I'm on the roof again
up & down
not standing, nor jumping
reading
accepting the sun's
kiss through the wind's
bite like the cool smoke from
a menthol dart, piercing
my lungs
The warmth does little to soothe the
icefall in my heart.

I'm on the floor again
wet
under a grey blanket
too small for me
weighted
to emulate a body
too light for me
     but sufficient
for now.

Perhaps I'll take it into
the sun with me
warm and heavy
but it will block the
breeze
the coolness I'm now accustomed
to
but do not seek

the red glow, gentle, not as vertiginous as the air,
is saved only by its ethereal nature
from being swept up into the churning night.

it is this same nature that condemns it to
suffuse into the blooming blue lambency-
which is now green. and now peach.

even feigning surprise becomes impossible
in this place of transmutation
when examined by the soul

those with physical forms are not spared either
but some are more mutable than others:

peach juice, for example, ripens with glycerol, and relinquishes
its color when it diffuses into wine
which holds its color, no matter the light
and will seep through fabric, when conditions are right
like every other form of nectar here

so be free of it, drop it all on the ground
making little mounds of cloth, little
mole-hills in the dark

which blend less, but
black-and-white houndstooth
perfectly matches a brown
Birkenstock (or bag) in our own
personal heaven.

The air, it shimmers when we’re at this height
mixed with low light makes a good time tonight
my heart is beating, lungs are breathing,
yet in my skull, there’s very little thinking
Until we shift and my eyes refocus,
and then it hits me - only one thing worth notice
That’s you, of course, and what a fitting allegory,
I almost believe that it tells the whole story

Of the one that moves slow, the other: quick
But I wouldn’t change a single bit
I love our walks, the regular picnics
And our calls in summer, I must admit

And with this time I’ve learned to understand you, Dexter
This is a brag, perhaps, but not conjecture
With a gesture, you give a lecture,
Thankfully this class will last past the semester

While evergreen is our wintery scene, lit with snowflakes, alligators, and all things between
I cannot help but gaze on to spring, for who knows what joys that season will bring?
Up we’ll rise, held by the flowers in bloom, mimicking between our thighs, I presume
And how fitting that the magnolia tree blossoms at six months for you and me.

days break
nights fall
The moon phases in and out
between empty and full

trees burst forth
boulders crumble
The earth spins around
set at an angle

wind blows
water ebbs and flows
Fire scorches the land
and makes it fertile and dead

tadpoles transubstantiate
eagles hatch
Minnows appear in small puddles
that dry in summer, leaving no bodies

humans search
humans misplace
And that which they seek
does not exist for them

ivory skin, as this paper
ebony hair, as this ink
shining, imbued with moonlight
glistening, dipped in the morn's dew

he is my friend, with
lips of roses
a nose, a thorn
and flowers, rathe in winter

she is your lover with
fangs of eggshells
eyes of marbles
blood of honey
and flesh of black lace

one mark, a fall, a
wellspring in the night
we sing the evensong
then where do we go?

flowing water runs

between trees light dances high

quick fish dart amoung

and I lean against some wood

a green Croc© drifts slowly through

cascading out from open veins
time develops into adumbration
it splatters on marbles floors,
and fractured pocket-watches

I have become drunk on the impossible past

It is morning-time, and I walk
meandering paths pull me, a crisp breeze pushes me
the earth supports me and falls away with each passing step
it can only hold me when I'm there

softwood trees bend around the trail, and hardwood trees enrich their denouement. A glittering canopy of dewy leaves curls atop my route, the moonbeams seeming to dawn from inside each perfect ornament. but I know the finished moon floats just above them

my steps flow in a steady rhythm, regularly broken by the passage of a memory. Sometimes it is time. Sometimes it is a dance. Once it was another Being that caught my consideration; a ghostly doe, visible just through a break in the wood, a brown and white-speckled spectre crashing through the hinterland, startled by my feet, by my breath-

the breeze is stronger now, and made anxious by the din my pace quickens. memories stream by faster, woken up by the filtered moonlight, pulled out from abeyance. leaves drifting upon a whirling river, clouds being ripped into a storm.

