Me looking at you, you looking back.
Almost like a reflection back as when you move I move too.
In the water or in the bathroom you follow me.

Calling me to you where I cannot go.
And you try to follow me yet you leave when I do.
    I come back, so do you.

Whatever can I do?
Are you looking at me or am I looking at you?
    Looking back I think I understand.

Your hand matches mine.
You are the most devine.
    Your eyes are mine.

You see me and I see you.
We wave at each other perfectly in harmony.
    Empty space surrounding.

In the dark of night, the light of day.
You look like me in every way.
Almost like you are me.
    That is impossible to be.

Am I you or am I me?
Looking at you catching up the slack.

    Me looking at you, you looking back.

There she stands in all her beauty. Alone, all in her own world. Standing, towering, just out of reach. Everybody knows her. I... I am invisible, nothing compared to her. Still she is my drive either way. My motivation, my push. She is my freedom. She is everything. Her beauty is unmatched in all the land. Nothing has, never will. I am nothing, There she stands in all her beauty, alone.

Summer night,
The feeling’s right.
All through to daylight.

The morning’s plain.
All to noon,
When that scent comes back.

The smell of summer’s morning dew.
The smell of bacon.
The smell of Saturdays with mom.

Dad kisses goodbye,
Mom says hi.
And that sweet smell of summer’s morning dew.

All this time,
Spent with you.
And that smell of summer’s morning dew.

If anyone asks you I am old
and out of shape.  My legs
curl under me when I stand.
There is a whoosh in my ear
from the fall the other night.

My face of many colors
goes before me like an
electric light.  

I wobble on shifted
ground.  No longer young
I am a cramp in the leg
of time.  

My children go before me and
I watch and I wait.  They are
middle aged and turn to their
own concerns.  

I remain ununderstood not
that I was, clearly, ever taken
for the woman I was.  

If anyone asks tell them
I understood the song
of madness,

and I wait for
the end
of reason.


Caroline Shank

If you kiss me now our eyes
will close and we will
push against each other
like fruit vying for the light,

In the nightpain of loving
our eyes will slowly open
and your face will wilt
until its cheeks and crevices
dim under the sad symmetry of
our public lives.

If you kiss me now I will forget
the grown repair of skirt alone
in the loud sound of memory
as it slips ever so gently away.


Caroline Shank

fog grows heavy
on winter's breath
we loved in the bushels
of new fallen leaves
and our whispers were snippets
of warm summer breezes.
we're no longer dead,
never while we're together
feeding life into
our hearts
once so vacant-
your brother hung himself
off the boat next to your house
and i downed my throat with sleeping pills
and made pretty red patterns
across my arms.
that was before we met,
when December was a wasteland
of death endeavors
some triumphs..
some well,
disaster.
but we gave this month a new name,
a new identity
that trembles with the "i love you's"
and the "remember when's"
our cheeks hollow from
warm slubby kisses

the gardens weep
in the moonlight
because she has gone away.
a pale sliver of a finger
waivers in a pond reflection.
a specter-
  the stars have become
pearl spilled tears
and the roses tremble in dew
because of the absence,
her absence-
felt so wholly.
the world fades quietly
with her white body
under ground
...
although that is where she lay
(she has gone away)