On Fri-the-day in Physics
we spent all trying on movie scripts
cutting them down, wrapping them around our calves like
shin-guards, tight and vaguely reassuring
And have I read it? just the first
You tell me juice instead of grey
I wish you best but do not say so
a woman makes a cup of her heart, and in that way I hear
how he came home to
a surprise celebration of Gerald
(tunes with mountains and bears)
the hell's bells man, what a sweet sound
they were
some kind
of astounding

Cold, tilted
Despite the blood and the parchment
And the warm, dry tint
His eyes are closed,
He’s sleeping?

A warning, a memorial
A testimony
A revolution’s star,
Supernovates.

I do not know what his secrets are
I always wonder at funerals
My money’s on a hidden love
For Charlotte Corday
People tend to love their murderers

For K:

As I was sitting,
  legs lotus-folded (like human origami)
Listening to your message
Thinking how your wry wit always
  sends trickles of glory into my laugh

As I was listening,
ears cold without the warmth
Of your conversation to heat them
I wished for your kind of company,
  like a museum in the rain

And I was thinking
I don't know what this means

I was searching for evidence
like a deaf man for music
Or perhaps more like a dust mote
looking for home

Perhaps more like a map
Embossed vellum with names of
Places etched meaningfully
With red dotted trails leading
Looping and folding back into themselves
Except the X is absent

I was looking for meaning
in the ideas we'd shared
And here is the truth, I do not
twinge with dolorousness
I do not keep souvenirs of you

You will find no evidence of the time
          (chalk-dusted fingerprints on cold glass)
Spent with me until you
          (hush and behold the mystery)
reach to discover moments
          (hidden and higher than most)
Stacked tall in my memory
          (tip the shelves in the library, it all tumbles down)

Hold those words out
Eject them form hibernation
Toss them, set them
Let them hang in the air

Watch to see if they sparkle
           Or dart or cut or
                     Just hang
Watch to see if they lash back

Did you chew them seven times before you spoke them?
Seven and seven again before you woke them?

Heed history's dark edges
Clever words lead to high ledges
And revelry will flee
Without two glances back

So
   Hold them close up to you
      Cultivate them, flowing through you
          Hang them in the air like stars
To see if they will sparkle

I love the smell of gasoline
Blue flowers, and green neon lettering
Embarrassing-honest people
The words nocturnal, cavalier, and arable
Reading, reading is my second-best to humans,
Greek mythology, all mythology
Solving math equations, being surprised
The soft waves of my mother’s hair
All kinds of clouds and rain
Smooth fabrics, sharpened-pointy pencil-tips
Gravelly voices
      and exploring

With and without
  Hush now, don't pout
Running my hands through my hair
Quantum mechanics
And butterfly feet
  I can't tell you why
Elephants, unable to jump
Bats, with bones too thin to walk
  Just hold on tight
We are all the children of nine
With or without

You think my soul is lovely
  And my diction dazzling
    what kind of friends are we
       I ask, passingly

      We are so good

A moment's pause

I hold my breath
  In that instant you drop off to sleep
    And I whisper to the dark room
       *The best