Blended, faded in
Consumed
I held all your love
Its sweet, heavy caress
Floating luminous, blessed
With its tail dragging the sea
Held it till the misty eve
You said goodbye to me
And we danced in Vienna
Our farewell
In that great, dusty hall
Of silent chandeliers
A thousand mirrors’ memories
And dried Hyacinth on the floor
Wondering from floral graves
What my tears were for
As, where death cannot take the past
We held one to another, and danced our last
There in Vienna

you are going to have to
sew yourself together

piece by piece

place by place

peace by peace

listen to the wind
before all of your broken pieces
are swept
into the cracks
in the floor boards

like dust and crumbs
blown in
by their open windows

for they do not know why
you are
who you are

look to the moon
before you are whispered of no more
by dawn they will have forgotten
who you were

why you are here

why you are
who you are

before all the tides
that swept into your shores
have broken
on the rocks below

speak in lowered tones
say your name
over and over again
do not forget tomorrow
but forget today
they do not hear your voice

or know why you are
who you are

piece by piece
place by place
peace by peace


place buttons on your skin
and sew yourself together
over and over and over again

piece by piece
place by place
peace by peace

as this is why
you are
who you are

We will be the willows,
Resolving to live,
Bending with the storms,
Not the cottonwoods
Refusing change,
Standing rigid,
Breaking in the gales.

The earth moves
according to its natural principles -
I love you according to mine.

Youth has left us so quickly -
the sun was once
a sweet saffron bolus
we swallowed so eagerly
fat day after day.

Now it's a quiet yellow *****,
that chokes on its own easting and
goes down like a horse pill in the west.

Instead, we are with moon -
I pull you close sometimes in tide,
then you're away waning, waning -
doldrums, tantrums.

If only I could swing low over you,
in your green rain town,
& not be pushed away.

It's no longer easy
to share the days with you.
I fill with ulcers
that bleed all into me,
the body the echo of the mind.

But I love you on natural principles -
you have touched my life all over.
Where I go, I bring you;
you are still the voyage home,
even when your replies come
so terse and lacking invitation.