today I had my tea
with no sugar
strange
no difference

everyone must realize
how quickly it
can all disappear

the woman, the man, the job, the cat,
the boy with leukemia in Hong Kong,
your chinaware
crushed against the hardwood floor,
the blizzard, the aged wine in your cellar,
your beauty, your wit, 3 birds on
the telephone wire

and all your left with
is
desperation
dissatisfaction &
disillusion

and the waitress with kind eyes shaking you
you awake in the middle of the night
asking what is wrong
what could possibly be wrong

and you reply
I don't know I don't know I don't know...

tarnished child
who the zoo
is not new
to

time, present, past and
future
are all
redeemable

and I ought to
have told you
before

it's not a heart
beating
but a drumming
from before that
sounds like

a record of
its own accord

30 years,
bare and white
baring, daring, breathing

it is very late
I hold onto
your arm

& our shadows wither in the
sunset

& you spin me
around
in the unreal
movie screen way

& I feel
for a moment
in the crazy
tight warmth
of you

my shaking
reflection in the
water

doesn't have
wounds

it has wings

so I hope
you never
release me

because you
have loved me,
through moon &
sunset

I will
be

your thinking,
tangling shadows,

your peculiar heart
& your
wise mouth

the glassy darkness
that separates
you from the world

the loose lemony
fragrant essence
in your hair

the last
dying
rose in your garden

the snowy
flesh of
your dearly
departed

& I promise
no one will be
able to
touch me

not the rain,not death,
a bullet,the starry children of
the earth
for forever

I will be
with you

day by day
until the last
flower
falls from
your hair

I keep telling
you,
some things
are
worth
waiting
for.

the man in the black coat
stands behind me
again
to blow
the candles out

I don't even
flinch

I often paid him a visit
when the day was dark
to smear

ink prints & skeleton truths
across my body
palms & skin

if we had been any less
attached to
one another
I might
have even turned

from black to grey
to white

big small beautiful
really real
earth
will you do
the breathing for me
while we
are
away?

now the world
is naked and unnaked

a swirling
pool of clumsy souls &
burning flowers

it will be
one warm morning
you come to
kiss my
memory goodbye

& we will fall
so deep
we never
come out

*******
everything's a circus

I met a genius on the train
today
about 6 years old,
he sat beside me
and as the train
ran down along the coast
we came to the ocean
and then he looked at me
and said,
it's not pretty.

it was the first time I'd
realized
that.