Memory –
Its so vast
Deep oceans of voices
Tapering off to separate compartments
Of silence –

Together in separateness we cross
The darkness at dislocated speeds

(a cough from here & there among the
silent passengers – coughs of blood & sickness)

The engine accelerates in thunder
And flesh makes love to steel...

Some of us –
Lost in vacant pools of thunder
While others –
The past expels me, repels me...

you come to me
petals whispering against skin --
the whisper of petals,
twilight
and the gentle rustle of
Sin --

At times
I glimpse you in the crowds
Vanishing as a ghost -
I feel you whispering night to me.
I taste you in secret places
While waking into dreams that are not dreams -
And then
Spectral screams
Cut short
Locked away
In the crumpled silences of paper.

Language
Can be
So slippery -
Always ready to start
Little avalanches
That
Lead to
Strange
Conclusions

Reduced
To a piece of paper -

Everytime someone shreds you up -
throws you away -
it's like suffering
a tiny
death

The Winter Feast

In the
Glass forest

Snow falls
And trees
Stand
Darkly visible
Beneath
Ancient crowns of
Snow and ice

In these creaking limbs
Nothing changes -
The slow viscosity of time
Drapes the boughs in
Delicate shards that
Swallow light

But
Over here
In dark stains
Beneath old eaves
Famined eyes slide among
Rivers of shadow
Pursuing the warm glow of life -
In an instant
They absorb the warm hapless thing
Whose bright shrieks tear
At the fabric of shadows

The beasts feed -
Their crippled little yelps
Resonate
Death through the
Forest where
Time shivers and breaks -
From dark boughs
Gleaming
Thorns of ice whisper
To earth
In the silent thunder of snow

Satisfied
The beasts leave -
A sacrifice of blood
And bone
Is made -
Crimson tears bloom
In the snow -
Time gathers the vibrant colour in its
Crystal embrace

High above
Winter winds
Caress the old boughs
That lovingly
Creak and whisper

In the
Glass forest

Back at the beginning again -
An empty room, a window

The room -
Disordered
Forgotten

The window and beyond -
Reduced to a blur
Though the
Grime tinted patina
Of desperation

In this space
Simple gestures
Of light and shadow
Suspend the
Ghosts of memory

Yet even the light is jealous of their permanence -

See how it
Caresses them
With such a lovely way
Of violence?

The leaf
Waves to me
From outside -

Silver drops
Of water sit on its
Cool green surface
In voiceless eloquence

The nascent scent is fresh
Wild
And real
Redolent with memories and truths of early days
That evade language
And pulse on a transcendent level

My unsettled heart knows
And easily resonates with this diurnal rhythm
That existed before the word
Near the beginning
Of what could have been
Before the way was lost -

And then the drops turn to
Rain and dark
Tears

That stain the window
I sit before
In this self imposed prison
Of a shabby life

Ruled by social torture and
The sly manipulation of machines and
Things beyond dead -
We exist
Together in separateness

Pleasantly shackled
In this irrelevant circus of celebrity, destruction and death
As senses dull
Bodies die
And
Potential decays

Outside
Wind caresses the trees
And multitudes of leaves quiver -

The body
Knows wrong and
The body
Sings strong

With senses keen and
Mind resolute on escape
Anger blooms full in my heart
That I raise and swing -
Chains break - walls burst -

And glass melts
Into the earth as
Rain wakes exhausted flesh
To the rising thunder
Of what will be
For the body knows

In the poetry
Of a leaf
Waits revolution

The leaf
Waves to me
From outside -

Silver drops
Of water sit on its
Cool green surface
In voiceless eloquence

The scent is fresh
Wild
Real

Redolent with memories and truths of early days
That evade language
And pulse on a lower level -

My unsettled heart
Resonates with this rhythm
That existed before the word
Near the beginning
Of what could have been
Before the way was lost -

Then the drops turn to
Rain and dark tears
That stain the window
I sit before
In this self-imposed prison
Of a shabby life

Ruled by social torture and
The sly manipulation of machines and
Things beyond dead -

We exist
Together in separateness
Pleasantly shackled
In this circus of celebrity, destruction and death
As senses dull
Bodies die
And
Potential decays -

Outside
Wind caresses the trees
And multitudes of leaves quiver -

The body
Knows wrong
The body
Sings strong

With senses keen and
Mind resolute on escape
Anger blooms full in my heart
That I raise and swing -
Chains break - walls burst -

And glass melts
Into the earth as
Rain wakes exhausted flesh
To the rising thunder
Of what will be
For the body knows

In the poetry
Of a leaf
Waits revolution

Your eyes -
They
Caress me
With
Such a lovely way of violence.

Those evening ghosts
That come our way
Take us to a better place -
Or so they say...

Reach behind
To a place
Where you can
Touch
The heart of a word
Before it ever was

You
Take me into
You

And now I gently pulse
Against the flesh
Of your language

The trees look angry today -
Black pools flow from the eaves
to stain the brightness below;
Leaving a confused luminescence in sight -
A shattered mirror; pools of broken light.