Cheerio, cheerio
Four AM they call to keep the awake awake
And lull the slumbering deeper adream

Clutching vapors of the musky night
Cool, humid, starry eve
Betelgeuse humming a tune

Rigel entranced by the melody
Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka belting along
While the nightbirds

While away the hours, embedded
Deep in the canopy of springtime maples
And chirp, and chirp, and chirp the expanse

Singsonging to insomniacs
******* of blue, red, orange, all grey
Parading the atomic clock onward

And every night they chirrup
Never before two o’clock- why at such a time
As the deadzone of slumbering night?

And there goes the first
Cheerio, cheerio
Good night, good morning nightbirds.

Again the trilling song
of the night bird calls.
In dulcet velvet like the darkness.
My heart in tune with its melody.
My soul in unison with it mourning.
I call your name to the new stars
the ones that are born from great loss.
I feel you among them
Looking to the earth
to find me.
To light my way.
Again the trilling song
of the night bird calls.
And my soul is weeping.

Darkened doorways to the outside, bright wide doorways to insides
My insides, spilled on the linoleum over the smell of oleander
I stare into your black cracked eyes with a loving smile
It’s a gaze in the fog where your thin fingers stretch
You are all the hills, all the ditches and fills, the trills
Of nightbirds and coyotes looking for the ****
You are ruthless, ruthless, ruthless…
And I fly every mile like a salamander slides.

And I must, hush, say this in a whisper, whispering cobwebs
My morning glory, sweet sunrise through black curtain.
I could have learned to live a long time ago
With a gaze in the fog you touched and taught me
You are all my fatal fear, your mind is clear, all here
Your legend floating in a perfect tear
It is endless, endless, endless…
Your crystalline flow on the uncertain ebbs.

How many, many eyes do you have? How many sighs
Drift through your rafters like your own vortex of laughter?
I remember falling in love with a light from beyond you
Your gaze in the fog like the fire from your head
Eggshell lead paint, no complaint, breathe in till you faint
With all your soul that of a stenciled saint
Songs so shameless, endless, ruthless,
Cannot fly through this shell until after it dies.

The world will wait on you awhile.
Let your heart be eased, and all around you peace.
Let nightbirds sing you to your rest
And all discord and cares and efforts cease.

My love is sleeping in his tousled bed.
At last his breath comes now in sweet repose.
His face, his cherished face, at last unlined-
As in his dreams, Sleep, all his hopes bestows.

Oh,that I could be Sleep, to give him thus!
To take from him, his cares and give him bliss!
But I can only watch him as he sleeps,
And, quiet, leave him all unknowing, with a kiss.

The violin is sonorous
The cellos are in tune
The kettle drums
of thunder
Beat against the moon
Woodwinds through
the eaves
Make the nightbirds
swoon...

Coyotes are a clarinet
Such a lonely howl
As the night storm passes
You can hear the owl
Cougar makes his
entrance
With a roaring growl...

Crickets are ubiquitous
Rosening their bows
Sometimes in the
summer
Cicada's music flows
The nocturnal fragrance
Trickles through
the groves
It makes the
lovers giddy
Romances the nose...

The stars are
great musicians
At last, they appear
They play the piano
With the music
of the spheres
All the while, listening,
The cactus stands
and hears
God gave coyote
voices...

but Saguaro He gave

*EARS.

That's how you break it
now you are alone
and I am alone
but that doesn't
make us of each other

the universe, starry night,
from the ringside view
of a puff rising;

let it rain, for
I must not get wet
out in the fury,
I've lost all adhesion

hymns
of nightbirds
rend the sky
this lonely hour

The sun went down
and the moon returned
above a wave
of thunderclouds

The nightbirds sang
and the grey wolves howled
but not for me

Lightning flashed
and thunder crashed
while denizens
of the night joined
the chorus as they fled

But the only sound
that I could hear
was the tapping
of the morning rain

It was more than a lifetime ago,
I was just 17 back then
across the distant faded years.
Amost 50 years to be exact.

The jungle is forgiving
no matter how the war had torn it
and poisoned it,
with agent Orange
fertilized it
with the blood of so many young men.
It recovered as resilient
as a spring in the hardware store
resuming its original shape
as though nothing had ever been there.

I am an old man now
far from the blush of my youth spent here
but I need to be here before my time is passed.
I could feel it calling me in the nightbirds song.
In the summer rainstorms.
And mostly when the thunder cracked the air.

I find the clearing where it happened
And close my eyes almost in prayer.

And I know I canfeel them
here again with me,
all of them.

We are all so young,so handsome
so full of life and possibilities.
We are passing round  a doobie
I take a long deep drag of the ****
my head calms down.
I see my girl my mother and sister.
But they are a lifetime removed.

A feeling for my buddies overtakes me
perhaps it was the marijuana
maybe it's just plain love,
Yes, I think it was love.

I shout, I love you man
to my best buddy Joe.
He shouts back
not as much as I love you man,

Soldiers get closer than wives
and girlfriends
we touch where it counts
where all the chips fall.
Where blood spills
And promises are kept.
It's real love
not that  ****** holywood crap.

I keep my eyes closed
I feel Joe close by me.
I know now
why I made this journey .
Why I was here
pulling the scabs of old wounds
letting them bleed again.

I see the tracer lights
of the gunfire in the clearing.
I see Joe fall mortally  wounded.
guys were dying all around me.
They were not calling for god
they cried like children
Their last cry for their mother..

I hold Joe in my my arms
He is dying.
His blood soaks my shirt.
Tears fall from my young eye's.
It's a vision
that is etched into my soul.
his last words are
I love you man.

I open my eyes
It now again the noise
has stopped in my head.
The clearing is. ghostly silent
except for the ceasless
chirping of the jungle.

My mouth whispers softly.
Capturing all that was left of me.
Not as much as I love you man.

There's a place in the pit of forever.
Where I keep all my thoughts of you.
The pictures and sounds that you left me.
Those colors of violet and blue.

In the night when moon is silver.
And the nightbirds sing their song.
I visit the pit of forever.
The path is winding and long.

I see you in the darkness
Your hair is flowing and red
You look with eyes of sadness
At the love that is old and dead

In the cave of the lost tomorrows.
Is the tree where the nightingales die.
Where you hear the sobbing of anguish.
And where lost souls come to cry.

The morning brings me solace.
From the sleep that stays in my eye.
Of the memories that call me like specters
From the place where the nightingales die

oh lord
what
cherry red blossoms
bring
the
hymns of
nightbirds
that
lay
upon
the
shores of Heaven

Where do I touch
you in dark? You don't have
the skin, like water.

The echoes were dying
in the stillness of nightbirds.
Do you call it tranquility?

Unhinged, a sharp cry
moves around a Michelangelo,
unbelieving in last judgement.

Catching of the falling
leaves in autumn, reminds
you of impermanence. Yet I
will explore eternity.

The call returns. Time
to collect the bowls. Roses
are dead at altar.
You cannot stitch the wounds.

I will again
measure my height.