it is morning-time, and I walk
the sky is deepening, though the moon is descending
too much has happened, too much has passed into yore
I remember just enough, and it is mourning-time

light       refracts     into
your       cold          shining
prison
Encased in             our
most       desired   compound
a              rainbow ripples
across     the          crystal
surface
fists         bounce   and
words     are          formed,
but           I              cannot
hear
through  your       love
and         mine

lifting my eyes to the sky I see the
crescent moon
illuminating, enlightening, cool
she is all of this - but not tonight
the sky is too dark, she is too weak, you are too far away from me
for any of it to matter
Love can strike us in an instant
and we can take a lifetime to understand it.
just as her eyes strike my retinae
just as your visage strike my face
just as you struck me
but she will always spin, orbiting around me,
until the pull of gravity cannot hold her anymore
just as you have already left

It sits at the base of the stairs
that lead to the attic;
It sits on the landing floor just
before the basement door;
It rests in a liminal space.

Big, person-sized, it fills the end of the hall
way in the very back.
Carved by an entrepreneur de pompes funèbres with
a knack for carpentry and a deep
undying love for her husband.

Glass inlaid reveals the gears
within, once plated in bronze
but now with only a dull luster.
They haven't been treated gently
by that which they keep.

Two massive pendula swing
back and forth, back and forth, alternating
currents, propelled by springs
set in motion long before
Louis XIV lost to William III

The children like to sit and
watch the hands spin with the
pendula "tick" "tock" "tick"
as the face and hands are a
mottled bronze to match.

During Black Mass it's best not to
watch though. For sometimes a smell
emanates from the spaces between
the gears, "kcit" "kcot" "kcit" si
lla uoy raeh, dna emit seog
                                       sdrawkcab.

our moon circles about the earth
our earth circles about the sun
and yet I don't feel like I'm spinning

My head is clear, my eyes are closed, my heart is
open and I am alive

The past is over and the future is far away and
here we are now; Living
breathing, an existence

absolute in its simplicity enigmatic in its complexity

my life's ephemera flashes before me as I stand in the same
realm I did last year, the same position in the void of space
calls to me

and as I sit, wafts of the Darjeeling mixing with bubbles of music, June, I know that I am happy. I know I am ready

strawberry milk tea
doesn't mix well with coffee
"oh, you taste sweet!"
older and younger meltaway
as the sun decides it's the end of the day
but there wasn't a lot
                of usable flesh

New Faces spin around my head, up and down
sharp jawlines, chiseled bodies, lips stained with fresh blood
a new one
long hair and soft curves, feel a ghostly hot breathe and you know
here we are, spinning around together, orbiting, vibrating
an old one
but a new one is all we need to forget an old one
ye olde stars always die, though not before we've found a new one
that's why the implosion hurts a little bit less

and spaces between us
you've come to show you'll go on
I'll show you
that I will too

After

From loving you came sunshine
and I lost my senses
rimmed in grey
we said we'd stay

February

I'll be late; don't worry I'm coming!
fingers flying vehicles veeringfatecolliding
what  are  you  talking  about?

Before

Never-mind, I draw the line
and fall like a teenager
[self destruct] and show up
like, and idiot

I don't need a dozen roses, you ain't gotta wine and dine me
just get all emotional, I wanna see you looking up

sensation overwhelms me
but this time it's not your touch
and in my black-tinged vision
I don't see you

the only thing we have in common, as spaces bends us apart
is the passage of time and the bruises we exchanged
space - yours fly by, reshaping your reality
           - mine sits frozen, allowing 985 to build a divide
           -
           -  and bruises heal, as memories change and fade with our
              common passage of time
if all i am is a faint smile between your lips
                            im happy

rose petals dance in the springtime breeze
azure skies above, dotted with faint grey clouds
and if you listen too close,
you'll hear the huum of the bees

wind in my hair, sun kissing my face
I glace to the left and see your body all strewn out
smiles flicker, eyes alight, you're my first place

and as the sands fall and time slips away
we pull each other close and embrace for the day

I hold your eyes with mine,
you hold my heart with yours;
we can become one
behind closed doors

