turmoil:
the oily art of turning
water into wine and/or vinegar
your beard splattered
with fried watermelon
and savory slices
of your finest cheese
we suspect our impossibilities
are always more prominent to others
than they are to oneself
a dream is a dress rehearsal
for life's becoming
a theater of living irony
where illiterate actors
are born to justify
quixotic sentiments
and unruly syntaxes
this jargon may be absurd
but the ground of watery being
knows no other
mercy save her own

arctic temperament
dreams of indefinite reminders
pleasure in layers of fat
remove blanketed arguments
that highlight your intellect
darken your eyes with silence
to streak at dusk and dawn
in moonlight warm
and concupiscent

stop
speaking
rhymes
defeat
these idioms
break
into song
this instant
a meter  
is too far
to run from
i make a vow
to return
your kindness
and dismantle
your obsession
is it safe
to wonder
to roam
to try another
whenever we need
more bloodshed
and space
i collapse
the intangible
to give you
my place
for your depth
and density
is my sole
disgrace

light is lighter than lightning's longing
born from ions of storms we never see
i feel the sound of your ancient fury
getting ready to envelop me

a perspective i neglected
too many years ago
now returns on the echoes
of the wind
embankments of separation
apparent to some
and hidden to others
lose yourself
in mental uncertainty
its unreliable how we know
which way the sun is heading
from southern waters that carry
all our heaviness home

don't expect magic
only accept the tragic
misfortune is all we ever read
love is a composite image
made from categories
compiled in our dreams

my desire is my fear
at the isthmus of greed
a pinnacle of disappointment
i fall upon my knees
the apex is high
but the fall is eternal
when we never really
learn how to speak

breathtaking radiance in heat
love is a blank canvas
torn into one hundred pieces
purpose is our oldest prankster
playing tricks upon all our seeds
destination always wanders
so we spread our wings
out towards the east
breakfast is a tale of talons
claws and arrows
that never truly ceases  
to subdue the inner beast

she weeps
in vats of hot water
boiling her grief
liberates her need
until she speaks
in streams of color
iridescently
obscene

incestuous blankets
cover thy body
somebody is here
when you are long forgotten
brand-name sovereignty
shoddy craftsmanship
candy covered copies
of loose apostrophes
dangling from false pretenses
the portable economy
is a grifter's game
of refrain and manageability
i am magnanimous like a spark
captured in dark rooms
and in your binary libraries
like tiny memories
always fading on an ark

Unknown dreams
Inside our eyes
Take time to shine
Images concretize
And i realize
That this rhythm
Is silently embodied
Wholly for itself

Ixoras in the wind
Burning breaths
Of bottomless blessings
Surrounded by death
We shout from the top
Of a staircase
Give away your doubt
Let go of faith
Become infatuated with Silence
East is the road of being
Leaps of grace often
Speak volumes
In their wake

I am expiring in expectation
The aspen trees dance and swim
In a sea of invisible labor
I am impressed with all the metaphors
You invented, only to describe
The daily massacre of beauty

Scheherazade swims in streams
Of unending disappointment
Her narrative slips from her hands
Like water through a broken bucket
Punctured promises release their longing
I am but an old story waiting to be told
But in the end there is a rhythm
That every child born of a mother
Already knows too well

What a mystery that lies
Within the lies of my intellect
Who resides in dreams
And awakens in our defiant appliances
Eros transgresses
Upon trampolines of mind’s enjoyment
In basements of wonder
The youth wander aimlessly
I hit my head against your walls
To topple a cathedral that had to fall
Before we could ever truly be married

Seeing them
Lke that
One couldn't
Help but wonder
If they hadn't
Already
Had their fill
Of wonder
For the day

Consumers of beauty
Rarely, truly, remind
Each other to breathe

short and sweet
may accurately
describe many things
but never once
a woman

Mistakes made freely
Given as holy offerings
To the Goddess of Creativity

Illustrated by isolated breaths,
The math teacher denies his duty.

