the poet sips from the glass
a trail of scattered words
ordered
from the taste relished on tongues
feeding the need


eighteen year ***
tender to the senses
pushing against a harsher world
the belly warmed enough
to proffer portrayal


and the tear
falls to the paper
birth to death this saline catharsis
the ocean still flows in our blood
I am alone enough now


the long dead Japanese poet
sits next to me
we toast that we can see
even in this blindness
loving each other…. deeply

If the page is stained
We can circumvent the words
That soil the soul
I will then continue on
And you can dispose of me
As you wish ....

The fragments of the deep
That which is tucked away
In the recesses of your being
Still have wings

For they can lift above you
And the tethers that bind
Draw you into the light
Bathing fragments
In life
And their voices are heard again
Crying out
Yes....we are alive

they stand bold
against the bold
neither the subject of either
this ballet reaches within
each wave a grating caress
moving the unmovable
the increments
in a quantity that thwarts perception

had those waves
ever touched them before
are they lovers
each longing to return
touching what they once were
are we not all
old lovers  

as they rise against
and above
some quantity of breath
is drawn
what pulls from within
the eye tethered to the soul
the majesty
watching time unfold

She reaches
In her dance with the breezes
Gathering, gathering, gathering
The life of light and breath
Letting it descend
Through her
Past what she had been
Flowing back into
The earth

She pulls me away
To the blessed simple
Where time and the mechanisms of human
Are cast away
Life.... is descending through me
I feel myself flowing
Back
Into the earth

What tempest lays here
within these hearts
rising up to crash down upon
the separations
of justice from justice
of sustenance from mouth
of shelter from skin
of truth from knowledge
of
I from you....

It is dark out here
More alone here
Hidden
The rain has left her scent
You are folded back into the earth
Listening to your life... exist
Breathe
Feeling blood’s endless journey
Returning and returning
Sacred silence of self
Alone
In the dark....