
I live inside your heart

I want to sleep with you
in the quiet darkness
beneath the sliver of a silver moon

I want to sleep with you
soft and close and tireless
gentle touching on a single pillow

I want to sleep with you
as the dawn becomes restless
breathing one into another life

I want to sleep with you
and find you deep inside my head
dark becoming light where you step

I want to sleep with you
every time every where
eternal
silence
blessed
amen

The figure in a white
see-through robe
walking seductively across
the bedroom
is a sweet
Pacific breeze
upon my *****

Belladonna
gotta wan 'er
'donna wan 'er
smooth iguana
majiuana
lips nirvana
call me bwana
Belladonna
god i wan 'er
wanna 'donna

In a sea of pain
we float
sharing beads of water
to drink
locking arms to be warm
under a black sky
hopes drifting
into the dawn of
some distant shore

I remember
looking into your eyes
and
I remember
the entire New York City sky
reflecting from them
and
making me fly
I remember the color
of the meadow
the breeze on your face
the kiss
that left me to long
for all other kisses to mean
as much
I remember the songs,
the birds,
the contour of your arms,
how you turned your head
and
nothing between then and now.

Can
you
imagine
a world
without
me
adoring
you
now
that
I
do?

Nightgown,
white top,
a cloud covering
a sky of skin
so smooth
it spreads
delicate
on the frame
of femininity
and makes
me sigh
and glide
into that sky
holding on
for dear life.

From the dust
rises form
splendid and shaped
so pretty
that eyes upon it
tear
and smiles
dance over the night's fog

This is how I see her
in the shadows
as the only light
a bean that shivers through
the curtain of darkness

It's beautiful
it's a soul surrendering
to the moment
with
no
need
to be encouraged
by the dawn

The noise we make
when we move inside of
one another
can wake us, make us
want to want

it to be music
we play together

There's never the one that got away
Because no one truly gets away
with anything

If you ever thought of waiting
for a special moment,
don’t wait now,
there is no forever,
only the next few moments
are available
and the only way they will last
an eternity is if you attend
to them now.

The planets align
the astrological sign
the endless time
between our paths
over decades past.
If these lives escape us now
there may be too much forever
to endure
and the heavenly bodies
may never meet again
How in the world do you
come to me from a universe
so wide?
And when …

You look so deeply alive in red,
like a flame about to lose control.
There was a moment I saw you
kneeling, with your shoulders
steamingly smooth
and my desire was fuel
for the flame,
and I did not need to gather wood.

Lick this
and take some words from my mouth
to add to your poems
to soak into your mind
so they form ****** actions
in your dreams

Lick this
with long laps
and canine desire
to promise you must
at least once
taste me

If by chance you wish to escape
from the person you become
every morning
then all you have to do is find
the time to meet me there,
where our names do not matter
and all we have are four walls
with no eyes or ears
and you are the princess
of every moment.

I look at the rain
and the birds flying
with wet wings  

Hold me

I feel the chill through
the door that leads
to the long blades of grass
wet from the rain

Hold me

I inhale a fragrance
of soft fear and
mortality

Hold me

How lonely is the sea of darkness
that bleeds black over
endless space

If I were the sky
I would keep my eyes opened
when the clouds disappear with the sun

Then over this planet
covered in shadows
I would watch for the dawn

the jewel of night

the dazzling bright

the source of promise

the reflection of hope

that one star, the only star

you

Dream of a warm embrace
during a storm that sweeps across a great ocean
and the arms holding you
make you feel safe
and safe is love
and love is life
that no cyclone
can stop

You’re a dream in a land of
black and white
in a cast of characters
created by
an active imagination
and the random
source of light.
I read into you,
think about you,
float in the thoughts,
wander in your shadow.

It is summer
when you enter a room
and flowers blossom
wherever you sit