Tell me, blank stencil,
what would you say if you were the voice and not the mouth?
Would you, too, struggle to fill yourself with poignancy
as I so often have?
And in your earnest desperation to draw meaning from chaos and with chaos,
would you, too, crumble inwardly under the eternal, ethereal frustration
and destroy your medium and yourself to absolve your pain
the way so many failed expressions end?

No, I picture an innate fluidity,
where you rattle the truth and beauty of creation
as naturally as I breathe.
The poignancy of basic, instinctive survival-
Breathing to fill my empty lungs;
Expressing to fill an empty page

The lovers in their windows
drew my bitter eyes;
Heavens aligned that I would find a heart on to rely.

The eyes that caught me glancing
were faded as my boots.
The words inane, we shared our pain in darkened disrepute.

Her breath assuaged discomfort
and hazed my gazeless stare.
Reserves dismissed for hollow bliss, I came to be ensnared.

She stole from me my envy
and catered to my pride.
At my whim she’d quell my dreams and hold herself astride.

Today is not remembered
by distant sons, estranged.
The grand divide one must decide is cold comfort or change.

The grains upon my table
could satisfy no more.
Again enticed, against advice, I shattered our rapport.

I sent my love a dying spring
so she’d remember me.
But when the tears fell from her face, they washed into the sea.

The stars that rose above me
emerged from out the foam.
And by their light, I stood, contrite, and spent the night alone.

Removed beside the brookbank,
in hopeless disarray,
The rock and roll will steal her soul and watch her float away.

On the lawn in the court,
on the bench by the bush,
pipes are singing cacophonic rhythms.

Breezes, on becoming aware of said tune,
gather to dance
and trade their burden treasures

Once wearied by translucent celebration,
the breezes turn home
carrying echoes of song and gifts.

The piper stifles his tune
and leaves the court,
which returns to equilibrium

Do not look at me and think of a river.
I will die climbing mountains,
not marching blindly to the sea.

Do not expect me to tell you my secrets.
Like a storm withheld by a leash,
there is no charm like mystery.

Do not compare me to a familiar soul
My intentions were never to emulate,
but to enhance the existing for my brethren

I’d rather be an unbound book
whose pages are out of order,
who makes you think laterally.

I’d rather be the wayward snow.
A raindrop is paired with a goal
and forgets how to move sideways.

I’d rather be
in a different place
in a foreign heart
giving life to new things.
I want to be inspiring.

The mockery of a chastised fool,
too frail to utter vows.
These demons have refused my soul,
an offer, a life, a howl.

Pressed to feel my growing pains...
How lost in common lust.
And though the world was built in frames,
those doves were destroyed by dust.

When the rays would stroke my neck
and the breeze offered a kiss,
I’d stretch and strain to connect
and suffer at fate’s cruel twist.

The memory of pain,
forever etched like the cracks on a statue.
Remnants of a forgotten master, a dead king.
Visible historical lamentations,
so much clearer than simple memories.
A touch,
Digits entwined,
The proximity of two engines
As their gears turn, synchronized,
Soft, fragile, corruptible,
Yet dangerous, raucous, unheralding.

So strange to lose control.
The overpowering eagerness,
the invisible fishhook
reeling two flailing hearts
from the comfort of the sea.

And yet only the superficial wounds remain.
Worn like jewelry.
The softer scars,
the ones that heal.

As simple as a locking gaze
latched by ropes, devised through rays.
The beacon light out through the haze is
Narrow and unaware.

Trap me now unyielding sweet
as if eyes and heart should meet.
Callous though my heart may beat,
Shallow and unprepared.

This anguish fault projects a wish:
The subtle brush of lips on lips.
Alone at last, hung by my wrists,
Hollow and unfair



A concept now and nothing more,
though I’d like it be so.
The sea-salt air, my vision torn,
tethered by a rope.