The Love Laws* dictate

     (a) who can be loved by whom
     (b) and  how much

but they also say

     (c) when you hurt people, they
           can love you a little less
     (d) sometimes you will be
           torn between love and duty -
           it may help to make a list

*does not apply to the veshya,
  nor the God of Small Things
           - Chakcopappychachen Peter Mon

mirror    my face where I left it


leaves blowing into a sentence


mist,
******* on the line


in the doll's
head
news clippings


in the heat
admiring the shade in the blouse


face wrapping a champagne glass


a moment in the box of jade


in the temple
a
heartbeat


touching the ashes of my father



day darkens    in the shell


a fin
grazing on restless stars


the priest
                   his shadow caught
            on the nail


                JANUARY FIRST
      the fingers of the ******* cold


       i end in shadow

Jade smoke drifting through
a heartbeat's ash descends upon the temple
and incense drowns out their murmurings

the cardinal's shadow nailed to the cross
now only a mocking bird's song can be heard
beneath the embossed covert

worshipers' nooses of jewels hang heavy and low
sermons spill downwards like thick honey
drops of golden truth clog up eager ears

black lace shifts with the breeze from the window
and the birds’ song passes around the listeners
full of clandestine truths, it’s time to convert

emeralds, rubies, diamonds, all covered in golden jade
and in another beat are surrendered
to the temptress

a dozen red roses
the box lightly stained
by spring rain

i tuoi occhi marroni svolazzano
e dico piove le rose
le nostre labbre sfiorano insieme
e i nostri cuori battono contemporaneamente
le rose hanno le spine, mai io te **
le rose bruciano, siamo in fiamme
ti amo da morire, fino ad allora, sei mio

cool breeze
Autumn's cloak
through the trees
softly, I spoke

"The only difference between us is
you're too scared to say you love me,
and I'm too scared not to say I love you"

a moon bright
birds twinkling above
stars sing in the night
my song of love

"Lay your head on my chest,
let it fall with my breath. Each rise
is a truth, each fall brings the next"

the fire slowly dies
and the darkness closes in
who could forget all our highs?
who could forget where we've been?

"I'll never see you again,
so maybe it's fine, that you've
succumb to your fears,
and I've beaten mine"

and as seasons drift away
and our time turns frail
all I've left to say
comes in one final exhale

The piano resounds, flooding us over with the mood
Counting headlights on the highway, take me away
It's a moon eclipsed, and my newfound flame, I guess you're lucky
that it's dark now
Sometimes this has a hot sweet taste;your breath’s hot and gross, but I kiss you like a lover. We're dancing in a world alone - if I unchain my soul, you can never let me go
I sink into you like water, be gentle with me have patience with me
we sink like a stone in your honey ~ just beware the bees
Heaven is in your eyes, and you hold me hard in the white light
We love like star-crossed lovers, with blind eyes, and when you call me beautiful all four flash with joy
Call it what you want, but we both know that everything is eventual
I'd like it if you stayed, but is it better to speak or die?

From between hewn peaks, a far-off moon
emerges at the edge of my brushwood gate.

Ten thousand trees sharing its clear skies
as shadows blur toward the heart of night,

its radiance offers emptiness white images
and its ch'i invests wind with ice-cold dew.

The valley's silent. Autumn streams echo.
Deep among cliffwalls, scraps of azure haze

linger. Crystal pure, it enters isolate dream,
opening shadows, embracing empty peaks,

then I wake at my ch'in window confused:
pine creek at dawn, not a thought anywhere.

