When man,
enters woman,
like the surf biting the shore,
again and again,
and the woman opens her mouth with pleasure
and her teeth gleam
like the alphabet,
Logos appears milking a star,
and the man
inside of woman
ties a knot
so that they will
never again be separate
and the woman
climbs into a flower
and swallows its stem
and Logos appears
and unleashes their rivers.

This man,
this woman
with their double hunger,
have tried to reach through
the curtain of God
and briefly they have,
through God
in His perversity
unties the knot.

my love
thy hair is one kingdom
  the king whereof is darkness
thy forehead is a flight of flowers

thy head is a quick forest
  filled with sleeping birds
thy ******* are swarms of white bees
  upon the bough of thy body
thy body to me is April
in whose armpits is the approach of spring

thy thighs are white horses yoked to a chariot
  of kings
they are the striking of a good minstrel
between them is always a pleasant song

my love
thy head is a casket
  of the cool jewel of thy mind
the hair of thy head is one warrior
  innocent of defeat
thy hair upon thy shoulders is an army
  with victory and with trumpets

thy legs are the trees of dreaming
whose fruit is the very eatage of forgetfulness

thy lips are satraps in scarlet
  in whose kiss is the combinings of kings
thy wrists
are holy
  which are the keepers of the keys of thy blood
thy feet upon thy ankles are flowers in vases
  of silver

in thy beauty is the dilemma of flutes

  thy eyes are the betrayal
of bells comprehended through incense

don't feel sorry for me.
I am a competent,
satisfied human being.

be sorry for the others
who
fidget
complain

who
constantly
rearrange their
lives
like
furniture.

juggling mates
and
attitudes

their
confusion is
constant

and it will
touch
whoever they
deal with.

beware of them:
one of their
key words is
"love."

and beware those who
only take
instructions from their
God

for they have
failed completely to live their own
lives.

don't feel sorry for me
because I am alone

for even
at the most terrible
moments
humor
is my
companion.

I am a dog walking
backwards

I am a broken
banjo

I am a telephone wire
strung up in
Toledo, Ohio

I am a man
eating a meal
this night
in the month of
September.

put your sympathy
aside.
they say
water held up
Christ:
to come
through
you better be
nearly as
lucky.

i sat on the edge of his bed
staring at his pathetically
painted blood-red walls
clicking the lock button
on my phone
repeatedly
praying to the only
God i know
as he cuts a line
squeezing a rolled 10 dollar
bill between his thighs

he doesn't know how much
i hate this
or
how it kills me
to watch him do
this

it kills me
because
he can't stand to be
with me
unless he's all sorts of
high
unless he can't remember
who he is or what we're
doing here together
and
he can't go
5
minutes without
smoking or
snorting or
placing a
pretty colored
pill on his bumpy pink tongue
just so his vision of me
goes a little blurry
and he can't hold a conversation
with me unless it
involves him
breathing heavily
and thrusting
on top of my bare
body
and nothing is as
it seems
for him or
for me
anymore

who are you when
you're sober

because i've
never
known

i thought i
loved
you but
i don't and
i can't and
i won't
i won't ******* love you
and i refuse to
because
when i did love you
i never loved
you
i loved who those drugs
made you

and
it kills me

but
today,
today was different
because
today
it killed you
too.

A slab of wood
Entwined with copper and nickel.
That's all you are.
I feel your humanity at times.
It could just be the heat from my hands
Still fuming off your glossy surface
Like boiler room pipes.
Pipe down your pipe dreams sonny,
You're no Kurt Cobain.