A fallen tree speaks in moans
Drowning in tears her eyes cannot see
Her hearing is tangled in the juniper and sage
Her mouth is a violin’s inner space
A facade of platitudes swell within you
Just as the grandiose defends you
Lungs full of residue and smoke
As we make our romance into
Something that vaguely resembles
Both a poem and a history lesson

Another space becomes abandoned
Once filled with infinite beings
No longer burdened by birds in flight
The cranes no longer saunter
Beyond the pale of your starry eyes
Though I stray beyond my imagination
Whose edges are softer than a bed of roses
This loss is all I know to speak of
For to breathe is to bellow like an ocean
Though you are as pale as the moon
And your blood vessels are mostly hollow
Will you ever remove the chain of commas
That hold you in sedentary slavery
To unnecessary dreams
Seeping into your coffee
I steep my mind in beauty
And keep it ready and unruly
Until I wonder if anyone
Even knows what that means
Anymore

We are all masked by the hand of God
This mouth is a cavity of desperation
What's the point in getting ready
If it all comes tumbling down eventually
The blind have never risen
And the deaf have not yet learned to speak
With the music only they can hear
Within each passing heartbeat
We are forever beholden to each other
For there are hundreds of mouths left to feed
But beauty is a deed that can’t be bought
Still I fought for your heart and lost everything

Canvases and caverns
Concave inversions
Humid ontologies
Reside in reverse order
It's all imperfect
This i’m certain of
All is becoming
For total recovery
Is but a blind man’s fortune
And a soul is no surgeon
A thousand years later
And still no progress
Worth speaking of
What’s the matter with your heart
Is it a faulty circuit
Or did a fuse blow in the dark
We are all targets of uncertainty
Fallen upon piles of confusion
Still i am grateful
To be ruined by your love

I face the firing squad alone
Beneath a canopy of learned women
We dream of stories undefiled
Tossed into the sunrise
And damaged by a fire
We are forever broken
In the deep-fried hours of the morning
You collapse the course of history
Is it better to be afraid of the dead
Or to respect them
She whispered to me
We are all alone and neglected
Grief overtakes my exit strategies
And I am instantly reminded
Of visiting Prague in the springtime
I have no clue why i mention
These isolated images and feelings to you
Perhaps, to one day be deserving
Of something beautiful again

There are lots of stars above us tonight
We are lying under a tall oak tree
The elders speak but we can't hear them
Over the sound of Death’s incessant snoring
I am absorbed and absorbing
How many teeth do you bare
I am undisturbed by your words
But your gestures fill me with a fear
So deep, I simply can not bare to dream them

It relates to nothing, yet it all comes down to this,
If something cannot be spoken, it's probably worthless.

a raft of old music
floats on a pile of refuse
we are each a willing part
of the ending
of every living being
and accountable to nothing
but our own voices
dreaming of choices
we may one day wish
we had never made
instead you say nothing
and deny all the oaths
you've promised me
still i think that
you may have loved me
more than anyone
else ever did

Money is a comfort to some
Burned by the negligence in our hearts
We say we'll try to make a new start
But head straight for the old roads
I unburden my soul in your arms
But nothing ever comes of it
Just another mess to clean up
And again I am sent back to earth
To tend to some more unfinished business

I have reached a new level of loneliness
Where the alabaster sky resides in my soul
I dream of nothing but uncovering
These places of hidden sorrow
As grief comes to your bed like fallen snow
You ready yourself for dissolving

Life is lived in our hearts not in the sky
It's a taboo to move and dream too easily
For the youth are doomed to know beauty
And grooms are too full of duty and betrayal
While we were hiding among our friends
Divers of the deepest oceans must slowly ascend
Until a mantle of fault is placed upon their heads
And what comes next is nobody else’s business

Unknown dreams
Inside our eyes
Take time to shine
Images concretize
And i realize
That this rhythm
Is a poem in itself

Is it pleasant or painful
To suspect the least in every situation
I’m not complaining
Just trying to tell you how I feel
All I know is that we are equal
For only existence itself
Never need offer any sequel

Be a permanent marker. Step on the stones that you once avoided. Boiling water is now an official form of medicine. And I'll pretend that we've never met before. So that one day we may dance again and make love in more than a thousand sentences.

