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 Oct 2010 Bailey B
erin haggerty
a liar in love
a crow in the cold
beginnings ascend
from the carcass of folly
what remains is the will
what survives is what
was there all along
courage is knowing
if you name your hair a rope
whip my soul with it
tighten my neck
i am willing

if you take your fingernail as a knife
strive in my breast
cut my day dreams
split my memories
take my yesterday from me, take my tomorrow
i am willing

if you name your eyelash an arrow
and ***** my dreams,
***** my nights
i am willing

if your eyes like sun
sear my mind, scatter my voice
i do not ask what for, how or why
take me to bazaar, sale
i am willing

because the flame of your eyes
is a pair of wings, is peace
it makes my life bird fly
to heaven
to the seven stairs of sky

Translated by: A. Edip Yazar
 Jun 2010 Bailey B
Robert Scherer
He stands on the stage with muscles tensed and mind relaxed.  His ability to perceive anything at once is employed.  And there are twins in the hall, a frog in the toilet, and nowhere (out of sight) is the aphrodisiac named Lenny.  A common misconception is the conception of any order at all, and everything you want to exist now, or ever existed, a priori: this is the meat-muscle, the excreting weener, of Cain.
"Nowhere, man," states the deaf mute with essence, "must have a musk, a muse."  An Algonquin replied, "Stay away from that horrifying ontology."
The man on the stage is at the same time becoming less inquisitive, more unconcerned and fallow, and now he watches their amusement from off-stage!
Now, those poor, poor people on the balcony--watching him, recording every minute--they do not cow him, for he watches them as an aside only, for the figure on the stage rises, mimicking an immense marble statue.  His spine stretches, as the calls of his own voice call out, in his own voice emit, for the figure on the stage, especially when he calls, little or no recognition.  The only voice, obviously, is this unrecognizable, willful voice that once belonged to him.  Although it cannot be, it can.  Although it is not possible (that it is not), it is.  His personal translation beckons concern.
With all his initial reactions lost, no longer won, no longer controlled, he is, by those very two filters, totally unmediated.  But steadfast guile and limitless misery become his (one-two) weapons.  The elations, employed at last year's performance, are absent.  Crying, he becomes, just as defeated as a whim.  But his legs move around, and he jives and jives and jives, like a crazy set of legs, as if almost no technique is being spared.  Tonight.  Tonight he is earning his pay.  Pray.  Prey.  Tonight!  But only a willful moneymaker, a master of his control, in this reality, earns him his pay.
"Sing!  Sing!  Sing!  Sing!  For I'm praying you!" screams an old man in the orchestra pit, "For I'm paying you with my best!  Tonight!  In all ways, I am yours!"
The dancing marble man looks up.  He looks at the world.  And from the smoke, a seed believes its lofty purpose lost, in a mournful message, in a reluctant admission to that unforeseen realm, of communiqué.
 May 2010 Bailey B
messydaisy
Await
 May 2010 Bailey B
messydaisy
I feel restless again
And I wonder when you’ll come to me.
I wait for you in dreams,
In waking,
In the chilly night air.
Alone, I wait.
I don’t know why
Or what
Or how
Or when,
Only will and I only hope
I hope for something tangible and indescribable.
A conundrum for a dreamer.
 Dec 2009 Bailey B
Sara Teasdale
I saw her in a Broadway car,
   The woman I might grow to be;
I felt my lover look at her
   And then turn suddenly to me.

Her hair was dull and drew no light
   And yet its color was as mine;
Her eyes were strangely like my eyes
   Tho’ love had never made them shine.

Her body was a thing grown thin,
   Hungry for love that never came;
Her soul was frozen in the dark
   Unwarmed forever by love’s flame.

I felt my lover look at her
   And then turn suddenly to me,—
His eyes were magic to defy
   The woman I shall never be.
 Dec 2009 Bailey B
Sara Teasdale
I sang my songs for the rest,
For you I am still;
The tree of my song is bare
On its shining hill.

For you came like a lordly wind,
And the leaves were whirled
Far as forgotten things
Past the rim of the world.

The tree of my song stands bare
Against the blue—
I gave my songs to the rest,
Myself to you.
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