i used to think our love was a sonnet
timeless, and completely without measure
twirling, intertwining words within it
containing phrases sparkling with treasure
i loved you like i could be a poet
i said all the words i knew how to say
to create a love you wouldn't forget
when our song came on, we'd get up and sway
like our love could be put to the music
i sang along and you stayed quiet
but your silence was almost intrinsic
my love for you, you needn't requite
yes, i thought our love was a sonnet
a poem that you would never forget

guess it's a haiku
lovely, ambiguous, but
already over

Read the instructions carefully:
Begin at one, go on to two,
Although, if logic’s not your thing,
Just tear the rule book into shreds
And visualise perfection now
Using the ideas of ideas

Beyond mortality and death,
Build foundations of cotton wool
Clouds as white as nothing known here,
Blend with new brightness,
Wipe clear shades of uncertainty
Away into whatever time

Becomes in this new place and then
Find things to occupy your time:
Balance pale porcelain cherubs
High and thread cold stars in millions
Above them. Harp with purest notes
If you are musical, if not,

Give oxygen to souls in need,
And shelter on this white mountain
Those bewildered victims starting
Without choice to spend infinity
Themselves believing nothing more
Than self and suffering.

the angel called out to me
Recite!
But I said,
"what will I recite with these unclean lips? "

So the angel ripped my larynx
out of my throat
and set it on fire
until it burned to ashes

then I began to recite

i and i wept
by the waters of Knoxville
remembering Zion
repatriation, what a notion
slowly, we came to our senses

the brave new world
closing in around us
we sought our refuge
at the doors of perception

timothy leary and
Marcus Garvey
were on a bad trip
together one day
when it began to snow outside
like grace
from heaven, falling
i was there with them
the angel of death

my thanatalivity
is all i know now
i will make it
to the end

it's ready to happen
hours count down to launch, but the burners hum already
the structure is taken up
siphons slowly into the bloodstream

the catalyst, the moment
the agonist, the imitator

the perceptual set is set, and it's famished
not even lit, and it's waiting for more-
the stimulant, the ignition
the doctor, the system

like inlets of blood, the freeways carry us to the city
like carcinogens, like poison medication
like aluminum, like exhaust

i too am carried
and when i reach that center
i am deposited, and begin to take effect
while i wait for my own poison to take hold of me
blood within Blood
and
poison in Poison
medication in Medication in MEDICATION
we make sure all of our cancers are medicated

it has happened already
but i am waiting for it to happen again
the freeway now quiets itself in anticipation
a new day to repeat
the city is ready for more

On a world with no moon I pondered deeply on a starless night
Wondering what happened when the sun fell silent with the light
And yet the black sky told no story, no star-man seen with belt alight
Orion quiet as the darkness still, unthought, unformed

Not because of clouds or want of sight was my world formed in darkness
But because the sun had gone and was the only light
The nearest star was just too far, and so to me had never been
Like I must be to it as if it were I wasn't born

All the light I knew this night was fire; fire was my own
Nothing out beyond myself had gave this fire or had shown
One sign of having helped me strike the tinder into flame
I didn't even know it "fire", knew it by no name

On a world with no moon, no stars, no clouds, no name
I forgot there was a sun
but it was all the same

I woke up
opened my eyes
i was alone

and then, just as quickly as the terror had come and passed
the moment was so beautiful that i refused to capture it

Jesus christ
save my soul. Jesus christ, make me whole

the turbulence reached for me
but i was beyond it then
i'd sought for the Spirit
a different spirit came and went
i'm still looking
still looking

but even the inadequacy of words is muted
right now
we are living in different worlds
not only from one another, but particularly from ourselves
the pride of life courses through the brokenness of language
wanting, however, the Spirit of Truth

but i am looking
we are all looking

and just when i'd thought i was barren, She did come again
even in the mess i was in
like a baby, lying in a manger
I woke up
opened my eyes
I was home