In your body lies a serpent
And your lungs are the ocean
And now you're left gasping
As if this life was ever only
Another act of your devotion

enraged by our shadows
you enter the world silently
and turn these thoughts into gold
forms are empty like feathers
dancing in the fields and snow
go and plant your lilies children
and i will feed you apples
with pancakes and porridge
a life without worry can't be promised
but so many of our problems
come from addictions to our woes

I don’t want to write poetry tonight
I don’t want to speak of your beauty
Or how the dawn sips your words like wine
I hate the light tonight and wish to abscond
Only with the darkness
For I am unfathomably angry
That there can be no more justice
As there is nothing left in our hearts
I can speak only cruelly of you
As if to stab at your tender flesh
We are each lost in our intellects
And I’d gladly give you back your gifts
If I’d known this love would be so quick to end

For I am only a coriander seed
Would it be appropriate of me
To believe contradictorily
That what is appropriate
Appropriation must agree
If after all a waterfall falls
And the sound resounds
Until it's still, echoing
Within and all around me

Like a poisonous serpent,
You turned your venom into love.

Like a poisonous serpent,
You could return only venom for love.

We are bleeding in the eyes of our country
A mockery of justice is spread out like sand in the desert
Combed for their treasures
I made you a nest out of an old necklace
And bribed the guards of your eyes
To surprise you with your own face's resemblance
This gaze is only a phase of remembrance
As a vase is only a vice we cannot name
The victorious space remains conspicuous
As I yearn for more than I’ve learned to make do with
We display no kindness or failure to smile
For a blemish is no mere replacement for virtue
Upon dismantled mansions I have come to know you
Upon the shores of impermanence we danced a million failures
While I played games to remind myself that I was a fool
Only our abused lovers can ever claim to know the truth

There are stars that we can never hide from
What we look upon shall see us as we are
What remains to be said
Is that the love in your head is blessed
And we have tried our best to find a nest
Despite the tides and strides of men
We are only half represented
By the songs of our fathers
And the names that we've made from them
Could only ever give you
Representations of our nakedness
So who's to blame you, certainly not I
If you choose to fade quite readily
Into nets of safety and obscurity, instead

I remove the dirt from my fingers
And bring forth light from the Earth
We are worth a thousand stories
And you were born from morning’s appetite
I earned my wages solemnly like a slave
And you remained awake all night
Yet never once did you stray from my side
Whenever I'm reminded of your beauty
I seek solace in the knowledge
That one day I may speak an ancient tongue
And understand God's secret writing
Forever hidden in plain sight
And only then will I gain the knowledge
To read between the holy lines
Drawing me one step closer to your eyes

A sovereign can either be
A king or a magician
But never both simultaneously

A constant state of pain
Doesn't deserve to cover up your sanity
What was made was made
Yet please don’t give in to apathy

Born of the froth and the spray
Of Aphrodite’s waves
Humans appear impervious to the future
Perhaps we are groomed to need solutions
For only in the juiciest of greenhouses
Can true lovers grow like flowers
And bloom in the darkness
Despite all resolutions
Obvious or not, to the contrary

Love is like a tiny turtle
Lost on its way back to the ocean
We are never truly alone despite
All this unceasing commotion
I have known pain like a river
And comfort that pierces like a knife
For what comes easiest is rarely the most contagious
So let's release our pride for the sake of all our relations
And try to make the most out of
The last days of summer vacations

Accept the arrangements you have agreed to
Why pretend to be disillusioned
By lovers and former relationships
God is both a child and a wild animal
Families demand our participation
Lovers lead by example
We are what’s left of the intangible
I am still a part of your council
Whenever love becomes
Just another past participle

Love lost after lusting after lost love. Love lost after lusting after lost love. Love lost after lusting after lost love. Love lost after lusting after lost love. Love lost after lusting after lost love. Love lost after lusting after lost love. Love lost after lusting after lost love. Love lost after lusting after lost love.
Love lost after lusting after lost love. Love lost after lusting after lost love. Love lost after lusting after lost love. Love lost after lusting after lost love. Love lost after lusting after lost love. Love lost after lusting after lost love. Love lost after lusting after lost love. Love lost after lusting after lost love.

Tethered to our belongings we cease to belong together.