I do not have a green thumb
I guess my color-blind eyes which have a
natural disagreement with blue and yellow
could never handle the mixture of the two.
Still, I try to be the green I cannot see
Home depot thought I was interesting
seven cacti bought on impulse
with the small hope I would be able to
keep them alive in a cat infested house
with my soul a lover of dark rooms
I once read that plants died even with
immaculate care because the curses
others were placing on you were being
absorbed by the living plant instead.
So to those who curse me, please stop.
I impulsively bought seven cacti and I can’t
go back to home depot three weeks from now
hanging my head in shame.

     --Envy, greed, wrath, sloth, pride, gluttony, lust

Chronology decaying within
                    the humour of passing
                                            shadows.

For­ everything that's birthed
                    laughers at the finality
                                            of death.

But is sullen when they hang
                       between both existences.

I hold onto love
Like sand
It scatters easily
In my hands
And I will attack it
Probe it
Interrogate
Intimidate
Isolate myself
Until nothing remains

All this
To prove
To those who love me
That I am unlovable

They are wild things
Sometimes, I swear
I need a shotgun
but so as not –
to hurt the words

I hack them out of weeds
Break the ice to drag them out
Throw rocks at them in trees

Turn around three times fast
and collapse
Sometimes I catch one
still spinning dizzy
floating circle-words in breeze

I command nothing

The poems always have their way

I command nothing!

Not love –  Not time –  Nor hate
Nor sun –  
but the moon-rise –  
maybe

...in dream-light

How many more beautiful hearts will I spoil
All high and unavailable, their eyes occluded
With sorrow as they watch me slip towards a sorry death

How many times can I keep walking into a
Burning building, a sea of tongues I cannot keep pace with
Before I stop returning, always short of breath

How many years have I wasted wringing
My hands in quiet discomfort and worrying
When all this worrying will stop

How many more patient friends will slip from view
As I blind myself with false changes, as I lie in waste
Through my solitude, wondering why no one is here

To rinse the poverty from my ruined eyes

Seven cups of tea and I drank eleven
Too much maybe but it felt like heaven
So relieved to have indulged myself in a generous pour
They only smile and encourage I drink more

I think I will

Darkness drapes the night
Cold and thin, with a clear sky
An advent of stars

Stars made from the dust
of bones left from the fabric
of the universe

Universe expands
Dry and brittle marrow falls
Winter pitiless