late-night thinking doesn't
     end
until five
(when the sun decides to
            go to bed and pins
  up a
    paper cut-out and a "will
                   return soon"
  in its place, billowing warm
     fingers over the world)

If we had our way, hidden lives and loves would
                                 up out of the ashes in which we
                    g                                           ­                   live
                n  
             i
        r
    p
S

                                                     So build me a staircase that

     retches           your
   t             u     to        be
S                  p                 au
t                                       t
   r                                   i
     a                              f
       e                         u
         h                     l
           -                 -
             g            b
               n       e
                  i   a
                    t
                        
and leave the love bit
                                  wrapped up between the
           two
          of us
                           like a warm sock on chilly winter toes

Courage
                    born free like a summer breeze, free
                    to twist about and meddle with all
                       sorts of inspiration

that warning light isn't right (been
      meaning to have it fixed), but
              if you insist (your
          tank's quite full)

       here,

             take some of mine.

You stole a moment from me
A delicious morsel of life
En route from plate to lip when
Your "hello" dashed it
Burnt and broken on the floor

Eaten alive by

this is only the beginning of
a wonderful time

                            Brought to the knees of

                            what will tomorrow, next year
                            deliver?

                                                           Sent on a daydream

                                                           making friends with the heart
                                                           of all that knows heart

Be ever present

in the lives of those who carve
their own spaces in mine

the bitter cold grates against my nerves
a pleasant sound, not unlike
that of a violin

will you never
learn? fill me with
insignificance, set
me on fire and I'll
burn off like a tick

:

with social graces carried
over in naive rubato, it
always goes too far before
I notice the source of all
this flying dirt

:

I don't share well, never
intend to pursue that
strange notion, always
feeling that I am not
alone should be warm but
buries me alive in
soggy thinking
tonight

:

mind over (it
shouldn't) matter

:

oh if time were a
bomb I'd blow us all
up and forget to look
under my ribcage

:

p(our) (my)self out

every which way and the colors
zing faster
            still could you sticky note
      me like candy down glass in a
rainstorm not wild
                       enough I'll just
                                                                take a quick breather and
                        we're back with
                all reds and maroons, learning to
                  tell the difference between (frustrated maverick
                       painters in wetsuits) and bridges and icicles
warm to the touch, is it too
much
     to linger on
               here with the water?
                                  but keep your head down or you'll
                     drown in the bundles of
                              soft pressure backwards
                          with live culture hands

To turn back the clock
Seems like it might fix everything
which is, of course, misleading

Fixing one thing crushes another
Perhaps the other is more important
Perhaps not
but who is willing to take that kind of a chance?

I would.

4:40 PM

learning all about the little
nuances that try to define what it is
exactly that lies at your core, the
buzzing generator of unmistakable  
charm, patterns of thoughts like ever-shifting
wallpaper in your head, forever reluctant to
meet my eyes for fear of our mirrored
colors merging into one, pools of green and
earth

5:06 PM

no surprise to figure life is about moving when
raised on the road and pit-stop friends but
I'm at a loss when it comes to leaving you with a good
impression, powerless to live these last few days to the
fullest, stuck on that expression, those colors

5:32 PM

meaning thrives in the silences between our speech, only
beginning to gather itself up before we carry on, fascinated
by the effect our own vibrations can have on another, sure
the aftershock will hit any day now, the yesterday

6:24 PM

next time I hope to embrace the silence as I do whenever
you head off into the sunset, ridiculous quiet building a time
and space for us to enjoy the company that comes with
forgetting I am there and never being able
to forget you

Old cars and older voices, time
begins anew (with awake) in
the afternoon, chords and
bronze-coated companionship, long-
dead limbs singing, with

not walking but
floating as a mantra in the
dark, wanderer of these
expectant streets disheartened
by the home scoreboard

laughter all laughter cascading past mountain
caves, pushed aside for so long in lieu of the ocean
and now looked upon with fresh eyes and new time

you are not ready for this life

you are not ready but you step ahead, you
fall on the steps and catch your breath and
rise like an angel

stay where you should be, even
though we are technically free

I don't want to be.

The whole foundation of the recognized word
Could be crumbling behind our eyes
And it would not matter

Great missiles of anger and hate may be aimed at us, fingers
Poised above powerful buttons
And it would not matter

Because right now
Here
You are with me
And I am with you

Glass.
It's all so much broken glass
Cascading over old wounds

Numbing self-awareness

To numb we travel
To all else.

Razor-tipped pencils that surgically
               slice patterned pages
Soft brushes from fingertips like afterthoughts
                    puddling atop pillows

How long will it be  
until the vast majority of
breathing beings on this little
spinning globe of ours recognizes
such undeniable similarities?

how racism and hatred, anger as
well as war leech the truth from our
eyes, (no world is black and white)

have we grown so distant to not
know somewhere between ourselves and
others lies the answer, never buried within or
too far out of reach, silly excuses

come, children
we may very well never make it
to those stars you reach towards so
you'd best get acquainted with the
right here and now

I feel like a bed of coals
glowing brighter with each
passing moment

At the end of the day
all that's been is fire
and what ever was joins
hands in a cool drink against
distaste, kerosene
have you seen the fires
in my stomach? burning
in hope, drowning out the
silence of oppression, stuttered
freedom clears its throat

these words are
meaningless, paling in
comparison to my vivid thoughts

I can't wait for
tomorrow

there's no sense in wondering
at what might have been three
weeks ago when
right now is a serene place and
two people walking in the dark
share such a
full-moon epiphany