An apple tree bending under the weight  of its fruit
a breeze strong enough to shake the leaves from their branches, but
caring for naught more than their children
downwards they bend, twisting in their descension, until the very top ends of the tree have come to rest on the warm earth;
filled with love from their parents - the sun, the earth, and the tree,
they grow, they swell, almost to the point of bursting,
they have no choice but to grow
I think it's determination that pulls us through when you beg,
"just one more chance" my fruit

I want to feel you
taste your breath
absorb your skin
into mine
where is our connection                                                                               ?
do I love you
do you love I
let's not let the ink run
the brush dry
or the piano
fall to neglect

I love when he threads
the tips of his fingers
in mine, drops his head,
leans into me, draped
over my shoulders

I love when his feet
lay on mine, hidden
under the table, yet
emitting energy in motion

I love when his lips
press shut, pursed to
hit, and fall on
my collarbones, finally
shocking the air from
my lungs

I love when my pen
scrawls over the page,
leaving the trails of
ink behind, depicting
                               us

Serenity slinks
through the rafters.
Dripping between us
we float on memories
get drunk off rosepetals
eyes outlined in blak
and fases framed in kolor
shining within spesifik angles.
Smiling, your hands
karess my liberated heart
and split it in two;
but we're just sharing a bit of fruit
and when it dribbles - just a little-
down your lips
I know that I will miss you

Awash with laughter
Yes - I’ve been drinking Irony
But it’so amusing
I can’t stop! We
Blow him up and compare
him to The devil
and cloak him in night’s wings
The reality is he’s just not!
So small; so pink; so moist and wet!
the Harbinger is not more
than just a worm

working the soil
inches from life

just imagine
seeing the water jettison into the sky,
the spray bursting off clouds
mist glistening through air as colors drip between droplets
the base of the water-rise acting in place of the precipice of a water-fall
just before liquid jewels ascend towards the empyreal
and separate into a thousand small gems, each with their own color, their own purpose
to the surrounding Vleiroos at the summit

But We don't rely on water
we grow and bend and ebb and flow with the water rising past us
But we cannot rely upon it
it does not char and burn, nor crackle and conflagrate like our lover does
he is the one who burns us up and blows us apart and turns us from ashes to dust to doxy and expiry all through accouchement

blessed be the fruit
of the vleiroos in the winter
and blessed be the water
given to the vleiroos in spring
and blessed be the fire
that carries the vleiroos through pullulation

Black and White your paint pours from your tongue
And my lips could never go past yours
because I drink the colors
that would shatter you
like rain
through the bow

The morning mist coils about my feet as
the leash tugs us forward, drawn by
four little paws, two droopy ears, and a
permanently flickering tail. A most magnificent
sunrise was beginning to blossom across the
heavenly firmament. Rosy smoke spreading
red and gold through the air, when the
orb falls. Not a slow descent, but a collapse.
Light is ripped from my corneæa, a
whimper educed from the purple
ink in front of us and the leash
lies flat, empty. Clutching my arm, her
fear pours into me, stronger than the surrounding
bleak and black. And she too is gone, following the splintering
of wood and rock as the surround blows
away from me.
I cannot feel it anymore. The constant pull.
I believe it to be
once called
                                                                                                           gravity
because I am free now
I am good morning

A lace wrapping, a soft shoe, fit snug around her rosy toes
Softer than voile, the ribbons snake up her legs, bowed around
her ankles
Cool metal presses against the calfskin coverings
bolted in place, digging deep into the music

A perfect fouetté, and another, and another, and another, twenty-eight
more to go and she's still turning high above the earth, fourteen inches in the air, suspended only by the glistening steel beneath.

The ruffles fly out around her, arms loosely above, hair tight, toes
broken and strong
En pointe, a pinnacle achievement for those in the discipline, yet these points remain out of reach for most
as they dig deep
into the piano while she pirouettes en dehors right before the scarlet
cut

Our first synthesis
photophsphorylation
And our first breath
adenosine diphosphate phosphorylated with an inorganic phosphorus
Growing into something beautiful
primordiums breaking from the shoot apical meristem
You were from one, and I was built of two
of the cotyledon difference
I watched as your skin peeled into the wind
as the sempervirens battles the deciduos
And your beauty withered away as well
Angi never surpassed Gymn
And there we stood
never before so different
And yet never the same

At first. We smiled. We laughed. Synchronically.
We danced together, went out for lunch,
played little games to chase away the chills.

The pink lights shimmered down upon us.
You were so beautiful then, and remain so now.
But look at yourself. Look around.

Whose arm encompasses your side? Whose
arm mine? It's not mine. It's not yours.
You've left, I've left, and our
moon lies bleeding
lungs filling with water