his fire wraps me in warm new flames
                                        I gasp for air
The day begs for length.  Oh, god, why not?
Pray tell, this intense madness won’t drive him away.  
                                        Taking his sanity and art with him

A man worth the time, fancy that.
A feeling not worth controlling, imagine this:
                                        Minds smashing sparks alight
                                        Hair always wet or drying
                                        Cheeks hot with anticipation
                                        Eyes wide
                                        Souls listening to the earth’s pulse
                                        Novel nonsense lightening the lead of
truth

Frozen funeralNecessary burialYou pushed me backAgainst the wall. My eye was morethan on the doorIt became stringentFor manners sake, I didn’t make a faceAt that vinegar smell.Knowing better is no remedy for hurt prideBrand his pink skin for the first timeDuck out before the sourA new hot shower AwaitsAt home. Or somewhere with potted fernsBreathe ReprieveNever been with such a followerat my heels. Looking over my shoulderBlurting and grindingOn my nervesFeigning understandingNo more storm metaphorNot worth the anger earned By the dark pastI clutch my secret hopeLike a sold out ticketAwakened by remembered hungerImagining fresh garden loot. Still drippIngWet(January 2, 2010)

Black out before sun down
Slippery jabs of guilt slide
Sickness knifed in
And never seen again
Not by you

You lose control of your mouth, your body, your balance
Your hands wave ‘round your head in some imaginary joke
Your toothy grin and those hands still flapping are aimed at me,
And still, no one is laughing

No memory of yours holds my embarrassment
Your mother, your father, your husband, your daughter
We remember mean accusations over stubborn bottles
We know the secret you keep from yourself

How do I shift this guilty weight from my dark heart to yours?
Can I steal your excuses?  Can you recall your childhood shame?
Let the light of truth shine fierce after the sun steals away behind dark hills

Soft weakness
gives to absorb the blows
Like some vague elastic stretched
over the chimney top
Stubbornly holding the black smoke in
Pigeons nesting and *******
Causing the thinning elastic
to cave in
further
White birds like the warmth of that sick steam building
underneath
Preening, oblivious
Hot weight questions the integrity of black edges
Mother bird stands at attention
Baby birds bicker, oblivious
Their hearts skip in unison when they begin to
fall
The smoke swallows them
and that black elastic