eyes closed
half asleep
i hear a bird's flight
etching notes of color
across my mind

bright twill--SHOCKING PINK

earnest soaring cry--DEEP YELLOW

fast stroke upward--CRIMSON BLUE

soft tremolo--ZIG ZAG LINES FAST DISAPPEARING


bird has vanished

i awaken

       clutching a Chagallian rainbow

We have all needed
in our lives
a rubber duck
of bathetic deliverance.

A blazing hearth
Food and guests at table

Two shy lovers standing
Off in a corner

The slanting amber light
Upon his hand at her cheek

The imminent caress you'll abduct
To abate your chill

dreaded winds clomped along the forbidden tunnel
as blackbirds scurried back into their pies
and tony gates kept opening and closing at the far end
softly, like the ******'s breath of sighs
down her first time to
greet the punctured enclosure
bleeding crimson robes
against all restitution

eyes following hypnotically
each cigarette
one after the other
new ones quickly lit from embers of the last
motions endlessly repetitive
tantalizing dog into a
trance-like state
object to object
dragging him along
hooked on the girl's wieldy chain

beyond the beyond it flew
the weightless ball  flew right then
beyond the beyond