in the cool of the evening, He tells her about before
before before before
with Them
and the dark

she does not understand completely
(existing in one space is difficult enough)
though she listens and thinks that it must be like dreaming

they need sleep, she and the ribcage man
though-

she bites her lip
and wonders why
He never tells her His dreams

in the cool of the evening, He told her,
"there's an art to being still."
(she and the ribcage man choke on apple seeds and venom)

she guesses she didn't learn it soon enough.

"don't ever leave me."
she is small
and new
and can feel the sun on both sides when He smiles and traces constellations on her palm
and the wish is not selfish

not yet.

Dripping clothes resting against sins
Lastly taken when feeling the heavens
Sometimes taken with a lazy pace
Absorbing the beauty her sins held.

Galaxies inbetween excitement and mirth
Anomalous explicit moving against buds
Of the flower desired by dangerous eyes
Carefully exploring every sweet side of lies.

Dark lips moving with unusual fervor
Elusive sounds to the ears of heated hell
White flaws coming out of the dark road
Belts dropped and the beast roar it's might.

Slapping skins of sinful adventurers
Grunting the pleasure of punishments
Of the Eden they betrayed in the soft bed
They belong to the creation of flawed heaven.


S t i. t c h

This is what animates me
The force to set the motion of my soul
Gears that grind, thoughts that whir, the sustenance of something holy.
I do not think I sprang from Adam’s Rib
I think I must have been struck into the ground like a stone
A thread of lightning from the leaden sky,
And the mechanics that rose after
Demanded fuel, demanded heat
And thus was born in the cooling core of me
This mad desire, this stumbling, ceaseless search
For words to light a fire in my head
For eyes to light a fire in my bones
For some weapon of beauty
Some flaming sword
A tool- nothing more-
To sift among the dust and grit of time
To stoke the embers and evoke a spark
Prodding, prospecting
As for gold
Searching for a remnant which still burns
Softly, feeble, buried but unquenched

I chase the fire
For it must always be:
It cannot die
But cannot be held
It is escaped and never captured,
Only felt and lost, an infinite second-
A running step to overtake itself.

Adam and Eve

Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her,
Alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams
And our desires. Although she strews the leaves
Of sure obliteration on our paths, ...
--from Wallace Stevens' "Sunday Morning"

In Eden fair did Adam and Eve
live in perfect harmony.

"No plant or animal devoureth we,
only ripe fruit as falls from the tree."

By bright-green lily-pads in sphagnum bogs
the herons waded gracefully,
bullfrogs croaked their deep, clear calls;
bluebells, delicate yellow buttercups
were rampant; larks sang in the mulberries.

"No pain or hunger knew we there,
only the sameness of Eden fair."

Even the bounty, the beauty, the civility,
the rich perfection, stretching out like the wall
of the great oval garden, day after day,
year after year to eternity,
grew tiresome.

"No shame in our nakedness knew we ...
nor lust, nor desire, nor carnality."

It's the exogamous, the unfamiliar,
which stirs in us the deepest passion,
the basso continuo of mortality
which gives to desire its piquancy
--of which they knew nothing in deathless Eden.

"We wanted to look outside the wall.
We didn't mean from God's grace to fall."

Their lack of control, their disrespect
invited tragedy....
But to deny what one feels,
to deny what one is
is to risk even greater calamity....

"God expelled us from the Garden.
Now we'll know death and all that's human."

Discord ... despair.... Are you better off?
Coaxing grain from the cracked, parched earth?
Maybe you paid too much for your freedom?...
Maybe you wish you were back in the Garden?...

"There be good inside the Garden;
there be good outside....
There is no perfect Eden."

I love watching those flames
the ones that turn to art
the ones that patch my heart
and make it fall apart again.

So when the world turns dark
and hollow words blow in the wind
Prometheus has no flame to lend
our light then brightly sparks.

At peace I find myself tonight
before my feet touch land
and blood flows back into my hands
before the show disappears from sight.

The fireworks now leave the Earth
my eyes are open wide
a freezing streak bellow them lies
forever lost in the cold night's dirt.

Now smoke resides where light once shone
what a way to spend New Year's Eve
alone, with nothing even left to grieve
over, away from home.

Shook off the cold monotone and dreamed of something more
Recalled bright memories standing firm on fragile pages torn.  

In my mind I hear songs that take me back to that place
The words are important yet they’ve been all but erased.

Remembering days draped in clothing that happiness wore
And the praises whispered softly…and the promises we adored.

Gazed through a golden goblet and watched the bubbles rise
Looked up and thought of you as I searched the night skies.

Do you know that I still think of you nearly every day?
Can’t help but lean on you when I think there’s no way.

Tonight I’ll raise my glass to the sky and look up to the moon
Shed the skin of the past because there’s simply no room.

You’ll wink at me from that distant star, as you always do
And remind me to live with gratitude for all that is new.

I love you.

I loved you
And I love you still
I will not beg you
But I will wait for you
To see if you live up to your promises
Yes, the ones you've been making
None fulfilling
I gave you multiple chances
Yet you demand more
Am out  of your league but my silence will break,
Once you prove your promises true
I do confess, I loved you and I still do
But I want those words to be real

From you...

©sim

Tall buildings, black sky,
Across the asphalt river
parties roar.
Crisp winds blister through the
city block.
I inhale; smoke burns.
My nerves ease…

New Years Eve…

Let snow fall upon a weary heart.
Years come and go.
Ages pass with many breaths,
but what of these smoked filled
lungs?
I fear, no joy for me…

Year of Jubilee…

Come, oh, blessed city, come.
When will ages cease to pass,
like the smoke upon my lips?
Then I will rejoice in a
New Year.