Time is a patient collector

/ eyeing its prize behind a
flawless tapestry of
insignificant celebration /

to whom we'll all
one day belong

Fling your paint across this canvas
Bring to it your struggles
Fill it with the colors of your life

And don't hold anything back
Or the casual passerby
Might wonder what it was

From my vantage point
This vast expanse of land
Bare of any soul save myself
Separates you from me
And the sky hangs over
As if to laugh at our plight

Billowing clouds, faint smiles
This is no place for a wanderer
No place for a thief
Who steals smiles from
Beneath mother's nose
No place for a liar
Who corrupts this peaceful scene
Flinging time bombs as an afterthought
To bring an end to light

No, I'm not entirely sure who belongs
In this place
I am nothing but a visitor here
Come to drink in the beauty
The stillness
And soon to depart
From the hole
In an otherwise
Troublesome world.

Do expand upon your
  entrance to all that this is
and all that we are rises to the occasion
      
                                              jubilant
                                        holidays come to a close
                                           and the weather outside
is flawless

Find a day of rest
Our lives are far from other, with years for you to
Come to your senses

We should find a weeping sunset story far from
Our lives and memories
And read it aloud together

You've left a hole
                             (In case you didn't remember)
  With no darkness left inside

             A bright hole - unlike any other

that engulfs me as I light four candles on a rock
        and think for forgiveness
   and rise with the smoke

                                                                ­    because we all want to drift away and
          singe our faces in the aftermath

Twist ties are for pretzels
Not killers of dialogue

Unless, of course
You dream of
Stalking wire pieces

A sliver of sky, soft framing, green eyes
Her smile peeks up from my shoulder

In days sharing time, the comfortable try
To imagine when they are older

What came first, me or
the harmony words?

sometimes I wonder

while you were sleeping
a child learned how to fly
quietly slipping away behind
blue paper curtains

sing me a song, prove
to me what I can't quite put my finger on
(after these tired feet come from their shells)
face to the sky like a flame

It's a silly thought but
    am I being tested? compared as
                  one of two?

I hope not.

Slowly losing my grip on reality

What if the closest I get
to that moment is now?

Your voice.

life is only ever going
to be what we rely on it to
produce

Silence on the radio
radio silence for all of us

tough love, coarse like
gritty asphalt, torn knees

makes me ache for unscripted
cheer, for a single bulb in an
otherwise dark room

unremarkable and
significant

tough love

scrawled in tall black blocks
on smooth limestone

nothing, it seems
always returns

the sound of the life
surrounding fragile
breath, do you know
what you have
                          
                            no?

­then watch it peel
off like a cancer and
sink out of your
murky sight

to bloom and
writhe and if these
thoughts have any
weight to gift three
blazing candles in
a night or two

rest assured they
will

Don't fear it
Embrace it.

Then it will leave you alone.

Twisted up in well-done lighter flames
I don't want the truth

there's a quiet sense of knowing
in this fire, slow-burning as we
reach a state indistinguishable from
its freedom

my open heart, sure-footed as a rabbit on
pine needles in the summer, dreams
you here with me, two melting as
candle smiles climb our faces and
birds shriek their approval like
so many arbiters of the forest

I'm losing my mind
And there is nothing else to say

Quirky is one way to
  say it
  without bringing to mind all
these insects, teleporting wings
      you bring for me
    
fireflies wavering in
           dreamland river silence
         ladybugs to fuel fires
    violent light and diminish
               to reality in the morning

this hall feels solid, but I see you
   and it starts all over again
         the most wonderful feeling
      I wish you could
                             you do?
                  brilliant.

I am a styrofoam cup with the
bottom gently cut out, but
                                              maybe if I pour in
                                            fast enough, I can still be
                                                              ­                  full
          
                             for a little bit

I do not dream as of late
It is most peculiar.

You see, I used to dream
Quite often, in fact.
But those I cannot remember

The fanciful wishes of a lighter man
I wish I were still a dreamer.

Let's go somewhere, let's
   do something, let's
       be the people we are
    meant to be

today with eyes gently closed, sketching
   my wish,
          a lifetime atop liquid satin

   sail me away in the dark, sweet you until
          stars wrap your face in
              a hug, pull away out of
                    jealousy

one of these hours I might pop with the
      taste of sincerity,
                        of laughter you
    bring to me quietly
                              
                                  were it not
             for the disulfide knowledge
                        the unmistakable now
      where everything is right
                and you are everything.

It's darkest just before the dawn
but darling, you've been far too long from
these arms now that, left to one, grow
tired and fall limp like rags to sleep

come home and we'll make known
all the ways we both have grown
or just ring my phone, and
let me know you're there

You are the reason why I
wake up every morning

                and do you know why?

         because I believe you can do anything
    and I want to
                              extend that anything
                   to the moon and back

One way
                               Stood at the top of a knoll
                A new low
No waiting looks welcome
                               One ultimate perspective

      A thousand open faces
                                                     Enjoy the passage of time
You had me at
                        Today matters, darlin'
You had me at
                        Archipelago Lotus Flowers
      3 pink hearts, an ornament of a house
Your world in
                        Every
                                ­ Square
                                             Inch
Just for fun
                         Make it worth remembering
Just for fun
                         Love heals (hazy yellow dreams)

      These hand-forged items
                                               Absolutely ridiculous
Became beautiful earth
                           that happily shapes us
    
       Though our feet may leave
                                             Have faith in the future

Jackson's trespassing music